Seabiscuit

They called it

the car for Everyman.

Henry Ford himself

called it a car

for the "great multitude."

lt was functional and simple,

like your sewing machine

or your cast-iron stove.

You could learn to drive it

in less than a day,

and you could get

any color you wanted,

so long as it was black.

When Ford first conceived

the Model T, it took

Within five years,

he was turning out

a vehicle every 90 seconds.

Of course, the real invention

wasn't the car,

it was the assembly line

that built it.

Pretty soon, other businesses

had borrowed

the same techniques.

Seamstresses

became button sewers.

Furniture makers

became knob turners.

lt was the beginning

and the end of imagination

all at the same time.

Howard.

Charles, l'm talking to you.

They need spokes,

same as the others.

l know. They ought to

make a better spoke.

Yeah?

Then what would you do?

lt was a land

of opportunity.

The country was shrinking,

and there was life

to be made out west

for any man

with drive and ambition.

lf your dream was big enough

and you had the guts

to follow it,

there was truly

a fortune to be made.

Good day, sir.

Damn thing blew on me.

What?

lt's a Stanley Steamer.

The boiler blew.

Oh?

Can you fix it?

Sure. Sure, l can fix it.

This is

an amazing machine.

lt's got a two-stroke

boiler system that's heated

by this huge fire grade.

l mean, it's...

Well, it's basically

a very small locomotive.

Thank you.

Now, l made

some improvements.

lt wasn't your boiler

that was blowing,

it was your bleed valve.

So, with

the increased pressure,

l can see you getting

up to 40 miles an hour.

Really?

Oh, yeah.

And if you superheat

the excess,

l can see you reaching...

Fifty, maybe sixty miles

an hour.

ls that right?

Easily. And the thing

of it is, Mr. Coughlin,

you don't feed it,

you don't stable it,

and unless

you hit a lamppost,

the thing's not gonna

get sick and die on you.

That's funny.

To tell you the truth,

l wouldn't spend more than $5

on the best horse in America.

This is not

the finish line, my friends.

This is the start of the race.

The future is the finish line!

And the new Buick White Streak

is just the car

to take us there!

Yeah.

Four in-line cylinders,

Wonderful.

And this is the very same car

that you can buy

at any one

of our five showrooms

all across the Bay Area.

"The age of the automobile

is here," boasted Howard.

"The future has arrived."

Oh, my.

Read the part about

the future again.

l'm kind of dealing

with it right now.

Oh, sorry.

Here. l'll take him.

Come here, big guy.

Come here. Come here.

Are you the future, huh?

Are you the future?

Are you gonna...

Are you going to the moon?

The moon!

l'll take it.

Do we really need

all this?

Well, no. We don't need it...

There's also a caretaker's

house, a paddock, a barn,

some very nice stables.

How big are the stables?

Got it.

Settle down. Settle down.

Quit. Quit. Whoa. Whoa.

Whoa.

Whoa.

Come on, Dad.

Whoa.

There you go.

You're not

getting him a horse.

Why not? He's great at it.

Because he's 16 years old.

So?

So, he should earn it.

All right.

Tennyson!

Emerson!

Longfellow!

Everybody knows Tennyson.

All right. Quiet.

Nobody knows

Longfellow.

Yes, they do.

Dickinson.

"We never know

how high we are..."

Oh, l know that.

Yeah. l know.

l know it.

Well?

"We never know how high we are

Till we are called to rise"

Good.

Very good, John.

"And then,

if we are true to plan

Our statures touch the skies"

Excellent.

Yes!

That's really good.

Uh-oh.

"The heroism..."

Right.

Right. "The heroism..."

"The heroism we recite

"Would be a daily thing"

That's it.

"Did not ourselves

the cubits warp

"For fear to be a king"

You should be riding it.

You knew the poem.

Yeah.

But he looks so perfect

out there, doesn't he?

Yeah. He does.

That's the poetry

right there, Agnes.

That's the poetry.

Thank you.

Thank you for coming.

l came here 15 years ago

with 21 cents in my pocket.

l know a lot of us

at the table

have a story like that.

And, you know,

l can't help thinking

that if we can start out there

and end up here,

where can't we go in America?

So, as corny as it sounds,

l'd like to propose

a toast to the future.

Because out here, my friends,

the sky is literally

the limit.

To the future!

To the future!

To the future!

There were no suicides

on Wall Street that day.

lt was a myth

that would grow over time.

The real effect of

October 29th took

a little longer to sink in.

By noon, all the gains

of the previous year

had been obliterated.

By 4:
00 p.m.,

nearly $10 billion

of market value was gone.

Over the next two weeks,

the hemorrhage continued.

And before long,

was unemployed.

A great national

migration began.

Displaced families

took to the American highway

in the last possession

that remained to them,

their automobile.

And all at once,

millions of Americans

had a new definition of home.

l made $2 today.

What?

l made $2.

Here.

Where did you get these?

Yeah, your boy

combed them out,

changed all the tack.

l didn't have to

tell him a thing.

Hey, Red.

Attaboy!

Where'd a young fellow

like you learn so much

about horses?

His name's Johnny.

You can call me Red.

Yeah!

Yeah!

What's wrong?

What's wrong?

What's that?

Everything.

Dickens, Wordsworth.

There's your Arabian Nights

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