Misty | |
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![]() Original theatrical poster | |
Directed by | James B. Clark |
Screenplay by | Ted Sherdeman |
Based on | the novel Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry |
Produced by | Robert B. Radnitz |
Starring | David Ladd Arthur O'Connell |
Cinematography | Lee Garmes Leo Tover |
Edited by | Frederick Y. Smith |
Music by | Paul Sawtell Bert Shefter |
Color process | Color by DeLuxe |
Production company | 20th Century Fox |
Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release date |
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Running time | 91 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Misty is a 1961 American CinemaScope children's film based on Marguerite Henry's 1947 award-winning children's book Misty of Chincoteague . [1]
The book tells a story of the special bond that develops between two young orphan children and a centuries-old herd of wild ponies living on an island off the coast of Virginia and a real-life Chincoteague Pony named Misty. [2] [3]
Every year the Chincoteague fire department rounds up the wild ponies of Assateague Island and holds an auction to thin out the herd. The young children set out to raise enough money in hopes that the Phantom will be caught in this years round up. They soon realize they will get more than they bargained for when the Phantom has a surprise for everyone: a foal named Misty.
The film followed the success of A Dog of Flanders and was made with the same star, producer and director. "Children want a good story, preferably dealing with a good locale," said producer Radnitz. [4]
Set on the island of Chincoteague on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, Misty was filmed in Chincoteague, at a home on Folly Creek near the town of Accomac, and on the nearby barrier island known as Assateague. [5] [6]
The story is based on the annual "Pony Swim", an event held in the Chincoteague area each year, that involves rounding up some of the wild ponies who live on Assateague Island to swim across the channel. [3] Some of the colts and yearlings are then sold at auction as a means of thinning out the herd, and as a benefit for the local Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Department. [2]
The story features two real life characters of Chincoteague, Paul and Maureen Beebe, a young brother and sister who move from Philadelphia to Chincoteague, Virginia to live with Grandpa Beebe and Grandma Beebe after their parents die. Paul and Maureen befriend an elusive mare on Assateague named the Phantom, and later come to own her foal, Misty. [2] Using local people from the town in most of the roles, the film stars only six professional actors, including Arthur O'Connell, Anne Seymour, Pam Smith, and future Hollywood executive David Ladd. [7] The horse Misty was played in the film by another pony, although the real Misty can be seen in some scenes. [2]
The film was made with a budget of $705,000 and was directed by James B. Clark. [8] The film's cinematography was by Lee Garmes and Leo Tover, and the music by Paul Sawtell and Bert Shefter. [7]
At the premier showing of the movie on Chincoteague in 1961, the real Misty was led down Main Street, and her front hoof prints were impressed into cement in front of the Island Theatre (now managed by the Chincoteague Island Arts Organization), where the impressions of her hooves can still be seen as of 2023. [2] Both the book and the movie brought widespread publicity to Chincoteague and Assateague, and to the local culture, traditions, and natural beauty and wildlife on the remote and isolated barrier islands of the United States' eastern coast. [2]
The coastal area on the Atlantic Ocean is no stranger to volatile weather. The year after the film was released, a winter storm, one of the worst Nor'easters to ever occur there, struck. During what came to be known as the Ash Wednesday Storm of 1962, the Beebe family, the real-life owners of Misty, brought her inside their home to weather the storm. [2] Shortly thereafter, she gave birth to a foal, which the children named "Stormy." This prompted author Henry to write a sequel, Stormy, Misty's Foal, published in 1963. Henry had already written a previous sequel, Sea Star: Orphan of Chincoteague, published in 1949.
Possibly due in part to publicity from Ms. Henry's books and the movie, most of Assateague Island was protected from development by the enactment of Federal legislation designating it as Assateague Island National Seashore in 1965, under the administration of the National Park Service.[ citation needed ]
The annual "Pony Swim" and the auction continue on Virginia's Eastern Shore, helping both the community of Chincoteague and the herd of wild ponies. [2]
Misty is available on DVD. [9] The film was also released in the digital format. [10]
Chincoteague is a town in Accomack County, Virginia, U.S. The town includes the whole of Chincoteague Island and an area of adjacent water. The population was 2,941 at the 2010 census. The town is a tourist gateway to the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge on adjacent Assateague Island, the location of a popular recreational beach and home of the Virginia herd of Chincoteague Ponies. These ponies and the annual Pony Swim are the subject of Marguerite Henry's 1947 children's book Misty of Chincoteague, which was made into the 1961 family film Misty, filmed on location.
Assateague Island is a 37-mile (60 km) long barrier island located off the eastern coast of the Delmarva Peninsula facing the Atlantic Ocean. The northern two-thirds of the island is in Maryland, and the southern third is in Virginia.
Marguerite Henry was an American writer of children's books, writing fifty-nine books based on true stories of horses and other animals. She won the Newbery Medal for King of the Wind, a 1948 book about horses, and she was a runner-up for two others. One of the latter, Misty of Chincoteague (1947), was the basis for several related titles and the 1961 movie Misty.
Assateague Island National Seashore is a unit of the National Park Service system of the U.S. Department of the Interior. Located on the East Coast along the Atlantic Ocean in Maryland and Virginia, Assateague Island is the largest natural barrier island ecosystem in the Middle Atlantic states region that remains predominantly unaffected by human development. Located within a three-hour drive to the east and south of Richmond, Washington, Baltimore, Wilmington, Philadelphia major metropolitan areas plus north of the several clustered smaller cities around Hampton Roads harbor of Virginia with Newport News, Hampton, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Chesapeake and Virginia Beach. The National Seashore offers a setting in which to experience a dynamic barrier island and to pursue a multitude of recreational opportunities. The stated mission of the park is to preserve and protect “unique coastal resources and the natural ecosystem conditions and processes upon which they depend, provide high-quality resource-based recreational opportunities compatible with resource protection and educate the public as to the values and significance of the area”.
