Penny Lane

Helen “Penny” Tweedy Chenery – the unfeigned hero behind the success of Secretariat

I ran off to the movies tonight because I wanted to see Diane Lane play the role of what appeared to be a unfeigned and honorable real-life heroine. And she did. I was very pleased with the movie, the horse, and this noteworthy woman behind the horse.

Penny Tweedy Chenery is introduced to us as a  stay-at-home-mom in the early seventies with four kids and a lawyer husband who sits in his chair at the breakfast table reading the paper while she is attempting to prepare breakfast for him and their four children AND taking his orders for clean shirts and Riesling wine she has to buy for one of his clients. You can’t judge him. It was the time — how women and men were in those days, altho I do argue that a great deal of things haven’t changed.

Brought back to her father’s farm by her mother’s death, her love for horses, her father, and the business of the farm and horses that he taught her as a child come rushing back. She is a business-minded woman, having given up her own personal ambitions and career in order to raise her family. Diane Lane presents her reputation as a graceful and committed woman, who has no qualms in regards to standing up for herself and her decisions. During the entire movie, she is confronted, attacked, ridiculed, and threatened by men; this includes her husband, her brother, other horse owners and racers, and so on. But she stands her ground, ridicules back, and lets her determination and intelligence speak for her. In her champion horse, Secretariat, she sees herself: she is running for her life, running to win the race that motherhood and familial obligations deterred her from competing in. She saves her father’s farm, races a champion, faces the adversity that came with patriarchal notions of her time with regards to women, and she accomplishes the unimaginable: she made millions of cash by racing a horse every one bet against, competing versus the huge rich boys of her time — and proving herself a valuable business woman.

Here’s to a real life hero – Penny Tweedy, for her willingness to race versus the grain and prescribed notions of patriarchy that labeled her a homely and simple housewife. She sure proved them wrong!

Penny Lane Image

Penny Lane Pic

Penny Lane Photo

Penny Lane Picture