The Standardbred Connection January 2016 | Page 11

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or John Frost of Remembrance Hill Carriages this past year was full of new experiences. His Standardbreds, Action
and Mr. B, were part of telling a very special story, a made-for-TV movie.

Action and Mr. B were part of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) TV movie, The Button Girl,
a new musical film styled after the old MGM movie
musicals. The film will be released in December
2016 and is sure to become a holiday tradition. It
is narrated by Academy Award winner Kate Winslet and features Dick Van Dyke, Jane Seymour,
and Charles Shaughnessy. The Button Girl follows the story of a girl named Annabelle who loses
her parents in a mill town in New England in the
early 1900s. Annabelle sells buttons for food and
along the way teaches a family the true meaning
of the Christmas holiday.

way full of lights and cameras as well as snow and
fog machines. After carrying Jane Seymour and
Charles Shaughnessy down the ‘street,’ the geldings were unhitched and turned around before
being re-hitched. There was no room at the end
of the ‘street’ for them to make a complete turn.
Despite the challenges, Action and Mr. B handled
everything with a ‘been there, done that’ attitude.
But make no mistake, these geldings, as well as
their pasture mate, Hotsteamingjumbo (aka Jumbo), are more than movie stars or money makers
to their owner, John Frost. These boys are with
Frost for life. He’s owned Action for eleven years,
Mr. B for nine years and relative newcomer Jumbo
for three years. All three were adopted from the
Standardbred Retirement Foundation. e

While these two geldings are experienced driving
horses this was their first movie gig. They typically
do weddings, holiday events and pleasure drives.
They also do the occasional parades like the
famous Lenox Tub Parade in Lenox, MA.
Action and Mr. B, whose registered names are Activation and Arvee Bee (NZ) respectively, traveled
to York, Maine for an indoor shoot of a Victorian
town scene. They spent three days on set. While
i