Photo credit: Janet Donovan
“Just in time for Halloween, we have a spooky real estate listing for you! Sure, you’ve heard of “The Exorcist” steps in Georgetown, but have you heard of the Bethesda home where the author resided from 2001 until his death earlier this year? OK, so maybe the book was published several decades before author William Peter Blatty was a DMV resident, and we have no evidence of any supernatural occurrences in the house, but the real-life story that became the basis for his 1971 novel and subsequent horror film was first told to Blatty while he was a student at Georgetown University.” WJLA Report.
Novelist Peter Blatty died at 89. He will be best remembered as the author of “The Exorcist” (1971). Several years ago we wrote about the event held in Washington, DC. at the foot of the steps.
Heads turned at the Exorcist Steps Commemoration Ceremony when novelist William Peter Blatty and director William Friedkin showed up at the famous stairs; but Linda Blair’s wasn’t one of them. Blair is best known for her role as the possessed child Regan in the film The Exorcist, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award and won a Golden Globe.
We figured she might be in PTSD hell after that, but turns out (no pun intended) not to be so, according to Blair: “While we were making this film no one had any idea the impact it would have on our lives or the world.They say that if you make one good movie in your lifetime that people remember, that is a gift. I am very proud of my involvement with this masterpiece, and thankful that it gave me a platform for which I use to make the world a better place.”
The Exorcist steps are located in Georgetown at the corner of Prospect St NW and 36th St NW leading down to M Street, Washington, D.C. “They were padded with 1/2″-thick rubber to film the death of the character Father Karras. Because the house from which Karras falls was set back slightly from the steps, the film crew constructed an extension with a false front to the house in order to film the scene,” according to the Exorcist site. “The stuntman tumbled down the stairs twice. Georgetown University students charged people around $5 each to watch the stunt from the rooftops.”
Georgetown resident Jack Davies knows all about that: “I own the house at 3618 Prospect Street which is directly above the Exxon Station,” Davies told Hollywood on the Potomac, “and about five down from the Exorcist Steps. Bill Blatty, who wrote the book, actually lived in that house for four years and then when Bill Starrels, our ANC Council Member, approached me about being a sponsor I agreed and got some of my neighbors together and we helped fund some of the festivities here. I don’t think anyone dreamed this was going to be as big as an event that it has become. I have an original Exorcist Poster that is now signed by the director Bill Friedkin and Bill Blatty, so I think I have already gotten a return on my investment.”
Kay Kendall, Chair of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, with husband Jack Davies, founder of AOL International
In a ceremony during the Halloween weekend, the Exorcist Steps were recognized as a D.C. landmark and official tourist attraction by Mayor of the District of Columbia Muriel Bowser, with a plaque unveiled at the base of the steps recognizing its importance to D.C. and film history.
There were lots of nuns and priests there doing their thing, although we are not sure how many were in their natural habits – it was, after all, Halloween.
We can vouch for these guests though:
Journalist Maureen Orth
Radio announcer Marilyn Thompson
Andrew Huff, Mayor of the District of Columbia Muriel Bowser, John DeGioia – President of Georgetown University, William Friedkin and William Peter Blatty on The Exorcist Steps:
