“You usually can’t tell nobody about it…you can see the beauty, but you can’t really describe it in words.”
“It’s like it says in the Bible: To be absent from the body is to be present with God. To be absent from society, is to be on a higher plane (laughs).” – (One of many hobos interviewed)
“I don’t care whether you like it or not, but I’m gonna tell you right now, a hobo is not a bum. And don’t you ever call one a bum around me, ’cause I’ll get in your eyeball…
(A tramp) will come down to the jungle, he’ll have a jungle fire going, but he won’t pick up a g–damn stick of wood to cook the food. But a hobo, he’ll grab some wood, he’ll build a fire, he’ll dig in his pockets, he’ll pitch in, he’ll work. See, that’s the difference.”
Presenting Bill Daniel’s Who is Bozo Texino?:
“This spectacular travel adventure faithfully photographed…at considerable risk from speeding freight trains and in secret hobo jungles in the dogged pursuit of the impossibly convoluted story of the hertofore untold history of the century-old folkloric practice of hobo and railworker graffiti and the absurd quest for the true identity of railroading’s greatest artist will likely amuse and confound you in its sincere attempt to understand and preserve this artform.”
Films posted here are typically in the Public Domain (or similarly offered); Bozo, however, is not. I am posting it because it means much to me, and should be more widely known, but will be happy to take it down at the request of Mr. Daniels, to whom I am very grateful for his preservation and documentation of this strange way of life and piece of American history. (It is here that I warn the viewer of a few instances of swearing, by the way, though nothing too hair-curling.)
Featured image: source
