It’s been a long time coming, but Kathy and Marshall and I finally got to Chicago yesterday to visit a special exhibit at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. . . and it wasn’t “Our Friend the Test Tube” or “All About Hydrogen.” (fascinating as those would be.) No, it was an exhibit devoted to the Harry Potter – featuring authentic costumes and props from all five films. This is one of those things that could have so easily been overly crowded or crawling with too many little kids or too hot or too dark – a real Goldilocks scenario. But no, it was just right – a wonderful, fascinating exhibit that really lived up to its billing.
And it was just one chapter in what was a really fun day all around. We had an almost effortless drive down (and how rare is that, these days?) – a fun little stop-over at Millennium Park- a nice lunch without waiting at the museum – fun with several other regular museum exhibits – and then Harry Potter. And to top off the day, we had superb if terribly sinful supper at Cheesecake Factory on our way home.
Back to Harry Potter & Co. One of the very sweetest memories of my adult life is of attending the first film, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” with Marshall – and of how at many points during that film we just turned to one another and wordlessly grinned- so delighted by what we were seeing on the screen and so swept up in the magic. And each of the subsequent movies has been amazingly entertaining, although that first film is still my favorite and the one where I could scarcely think of a single thing that I would change. (That’s the highest praise I can give a film – that it managed to disable my Critique Gland.) But every one of these films has been done with a relentless care for the tiniest details – and that’s one of the things which this exhibit celebrates so gloriously. By the way, I was surprised at all the moments in this exhibit when I found myself with a lump in my throat. It’s a little hard for me to explain why this should have been such an emotional experience, but it was. In some ways, it reminded me of what makes radio such a powerful medium – because it requires our imagination. These were just inanimate objects – but just setting eyes on one of Dumbledore’s robes or Harry’s Quiddich uniform or the spectacular fake desserts from the first film’s banquet scene or one of the life-sized chess pieces or Hagrid’s hut brought those moments thrillingly to life – and because we weren’t just re-watching the film on a screen but rather re-evoking it in our imagination made it all the more powerful and moving.
Anyway, it’s probably a mistake for me to even attempt to explain the magic of this. Let me just say that this was worth every penny – and I think any fan of the Harry Potter films would agree.
pictured above: The very first bit of Harry Potter memorabilia that we saw was the actual flying car used in the second movie. It was on display in the main lobby of the museum – complete with the dents and dirt that we saw on the movie screen. It was a fun way to wet our appetites.