The Ash Wednesday Storm of 1962 occurred on March 5–9, 1962 along the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States. Also known as the Great March Storm of 1962, it was considered by the U.S. Geological Survey to be one of the most destructive storms ever to affect the mid-Atlantic states. Classified as a level 5 or Extreme Nor'easter by the Dolan-Davis scale for classification of Atlantic Nor'easters it was one of the ten worst storms in the United States in the 20th century. It lingered through five high tides over a three-day period, killing 40 people, injuring over 1,000, and causing hundreds of millions in property damage in six states. The storm also deposited significant snowfall over the Southeast, with a regional snowfall index of 12.663.
Misty of Chincoteague is a children's novel written by pony book author Marguerite Henry, illustrated by Wesley Dennis, and published by Rand McNally in 1947. Set in the island town of Chincoteague, Virginia, the book was inspired by the real-life story of the Beebe family and their efforts to raise a Chincoteague Pony filly born to a wild horse, who would later become known as Misty of Chincoteague. It was one of the runners-up for the annual Newbery Medal, now called Newbery Honor Books. The 1961 film Misty was based on the book.
The Chincoteague pony, also known as the Assateague horse, is a breed of horse that developed, and now lives, within a semi-feral or feral population on Assateague Island in the US states of Virginia and Maryland. The Chincoteague pony is one of the many breeds of feral horses in the United States. The breed was made famous by the Misty of Chincoteague novels, written by pony book author Marguerite Henry, and first published in 1947, and the pony Misty of Chincoteague.
A feral horse is a free-roaming horse of domesticated stock. As such, a feral horse is not a wild animal in the sense of an animal without domesticated ancestors. However, some populations of feral horses are managed as wildlife, and these horses often are popularly called "wild" horses. Feral horses are descended from domestic horses that strayed, escaped, or were deliberately released into the wild and remained to survive and reproduce there. Away from humans, over time, these animals' patterns of behavior revert to behavior more closely resembling that of wild horses. Some horses that live in a feral state but may be occasionally handled or managed by humans, particularly if privately owned, are referred to as "semi-feral".
Stormy, Misty's Foal is a children's novel written by Marguerite Henry, illustrated by Wesley Dennis, and published by Rand McNally in 1963. It was a sequel to Misty of Chincoteague (1947). Both novels are based on historical characters, human and equine, but many of the facts were changed in the stories. Stormy describes events on Chincoteague during the Ash Wednesday Storm that hit the Eastern Seaboard March 6, 1962,.
The Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge is a 14,000-acre (57 km2) wildlife preserve operated by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. It is primarily located on the Virginia half of Assateague Island with portions located on the Maryland side of the island, as well as Morris Island and Wildcat Marsh. Mostly composed of beach, dunes, marsh, and maritime forest, the refuge contains a large variety of wildlife animals and birds, including the Chincoteague Pony. The purpose of the refuge is to maintain, regulate and preserve animal and plant species as well as their habitats for present and future generations.
Beebe Ranch is an American horse ranch and museum located at 3062 Ridge Road, Chincoteague, Virginia. It was originally founded as a horse farm by the Beebe family sometime prior to 1923.
The Museum of Chincoteague Island, located at 7125 Maddox Boulevard, Chincoteague, Virginia, United States, celebrates the people, culture and heritage of Chincoteague Island.
Assateague Channel is a channel on the Eastern Shore of Virginia between Chincoteague Island and Assateague Island. The Assateague Channel connects to Assateague Bay to the northeast and Chincoteague Inlet to the southwest.
Pony Penning, sometimes known as Pony Penning Days or Pony Swim, is an annual event held in Chincoteague, Virginia on the last consecutive Wednesday and Thursday in July. The Chincoteague Fire Department conducts the event, which consists of a pony swim on Wednesday and a pony auction on Thursday. For the pony swim, the Saltwater Cowboys round up feral Chincoteague ponies from Assateague Island and drive them across the Assateague Channel to Veteran's Memorial Park on Chincoteague Island. The ponies swim across the channel during slack tide, when the water has minimal tidal movement. Once on Chincoteague Island, the Saltwater Cowboys herd the ponies to pens on the Chincoteague Carnival Grounds where some of the foals are auctioned off on Thursday.
The Chincoteague Fire Department is located at 4026/4028 Main Street, Chincoteague Island, Virginia. This building was initially constructed in 1930 and expanded in 2019.
The Island Theatre is a historic U.S. building located at 4074 Main Street, Chincoteague, Virginia. It still serves as an operational movie theater. Originally named Island Theatre, the theatre was renamed Island Roxy from the 1980s until the name was reverted to Island Theatre in 2013.
John Wesley Dennis was an American illustrator, known best for fifteen children's books about horses that he created in collaboration with writer Marguerite Henry. He illustrated over 150 books in his lifetime, including Anna Sewell's Black Beauty and John Steinbeck's The Red Pony. He also wrote and illustrated a few books of his own, among which are Flip, Flip and the Cows, Flip and the Morning, and Tumble.
The history of human activity in Chincoteague, on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, begins with the Native Americans. Until European explorers possessed the island in the late 17th century, the Chincoteague Indians used it as a place to gather shellfish, but are not known to have lived there; Chincoteague Island lacked suitable soil for their agriculture. The island's name derives from those early visitors: by one popular tale, chincoteague meant "Beautiful land across the water" in their language.
Misty of Chincoteague was a 12 hands palomino pinto Chincoteague Pony mare, made famous by the children's novel Misty of Chincoteague by pony book author Marguerite Henry, who also owned Misty.