Lecil Travis Martin (1931-1999), Better Known by His Stage Names, Marty Martin and "Boxcar Willie" - America's Favorite Hobo

[Al Dente]

Does anyone remember this commercial:

for Boxcar Willie's album? IMHO he's one of the most amazing musicians since Slim Whitman.

Weird fact: There's a Boxcar Willie Park near L'Enfant Plaza. Huh?

[DonRocks]

Weird fact: There's a Boxcar Willie Park near L'Enfant Plaza. Huh?

Really? (!)

We had a guy in our fraternity who stopped going to classes and lived in his car - we called him Boxcar in honor of The Man (*). I don't know how on earth he graduated, but I believe he did, and we're even Facebook friends.

Slim Whitman seems like he actually takes himself seriously. What's this crap about him being the best-selling artist in European history (or was that somebody else?), or whatever they were claiming on the ads?

(*) Apparently, he used to record under the name Marty Martin, and changed his name to "Boxcar Willie" after a character in one of his songs - that might explain the "14 Gold Albums."

His Wikipedia entry says he flew a B-29 Superfortress during the Korean War - I just read about these things in Unbroken.

My guess is that both Box' and Slim' had legimate careers mid-century, and reinvented themselves as parodies for the next generation to enjoy. Well, why not? What did Colonel Sanders do before Kentucky Fried Chicken?

[DonRocks]

Weird fact: There's a Boxcar Willie Park near L'Enfant Plaza. Huh?

How is this possible?

There are train tracks that run under there, so I get that motif, but still ... *how*?

[Al Dente]

There's a reference to it here and here.

From the Post describing the starting point of the annual Pants-off Metro Ride:

For Washington, DC, we will be meeting at Hancock Park, also known as Box Car Willie Park on Google Maps, right outside the L'Enfant Metro station, at 2PM, and will reveal what time we'll go pants-less. The nearest intersection is 7th and C Street, SW.

I've yet to make the pilgrimage. Perhaps some sort of meetup is in order!

And now, Roy Acuff, Charlie Daniels, and Boxcar Willie performing "Wabash Cannonball".

I can't believe I've spent 15 minutes of my morning doing this research. I'm not even a fan of country music. Where's my fucking coffee?

[DonRocks]

There's a reference to it here and here.

From the Post describing the starting point of the annual Pants-off Metro Ride:

I've yet to make the pilgrimage. Perhaps some sort of meetup is in order!

And now, Roy Acuff, Charlie Daniels, and Boxcar Willie performing "Wabash Cannonball".

I can't believe I've spent 15 minutes of my morning doing this research. I'm not even a fan of country music. Where's my fucking coffee?

He flew a B-29 Super Fortress in WWII - one of them will be flying over the mall tomorrow in the Arsenal of Democracy Capital Flyover.

Not to stir up any controversy, but Enola Gay was a B-29 Super Fortress.

You can call this coincidence, or voodoo: Enola Gay was the plane that dropped Little Boy on Hiroshima.

And the plane that dropped Fat Man on Nagasaki? It was called ... you're not going to believe this ... Bockscar.

Going further into the land of voodoo ... the pilot of Bockscar was ... Charles Sweeney.