On this episode of Our American Stories, Randall Wallace is the writer/director of films such as Braveheart, We Were Soldiers, The Man in the Iron Mask, Heaven is For Real, Pearl Harbor, and Secretariat. Here he is to share a story about Penny Chenery, owner of the 1973 Triple Crown winner—a Thoroughbred named Secretariat.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American stories. Branda Wallace is
the writer and or director of films such as Braveheart,
We Were Soldiers, the Man in the Iron Mask, Heaven
Is for Real, Pearl Harbor, and Secretariat. Here he is
to share the story of Penny Chennery, owner of the
nineteen seventy three Triple Crown winner. And we're of course
(00:32):
talking about that thoroughbred, that aforementioned thoroughbred Secretariat. Let's take
a listen.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Penny Chennery was the owner of Secretariat. And I have
made a number of films that I've had the incredible
blessing of getting to know the actual human beings that
lived the story, and Penny Chennery and Secretariat are great examples.
(01:06):
Also the family that Heaven is for Real, it's about
the Burpo family. Have gotten to know them as well.
Penny Chennery was a remarkable woman. Now, what drew the
studio and others to the tale of Secretariat was obviously
the achievements of the horse. But you can't scratch the
(01:29):
surface of that story without coming full face into Penny Chennery.
She was a mother of five and basically a housewife
whose father had loved horses. They owned a horse breeding
farm in Virginia. And it wasn't the kind of Lexington,
(01:51):
Kentucky gorgeous picturesque, almost Norman Rockwell kind of horse farm.
It was a hard scrabble place they had. But as
her father began to sink into dementia and Pennies children
were growing, and she was finding that place that many
of us come to when we think, Okay, being a
(02:12):
parent has demanded all of my attention. But what am
I going to do after that? And how am I
going to demonstrate for my children the kind of person
that I want them to be. That you sacrifice time
with your children if you go off to slay dragons yourself,
(02:33):
but you also show them that you are and they
are dragon slayers, and this is who we must become.
So the story came across my desk a friend of
mine at Disney and called me in and asked me
to take a look at it, and I said right away,
(02:55):
this is fascinating. I would really love to do this,
but I really need to spent some time with Penny Chennery.
Now there's a story about Penny that has nothing to
do with the racehorse, but I think it's really insightful.
Penny had a guy who worked for her, who was
(03:15):
in charge of her sort of brand management, which was
a new thing about how do we deal with all
of the things beyond just racing horses that there is
a brand name, there's maybe merchandise that we could sell,
other things. Well, he applied for that job with Penny,
and Penny was living in a retirement community at that point,
(03:40):
and he told me this story. His name is Leonard.
Leonard said, when I went into interview with Penny, I
saw on her coffee table a picture of an older gentleman.
Penny was ninety at this point, and maybe older than ninety.
And he saw a picture of an older gentleman and
he said, Penny, I've studied your life and I know
(04:03):
the faces of the men that you were married to.
But because Penny had had a couple marriages, three I think,
and that's not one of your husbands, who is that?
And Penny said, well, that's my boyfriend. Now Penny's in
her nineties, and he went, oh, your boyfriend. Oh that's great.
So he went back the next day to interview her
again and there was a different picture and he said, wait, Penny,
(04:29):
that's not the same picture that was here yesterday and
she said, no, I've got three boyfriends. And I put
up the different picture depending on who's coming over. And
I said, you get out of here. I don't believe
the story. He goes go ask her, and I went
to Penny and I said, Penny, Leonard says, you had
(04:51):
a picture of a gentleman and you said that's my boyfriend.
And she looked at me and she went so, And
I said, well, he said that he came back the
next day and you had a different picture because you
rotate pictures based on your boyfriends are coming over. And
she went so. And Penny, you're my hero. I want
(05:11):
to grow up to be you when I grow up.
And I had one one more tremendous insight with Penny
that she shared with me. You know, I'm not into
victim mentality. Things that have happened that shouldn't have happened,
and that that were awful and sometimes even worse than awful,
(05:36):
but it's the overcoming that's the story we need to tell.
Penny and I were at the Kentucky Derby after Secretariat
had come out, and the horse racing world, of course,
really loved Secretariat and everybody was flocked around Penny. Everybody
wanted to shake her hand and get a story to
(05:57):
tell about Penny. And when the race started, the Kentucky
Derby is so captivating and exciting, and everybody we were
out on the balcony. I was standing next to Penny
watching the race, and the Kentucky Derby unfolded, and the
race was over, and everybody in this exuberant almost drunk
(06:18):
with excitement, filtered back inside and Penny and I were
left alone. I was standing there at the Kentucky Derby
with Penny Chennery, just the two of us, overlooking the racetrack,
and I thought, what a moment this is. And the
two of us were standing there together, and I said
(06:40):
to her, Penny, I gave you the best I could
to tell you your story and the story of your horse,
and to do it fairly and honestly. And I know
to put it into two hours. We had to condense
and be impressionistic in places, but we all did our
very best. Is there anything that we missed or that
(07:03):
you haven't shared with me? And it's like that song
the Gambler, The night got deathly quiet, the afternoon got
deathly quiet around me anyway, and Penny said, I sat
right down there in that box, and she pointed to it.
