Look Who it Was Random video

Columbia University Rowing Crew Practice, 1929-1930

3,461 views · Published 21 September 2018 · 11:06 · Indexed 8 November 2026

Channel: Speed Graphic Film and Video · 2018 · Autos & Vehicles

Watch on YouTube

The Movietone archives are full of film of college rowing competition, indicative of the high level of public interest in the sport at the time.  The New York Movietone crew went uptown in 1929 and again 1930 to film the Columbia University eights' practice sessions.
The 1929 film, taken at the Columbia boathouse at Baker Field, shows the crews putting the boats in the water and rowing out into the Harlem River Ship Canal.  If the locale looks unfamiliar to viewers familiar with the area, that is because the canal has not yet been cut through the Johnson Iron Works peninsula, which can be seen in the background of a couple of shots.
The 1930 film shows the crews working out on the Hudson River, first going upstream, then down.  The Movietone people shot a lot of film here, and I have not tried to edit down or condense it.  A voice-over reads a New York Times account of the practice session.

More from this channel