Those who continue to hate the Nazis and all their terror will thrill at the true story of the American rowing team that triumphed against all odds in Nazi Germany with PBS Distribution’s DVD American Experience: The Boys of ’36. The documentary was inspired by Daniel James Brown’s critically-acclaimed book The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, which has been on The New York Times bestseller list for 95 weeks.
The book (and DVD) DVD is the story of nine working-class young men from the University of Washington who took the rowing world and the nation by storm when they captured the gold medal at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. These sons of loggers, shipyard workers and farmers overcame tremendous hardships—psychological, physical and economic—to beat not only the Ivy League teams of the East Coast but Adolf Hitler’s elite German rowers. Their unexpected victory, and the obstacles they overcame to achieve it, gave hope to a nation struggling to emerge from the depths of the Depression.
Featuring interviews with Daniel James Brown, historians and surviving children of the 1936 Washington team, the program will be available
The DVD will be available on August 16 in conjunction with the Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro and the 80th anniversary of the miracle crew’s triumph. The documentary will also be available for digital download.