On Christmas Day, the long-awaited feature film adaptation of Daniel James Brown's best-selling 2013 book, The Boys in the Boat will open in theaters. This weekend, it's coming to the Head Of The Charles.
The film itself remains under wraps, but many of its props--including the film's Olympic uniforms, replica gold medals and vintage University of Washington letter sweaters--will form the heart of an exhibit for the film in a tent by the finish line.
Directed by George Clooney, The Boys in the Boat follows the underdog story of the University of Washington crew which represented the United States in the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games.
"It's one of the most important rowing stories for the United States," said Carlos Ridruejo, Director of Brand and Innovation for the regatta, and the person responsible for curating the museum-quality exhibit.
The story of the 1936 University of Washington crew is one of rowing's most famous underdog tales. Washington, a team of blue-collar walk-ons, beat the heavy hitters of the east coast in the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) Championship, then qualified for the Olympics and won gold at the Berlin Games. Their win secured a victory for the United States in the midst of the Great Depression, while also ousting host and frontrunner Germany.
"We felt it was important to have the movie be part of the Head of the Charles since the University of Washington has always had a strong presence, and this was a great opportunity for them to present to the rest of the country what this story is about," Ridruejo said.
The exhibit will be up for the duration of the regatta, near the Finish Area Launch Site (FALS). Metro Goldwyn Mayer sent a variety of props from the film to be featured in the exhibit, including a replica of the IRA Varsity Eight trophy, the Olympic Handbook, a map of the Berlin Olympic rowing venue, a whistle, a stopwatch, and a megaphone, in addition to the costumes and gold medals.
Putting the exhibit together was no small feat.
Ridruejo explained that proper financing only became available in August, coming through in earnest over Labor Day. That gave him and his team only a month to coordinate the design and content of the panels, which were due to the printer October 1.
"We came up with the four panels to tell the story. A week later we had to choose the images, and find them in a large enough resolution that we could blow them up. But that was challenging, because a lot of these pictures are old and hard to find," Ridruejo said.
It wasn't a task done alone. Helping Ridruejo were the University of Washington historian Eric Cohen and UW Director of Brand Management Alanya Cannon, as well as Lindsay Label from Cakewalk Entertainment.
"At the same time we were working with the University of Washington to find a lot of the historic pictures that they had, but also working with MGM Studios to see how the making of the movie could fit in there," Ridruejo explained.
The four 8-by-10-foot panels and the props will be on display throughout the exhibit and the newly released trailer for the film will run on a continuous loop. It figures to be a tough tent to pass by.
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