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Looking for a diamond where the pressure left its mark
Last night for my niece's all-but-sleepover with the twins, we watched National Velvet (1944), which none of them had encountered in years of riding lessons and generalized horse-madness. It was well-received, with questions about the exchange rates of century-old pre-decimal currency and universal indignation that Velvet couldn't have won riding as a female jockey in her own right, so I should remember to tell them about Rachael Blackmore. I am now being serenaded by three ten-year-olds who may not remember any of the lyrics beyond the title tongue-twister of "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious," but they are invested in saying it loud enough for sure.
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I read the book National Velvet long before I could understand it (the fairy-tale winning-the-race thread is entangled with all sorts of oddities and stark realities), but I've yet to see the movie. The absolutely beautiful young Elizabeth Taylor is nothing like Velvet Brown in the book, who looks like "Dante as a young girl."
What a delightful all-but-sleepover!
Nine
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I'm glad! There have been women who trained winners since the '80's, but she was the first jockey.
I read the book National Velvet long before I could understand it (the fairy-tale winning-the-race thread is entangled with all sorts of oddities and stark realities), but I've yet to see the movie.
I like the movie very much (I came to the book afterward. My grandparents' house had some kind of mid-century paperback which I believe by now has lost at least one of its covers. I meant to hunt it up last night to re-read before bed, but instead I wound up re-reading Eloise Jarvis McGraw's Sawdust in His Shoes (1950), which was in the room I was sleeping in). It was made at MGM, but it has odd corners, too. Anne Revere is responsible for some of them, but so is Elizabeth Taylor. It was my formative image of Mickey Rooney.
What a delightful all-but-sleepover!
I imagine one of these nights we will try for the full experience, but pizza and movie and ice cream and late-night collection by other parents worked very well. No one melted, adults included.