Lyndon B. Johnson eating popcorn, 1964
(Photo credit: LBJ Library photo by Cecil Stoughton)
Added: Aug. 5, 2026 | Last updated: Aug. 6, 2026
When working on any sort of project about the presidents of the United States, it is natural to want to discuss each president in chronological order. But for this project, I just pick the guys at random with WheelOfNames.com. This time I landed on number thirty-six, Lyndon B. Johnson. And after a cursory search of the LBJ Library's online archive, I managed to find just one black-and-white photo of him eating. It is a photo that may be difficult to beat.
The photo was taken by White House photographer Cecil Stoughton on the overcast afternoon of April 13, 1964 at D.C. Stadium (now the dormant RFK Stadium) when President Johnson, a few months after his tragedy-induced inauguration in Dallas, and his posse of political allies attended the first game of the season, between the Los Angeles Angels and the now-extinct Washington Senators. Prior to this photograph, Johnson participated in the the tried and true tradition of throwing out the first pitch.
Captured from Johnson's left side, the photo features the stadium's iconic upper deck, along with Speaker of the House John W. McCormack to the president's right, presumably mid-sentence, and House Majority Whip Hale Boggs to McCormack's right, presumably mid-blink. And Johnson himself can be seen eating from a box of stadium popcorn.
While this picture's strengths are numerous and immediately recognizable, I must admit that it is not the epitome of presidential eating photos. Since Stoughton was sitting a few seats away from President Johnson, and since baseball stadiums (to my knowledge) are designed so attendees can watch the game and not other attendees, it must have been a challenge to get any photo of the president eating, so I'm glad the picture we do have exists at all.
Be that as it may, there are some oddities with this one. A sizable portion of the left side of the picture is taken up by the back of an unknown, hatted person; a distracting detail. The background area consisting of the upper floor above and the crowd of fans below lends itself to a clashing, unclear composition. And not only is Johnson placed awkwardly in the bottom right corner of the shot, but he's also somehow both too far away for a close-up shot and too close for a cool wide shot of the stadium.
However, Johnson's appearance here basically makes up for these minor gripes. The box of popcorn shared between Johnson's left hand and McCormack's right hand is delightfully tiny by modern standards. And Johnson is clutching this handful (damn near a fistful) of popcorn with his nails pressed up against his open mouth like his life depends on using his tongue to unlock the puzzle that is his fingers. It's as if he's in a hurry to inhale every kernel.
But the real cherry on top here is a detail that's hard to see on this Web site. If you look at the high resolution copy on the National Archives site linked in the bibliography, it's easier to see this one piece of popcorn between his middle finger and his left nostril. It must have fell on the floor under his seat after this photo was taken. All this effort to scoff down as much as possible just to completely miss the only morsel in frame. The one that got away, as it were.
My overall opinion of this photograph is the same as it was when I first gazed upon it: it is a real treat. I am hopeful that as time goes on, this site will be filled with more incredible pictures of a voracious LBJ, though it may be a challenge to find another as compelling as the one here. What was apparently not a challenge, on the other hand, was the Angels' 4-0 win against the Senators that day in what one reporter described as "a thunderous bore" of a game.
If you know of any more photographs of presidents eating food, feel free to send them at commnfeast@proton.me. I may end up writing another post about them here.