A new documentary short film brings to life the true story about two boys and their pony that many people have forgotten – or never even knew about. Called Pony Boys, the film traces the journey of Tony and Jeff Whittemore, aged 9 and 11, who drove their pony cart, pulled by a Shetland named King, from their home in Needham, Massachusetts (outside Boston) to Montreal, QC, to attend Expo ’67.
Jeff, Tony and King.
It was the summer of that year when the brothers dreamed of visiting the World’s Fair north of the border, but their family couldn’t afford the traditional kind of road trip. Their enterprising mother decided that her sons could drive King the 325 miles to Montreal and a plan was hatched.
The filmmaker, Eric Stange, is now a neighbour of Jeff, but he first heard about the unbelievable trek from a mutual friend. “The next time I ran onto Jeff I asked if it was all true and he said yes. That was about ten 10 years ago,” says Stange. “It took quite a while for me to get around to making the film, but I wanted to do it as soon as I heard the story.”