Washburn graduates reflect on Batman-inspired student film
A student film version of the classic Batman is a lingering great memory of a group of Washburn High students from the 1960s.
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - When it debuted in 1966, the country went crazy over the zany adventures of Batman, but the TV show also inspired a group of high school students in Minneapolis to make their own ode to the not-so-dark knight.
In the spring of that year, Tim Olson and John Powers were seniors at Washburn High School, but Olson and his fellow members of the debate team got bored at practice and decided to make a student film of the camp classic.
Washburn graduates reflect on Batman-inspired student film
When it debuted in 1966, the country went crazy over the zany adventures of Batman, but the TV show also inspired a group of high school students in Minneapolis to make their own ode to the not-so-dark knight.
Olson and about 50 students spent the next two months shooting “Batman at Washburn” on a shoestring budget in and around the school.
The nearly 30-minute-long mini movie shows the dynamic duo take on Dr. Sin and the Sorcerer as they try to turn high schoolers towards the forces of evil.
“It’s a time capsule of what it was like in the 1960s, in this public school Washburn High and what it was like for us as students,” Olson said.
After it premiered at the school, Olson lost track of the original film when he sent it to a classmate in California to be transferred to VHS in the early 90s. That is until a collector of old 16 millimeter movies bought it on a Goodwill website and he believes it is the first fan film based on the popular TV show.
“From my point of view, it memorializes their time together as students at Washburn High School,” he added.
After more than half a century, Batman at Washburn still holds up to the students who made it. Its message may have been, “Crime doesn’t pay,” but for them, nostalgia certainly does.
The pair says it was the best time they had in high school.
The watch the full film, click here.