Of Mice and Men in popular culture Of Mice and Men in popular culture Of Mice and Men is a novella by John Steinbeck, which tells the story of George and Lennie, two displaced migrant workers in California during the Great Depression (1929–1939). The story is set on a ranch a few miles from Soledad in the Salinas Valley. Since its initial publication in 1937, it has been frequently referenced in popular culture. Homages to the characters Lennie and George have been especially popular in American cartoons and animated films. The "New York Times" reviewed the 1939 film based on the novella thusly: Theatrical cartoon shorts of
Every Picture Tells a Story (song) in the dark "Rod Stewart, scratchy and loud, combed his hair in a thousand different ways and came out looking just the same." Greil Marcus uses the reference to the song in "What It Takes to Keep a Young Girl Alive" to muse on what makes a good record and why "Every Picture Tells a Story" is a good record, i.e., a good record is one that "entering a person's life, can enable that person to live more intensely—as, whatever else it does, 'Every Picture Tells a Story' does for Jayne Anne Phillips' Sue." Every Picture Tells a Story (song)