It was just twenty or thirty feet away from us.
She said, I sat there many many afternoons by myself.
(07:26):
The other owners tolerated me, but they never accepted me.
And she wasn't bitter, but she was being honest, like
this is what she faced, this is what she overcame.
And that's why she has a great story to tell,
is she didn't let that stop her. And I had
(07:48):
an experience she reminded me of my mother in many ways,
in her strength, in her blue blue eyes, she reminded
me of my mother. And we were doing a screening
of We Were Soldiers, the first public screening of We
Were Soldiers for test audience. And my father had just
passed away, so a few months ago before. So I
(08:11):
was calling my mother every day. And I called my
mother and I said, Mamma, how are you doing? And
she said I'm doing okay. How are you doing? I said, well,
I'm nervous today and my mother said why. I said, well,
we're going to test the movie for a public audience.
And all these critics and some amateur critics like college
film students and others they're going to come, and they
(08:34):
like to write snarky comments, and critics even seemed to
enjoy being able to pick out the wrong things or
things that they can criticize. And my mother said, well,
why does that make you nervous? And I said, well,
I put my blood, in my sweat and my tears
and my money into this movie. It's going to make
(08:55):
me nervous. And my mother said, Honey, if they crucified
Jesus Christ, there's going to be some people that don't
like you.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
And a terrific job on the production and editing by
our own Greg Hangler, and a special thanks to Randall
Wallace for sharing with us a few stories about Penny Chennery,
the owner of the nineteen seventy three Triple Crown winner Secretariat.
By the way, we do our own story on Secretariat's
epic win at the Belmont Stakes from beginning to end,
(09:26):
and also quite a bit about Penny and the horse itself.
And you heard just a little bit about the character
of Penny Chenery, what she had to overcome being a
woman in those trainers boxes and in those owners boxes,
and yet she overcame, triumphed and became a legend in
the business. Penny Chenery's story a great overcoming story, a
(09:49):
part of a great movie secretariat. Here on our American stories.
And we continue with our American stories. Branda Wallace is
the writer and or director of films such as Braveheart,
We Were Soldiers, the Man in the Iron Mask, Heaven
Is for Real, Pearl Harbor, and Secretariat. Here he is
to share the story of Penny Chennery, owner of the
nineteen seventy three Triple Crown winner. And we're of course
(00:32):
talking about that thoroughbred, that aforementioned thoroughbred Secretariat. Let's take
a listen.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Penny Chennery was the owner of Secretariat. And I have
made a number of films that I've had the incredible
blessing of getting to know the actual human beings that
lived the story, and Penny Chennery and Secretariat are great examples.
(01:06):
Also the family that Heaven is for Real, it's about
the Burpo family. Have gotten to know them as well.
Penny Chennery was a remarkable woman. Now, what drew the
studio and others to the tale of Secretariat was obviously
the achievements of the horse. But you can't scratch the
(01:29):
surface of that story without coming full face into Penny Chennery.
She was a mother of five and basically a housewife
whose father had loved horses. They owned a horse breeding
farm in Virginia. And it wasn't the kind of Lexington,
(01:51):
Kentucky gorgeous picturesque, almost Norman Rockwell kind of horse farm.
It was a hard scrabble place they had. But as
her father began to sink into dementia and Pennies children
were growing, and she was finding that place that many
of us come to when we think, Okay, being a
(02:12):
parent has demanded all of my attention. But what am
I going to do after that? And how am I
going to demonstrate for my children the kind of person
that I want them to be. That you sacrifice time
with your children if you go off to slay dragons yourself,
(02:33):
but you also show them that you are and they
are dragon slayers, and this is who we must become.
So the story came across my desk a friend of
mine at Disney and called me in and asked me
to take a look at it, and I said right away,
(02:55):
this is fascinating. I would really love to do this,
but I really need to spent some time with Penny Chennery.
Now there's a story about Penny that has nothing to
do with the racehorse, but I think it's really insightful.
Penny had a guy who worked for her, who was
(03:15):
in charge of her sort of brand management, which was
a new thing about how do we deal with all
of the things beyond just racing horses that there is
a brand name, there's maybe merchandise that we could sell,
other things. Well, he applied for that job with Penny,
and Penny was living in a retirement community at that point,
(03:40):
and he told me this story. His name is Leonard.
