Honors and Portrayals in Art, Film and Literature
In 1939, Warner Bros. released their animated take on Seabiscuit's underdog story with their Porky Pig cartoon, Porky and Teabiscuit.
In 1940, right after the spectacular Santa Anita win and at the moment of the horse's retirement, track writer B. K. Beckwith wrote Seabiscuit: The Saga of a Great Champion, with a foreword by Grantland Rice.
At Santa Anita Park, a life-sized bronze statue of Seabiscuit, hand-tooled by Frank Buchler, has been on display since 1941 - it now stands in the walking ring at the track's "Seabiscuit Court."
Another statue, although not life-sized, can be found in San Bruno at The Shops at Tanforan, a shopping mall built upon a former racetrack. Seabiscuit was stabled there briefly in 1939 while preparing for his comeback.
Businessman and racehorse owner W. Arnold Hanger donated a statuette of Seabiscuit to the Keeneland library in the 1940s.
In 1949, a fictionalized account was made into the motion picture The Story of Seabiscuit, starring Shirley Temple. Sea Sovereign played the title role. An otherwise undistinguished film, it did include actual match race footage of War Admiral.
In 1958, Seabiscuit was voted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.
In 1963, Ralph Moody wrote Come On Seabiscuit (ISBN 0-8032-8287-7), illustrated by Robert Riger, and recently returned to print by the University of Nebraska Press.
In the Blood-Horse magazine ranking of the top 100 U.S. thoroughbred champions of the 20th Century (1999), Seabiscuit was ranked twenty-fifth. War Admiral was thirteenth, and Seabiscuit's grandsire and War Admiral's sire, Man o' War, placed first.
In 2001, Laura Hillenbrand wrote Seabiscuit: An American Legend (ISBN 0-449-00561-5). The book became a bestseller, and in 2003, Universal Studios released Seabiscuit, which was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
In 2003, Seabiscuit was the subject of a documentary that aired on the PBS television series American Experience.
In 2009, after an 8-year-long grassroots effort by Maggie Van Ostrand and Chuck Lustick, Seabiscuit was honored by the United States Postal Service with a stamp bearing his likeness. Thousands of signatures were obtained from all over the nation, and the final approval was given by Citizens Stamp Committee member Joan Mondale, wife of former Vice President Walter Mondale.
Read more about this topic: Seabiscuit
Famous quotes containing the words honors and, honors, portrayals, film and/or literature:
“My heart’s subdued
Even to the very quality of my lord.
I saw Othello’s visage in his mind,
And to his honors and his valiant parts
Did I my soul and fortunes consecrate.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The sire then shook the honors of his head,
And from his brows damps of oblivion shed
Full on the filial dullness:”
—John Dryden (1631–1700)
“We attempt to remember our collective American childhood, the way it was, but what we often remember is a combination of real past, pieces reshaped by bitterness and love, and, of course, the video past—the portrayals of family life on such television programs as “Leave it to Beaver” and “Father Knows Best” and all the rest.”
—Richard Louv (20th century)
“The motion picture is like a picture of a lady in a half- piece bathing suit. If she wore a few more clothes, you might be intrigued. If she wore no clothes at all, you might be shocked. But the way it is, you are occupied with noticing that her knees are too bony and that her toenails are too large. The modern film tries too hard to be real. Its techniques of illusion are so perfect that it requires no contribution from the audience but a mouthful of popcorn.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)
“Philosophy, astronomy, and politics were marked at zero, I remember. Botany variable, geology profound as regards the mud stains from any region within fifty miles of town, chemistry eccentric, anatomy unsystematic, sensational literature and crime records unique, violin player, boxer, swordsman, lawyer, and self-poisoner by cocaine and tobacco.”
—Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930)