Exorcist Time Capsule

I’ve got an embarrassing secret I have to admit. Despite living in Georgetown 20 years, I only just finally watched the Exorcist this weekend. Me being me, my primary focus (beyond enjoying the film) was to detect all the fascinating time capsules of early 1970s Georgetown that the film captures. While most of the shots frankly could be recreated today without much difference, a few captured scenes or features that are no more. Here are some of them!

The first shot of Georgetown is…mostly the same as now. It’s the view across from Rosslyn (which itself looked way different back then). What’s obviously different on the Georgetown side is that the old Key Bridge Exxon still had a garage, which disappeared long before the gas station closed. (In fact, if the garage still were open, it may have prevented the gas station from closing at all due to DC law.) Additionally, this was before Arthur Cotton Moore’s 3633 M St. was constructed just to the west of the gas station.

There is something else interesting in this shot. In order to explain the multiple falls from the house to the steps, the film crews created a false wing on 3605 Prospect Street:

The left side of the house shown above doesn’t really exist on the actual house. In fact a whole fake mansard roof was constructed just to cover the attic sub-plot:

In the long shot above, you can see that they built a whole south facade for the fake wing and carried the mansard roof around. But it was only visible for this one shot, I believe. That’s a lot of effort for just a fleeting moment that only crazies like me would even notice!

(Later in the film, the camera makes it look like this false wing literally abuts the steps, but as this shot shows, it still would have taken a pretty big jump to get from the house to the steps…)

This shot along 37th St. shows just how big those trees have gotten in 50 years:

I loved this little scene as well. It shows Ellen Burstyn’s character eavesdropping on a conversation between Father Karras and another priest. The previous shots establish that this is supposed to happen on or immediately next to the campus. But Georgetown residents will immediately recognize this as actually being Christ Church in the east village. It’s amusing that they went so far to make this Episcopal Church look Catholic by announcing the confessional schedule on the board. (While Episcopalians do perform confessions, it’s not something you’d see regularly scheduled on a sign like that. Although maybe it would be more likely back then.)

Later in the film, you see Father Karras running laps at the old Keough Field. It was replaced by the construction of Yate Field House later in the 1970s.

Speaking of sports, after leaving the track, Father Karras walks by the former tennis courts that once stood west of Lauinger Library. I looked into these courts a while back. Here they are in the 1920’s:

They were replaced by Village A and B.