Leonard said, when I went into interview with Penny, I
saw on her coffee table a picture of an older gentleman.
Penny was ninety at this point, and maybe older than ninety.
And he saw a picture of an older gentleman and
he said, Penny, I've studied your life and I know
(04:03):
the faces of the men that you were married to.
But because Penny had had a couple marriages, three I think,
and that's not one of your husbands, who is that?
And Penny said, well, that's my boyfriend. Now Penny's in
her nineties, and he went, oh, your boyfriend. Oh that's great.
So he went back the next day to interview her
again and there was a different picture and he said, wait, Penny,
(04:29):
that's not the same picture that was here yesterday and
she said, no, I've got three boyfriends. And I put
up the different picture depending on who's coming over. And
I said, you get out of here. I don't believe
the story. He goes go ask her, and I went
to Penny and I said, Penny, Leonard says, you had
(04:51):
a picture of a gentleman and you said that's my boyfriend.
And she looked at me and she went so, And
I said, well, he said that he came back the
next day and you had a different picture because you
rotate pictures based on your boyfriends are coming over. And
she went so. And Penny, you're my hero. I want
(05:11):
to grow up to be you when I grow up.
And I had one one more tremendous insight with Penny
that she shared with me. You know, I'm not into
victim mentality. Things that have happened that shouldn't have happened,
and that that were awful and sometimes even worse than awful,
(05:36):
but it's the overcoming that's the story we need to tell.
Penny and I were at the Kentucky Derby after Secretariat
had come out, and the horse racing world, of course,
really loved Secretariat and everybody was flocked around Penny. Everybody
wanted to shake her hand and get a story to
(05:57):
tell about Penny. And when the race started, the Kentucky
Derby is so captivating and exciting, and everybody we were
out on the balcony. I was standing next to Penny
watching the race, and the Kentucky Derby unfolded, and the
race was over, and everybody in this exuberant almost drunk
(06:18):
with excitement, filtered back inside and Penny and I were
left alone. I was standing there at the Kentucky Derby
with Penny Chennery, just the two of us, overlooking the racetrack,
and I thought, what a moment this is. And the
two of us were standing there together, and I said
(06:40):
to her, Penny, I gave you the best I could
to tell you your story and the story of your horse,
and to do it fairly and honestly. And I know
to put it into two hours. We had to condense
and be impressionistic in places, but we all did our
very best. Is there anything that we missed or that
(07:03):
you haven't shared with me? And it's like that song
the Gambler, The night got deathly quiet, the afternoon got
deathly quiet around me anyway, and Penny said, I sat
right down there in that box, and she pointed to it.
It was just twenty or thirty feet away from us.
She said, I sat there many many afternoons by myself.
(07:26):
The other owners tolerated me, but they never accepted me.
And she wasn't bitter, but she was being honest, like
this is what she faced, this is what she overcame.
And that's why she has a great story to tell,
is she didn't let that stop her. And I had
(07:48):
an experience she reminded me of my mother in many ways,
in her strength, in her blue blue eyes, she reminded
me of my mother. And we were doing a screening
of We Were Soldiers, the first public screening of We
Were Soldiers for test audience. And my father had just
passed away, so a few months ago before. So I
(08:11):
was calling my mother every day. And I called my
mother and I said, Mamma, how are you doing? And
she said I'm doing okay. How are you doing? I said, well,
I'm nervous today and my mother said why. I said, well,
we're going to test the movie for a public audience.
And all these critics and some amateur critics like college
film students and others they're going to come, and they
(08:34):
like to write snarky comments, and critics even seemed to
enjoy being able to pick out the wrong things or
things that they can criticize. And my mother said, well,
why does that make you nervous? And I said, well,
I put my blood, in my sweat and my tears
and my money into this movie. It's going to make
(08:55):
me nervous. And my mother said, Honey, if they crucified
Jesus Christ, there's going to be some people that don't
like you.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
And a terrific job on the production and editing by
our own Greg Hangler, and a special thanks to Randall
Wallace for sharing with us a few stories about Penny Chennery,
the owner of the nineteen seventy three Triple Crown winner Secretariat.
By the way, we do our own story on Secretariat's
epic win at the Belmont Stakes from beginning to end,
(09:26):
and also quite a bit about Penny and the horse itself.
And you heard just a little bit about the character
of Penny Chenery, what she had to overcome being a
woman in those trainers boxes and in those owners boxes,
and yet she overcame, triumphed and became a legend in
the business. Penny Chenery's story a great overcoming story, a
(09:49):
part of a great movie secretariat. Here on our American stories.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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