Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
The Red Pony was not originally published as a novel. In fact, it actually appeared in three parts in magazines. The first two parts, "The Gift" and "The Great Mountains," were published in the North American Review in 1933, and the third section, "The Promise," was published in Harpers in 1937. We know, we know—what about the fourth part? Well "The Leader of the People" was only published later, in the book version. (Source.)
"It's as exciting and human as your own heartbeat!" Well, at least that's what the trailer claims. Though John Steinbeck himself wrote the screenplay, the movie version takes a lot of liberties with the original book. In the film, Grandfather comes to visit at the beginning and stays throughout the whole movie. The red pony still dies in the movie and Jody is affected by the tragedy but then his new colt is born and everyone stands around laughing happily when it happens. Billy never kills the mare to save the colt. The end. (Source.)
You may not have heard of him, but a dude named Aaron Copland is kind of a big deal. In the classical music world, that is. So it's also kind of a big deal that he's the guy who composed the soundtrack to the 1949 movie version of The Red Pony. (Source.)