Howard family tree includes a horse -- But what a horse

Barbara Diamond

A man she never knew, a woman who wasn’t blood kin and a horse she

never rode have graced the life of Malinda Howard.

The man was Charles Howard, the woman was his second wife,

Marcela, and the horse was Seabiscuit.

“I was certainly aware of the financial advantages,” Charles’

great-granddaughter said Wednesday at her Laguna Beach home. “But I

didn’t really realize the part my family played in California history

until Laura Hillenbrand’s book about Seabiscuit came out. Before

that, it was just a part of my life.”

Charles Howard helped introduce the automobile to a once

motor-resistant California. He saved countless lives in the 1906

earthquake and fire in San Francisco by using his unsold Buicks to

get the injured to medical assistance and to evacuate people fleeing

the devastation. He helped build the Santa Anita Racetrack and gave a

depression-weary country a badly needed lift by racing Seabiscuit, an

icon of the underdog.

The blockbuster movie “Seabiscuit,” which opened last week, is

based on the best-selling book by Laura Hillenbrand, written in 2001.

It has refocused the spotlight on the Howard family and the horse

they, and an entire country, learned to love.

Saturday will be “Seabiscuit Day” at Del Mar Racetrack. One of the

horses that played Seabiscuit in the movie will be there. Members of

the Howard family and Universal Studios will present trophies to race

winners.

“You can’t believe my phone since the picture opened,” Malinda

Howard said. “I got one call from my contractor, Charlie Rohrer,

saying what a ‘boo-hoo’ movie it was.

“And you wouldn’t believe the number of Laura’s books I have

signed at the track.”

Malinda Howard’s elder brother, Michael, was aware of the family’s

celebrity early on, according to their mother.

“He is a natural historian and he was always asking Marcela

questions -- and he remembered the answers,” said Barbara Howard, who

married one of Charles’ sons from his first marriage.

Marcela -- known to the family as Auntie Mar -- outlived her much

older husband by almost 20 years. She was the keeper of records,

newspaper and magazine stories and memorabilia, and it was to Michael

that she gave her scrapbooks. He donated them to the Thoroughbred

Racing Museum in Saratoga Springs.

Malinda Howard has the silks -- the red and white shirt and pants

worn by Seabiscuit’s jockey. She wore the shirt to the movie premiere

in Westwood. Malinda Howard also owns the leather belt Marcela

studded with golden Seabiscuit or horse-related charms, as well as a

stunning collection of jewelry, kept safe in a bank vault.

But Barbara Howard, a resident of Monarch Beach, has Marcela’s

collection of letters to Seabiscuit, acquired when Marcela was moving

from Pebble Beach to Montecito.

“She handed me a Saks Fifth Avenue hat box, and I thought she was

giving me a hat,” Barbara Howard said.

Inside the box were more than 270 letters written to Seabiscuit

and to Charles.

“She said, ‘I am giving these to you because I know you will keep

them,’” Barbara Howard said. “I didn’t read them until I was on a

trip to Mexico. A friend also read them and said people should see

these. When Laura’s book came out, she said I should do a book.”

But it took former Treasure Island resident and author of two

books May Wale Brown to push Barbara Howard to action, by introducing

her to the publisher of Wale’s two books.

“I picked the title, ‘Letters to Seabiscuit,’ and I picked the 114

letters for the book,” Barbara Howard said. “It is dedicated to

Auntie Mar.”

Barbara and Malinda Howard have book signings scheduled for the

next couple of months, including one on Aug. 23 at Barnes and Noble

in Aliso Viejo. They have promised an autographed copy to the Laguna

Beach Friends of the Library for the silent auction at the annual

dinner.

Malinda Howard, whose creative talents are apparent in the design

and decoration of the home she spent three years remodeling, also has

a Seabiscuit-related project in the works. She showed off a prototype

Wednesday of a wooden tray handcrafted by her cabinet maker to her

design, which she had painted and sponged as a frame for a famed

photograph of jockey George Wolf on Seabiscuit. The tray is

resin-coated to protect the photograph.

Amazingly, the project led Malinda Howard to a collection of the

famous “family” Christmas cards, on which Seabiscuit was pictured,

that Marcela and Charles -- called Poppie by the family -- sent each

year.

“I was outside the house one day and began talking to an elderly

couple from Pasadena that were walking by and they admired my dog,”

Malinda Howard said. “The man mentioned he was reading a great book

about a horse. I chuckled and said that was my great-grandfather’s

horse.”

That was the end of it as far as Malinda Howard knew. Not.

“When I went to Victoria Skimboards to talk to someone about

resining, the guy turned out to be the son of the couple from

Pasadena,” Malinda Howard said. “He got an article in the Pasadena

paper about Seabiscuit from his folks and left it on my door step.”

Then he gave her address to his parents, who sent her the

collection of cards. They have been added to the memorabilia,

paintings and photographs that add personality to her home.

Malinda Howard is touched by people’s renewed interest in

Seabiscuit and by extension, her family, but she said she is not

enthralled with the limelight.

“I loved being an extra in the movie, but I wouldn’t want to be a

celebrity,” she said.

Still, with her petite good looks, style and engaging personality,

she is a natural. Most photographs don’t do her justice, and you

would certainly never recognize her as the be-hatted woman in a scene

in the movie with Beau Bridges, who played her grandfather in

“Seabiscuit.”

Malinda loved the movie.

“It’s better the second time,” she said. “Sit about three-quarters

of the way back, and the horses are right on top of you.”

Her favorite scene in the movie is Marcela and Charles’ first

date.

“Poppie hadn’t been on a horse for 20 years,” Malinda Howard said.

“And the look she gave him.”

Malinda Howard was less happy with the emphasis on her great-uncle

Frank’s death.

“Poppie had three other sons, including my grandfather,” Malinda

Howard said.

Malinda and Barbara Howard said the scene with Marcela Howard

smoking in front of Poppie never would have happened. She might

occasionally sneak a smoke in the bathroom, but never in his

presence, they said.

And she never would have been seen in the white pants suit worn by

actress Elizabeth Banks, nor in dangling earrings -- ever, Barbara

Howard said.

Barbara admits that in her heart she doesn’t think anyone could

have played Marcela.

“In a way, she is still alive,” said Barbara Howard, who remained

close to Marcela, even after divorcing Lin Howard Jr., Poppie’s

grandson. “Not a day goes by that I don’t think of her.”

She also said she was moved to tears by the scenes of Frank’s

death.

“I have a lot of pictures of him as a child and I have visited the

mausoleum where he is buried,” she said.

She said she loved the scene of Seabiscuit autographing Christmas

cards and the scene in which the irritated horse tossed a goat out of

his stall.

The goat-tossing incident occurred shortly after the Howards

acquired Seabiscuit. Ill-advised training methods had soured the

horse’s naturally sweet disposition, a marked contrast to his sire,

Hard Tack, who had attitude. The Howards gave Seabiscuit love, a

trainer who understood him and riders who admired him and he gave

back greatness.

Seabiscuit died in 1947, but he lives on in the memory of horse

racing fans everywhere and in the hearts and heritage of the Howards.