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The Americanrailroad engineer
Casey
Jones has become well known in American folklore as an
engineer who died in the course of duty. References to Casey Jones
include:
In music
In the AC/DC song "What's Next to the Moon", a
railroad engineer is mentioned to be "dreaming about Casey
Jones".
In "Southern Pacific," Neil Young reflects on a railroad engineer named
"Mr Jones," but in this song, Jones escapes the tragic heroism of
his legendary namesake only to end up at age 65 being forced into
retirement by the railroad company: "It was 'Mr. Jones, we got to
let you go. It's company policy. You got a pension, though."
In
1946, the Delmore Brothers wrote and recorded
"Freight Train Boogie," a song about Casey Jones.
Casey Jones is
mentioned several times in "April the 14th" and "Ruination Day,"
songs on Gillian
Welch's album Time , released in 2001.
Johnny Cash
performed a song entitled "Casey Jones", describing Jones' fateful
trip.
Casey Jones, as he appeared in "The Real Ghostbusters"
A folksong starting "Casey Jones was a son of a bitch, drove his
train into a forty foot ditch" was included in the movie
An officer and a
gentleman.<ref>[1632] Script of "An officer and a
gentleman" retrieved July 13, 2007</ref> and was recorded by
Ron and the Rude Boys.<ref>[1633] Ron and the Rude Boys, "Rude
Rugby Songs, Volume 4" retrieved July 13, 2007</ref>
On
television
An American TV series titled "Casey Jones,"
loosely based on his life and starring Alan Hale Jr., was produced in
1957.<ref>
http://brokenwheelranch.com/caseyjones.htm</ref> The
producers and writers of the show took a few liberties with the
facts. For example, Casey's wife was now named "Alice", instead of
"Janie", they had a son, "Casey Jr." who rode with his father in
the cab and his engine was now number 1, instead of 382 or 638 as
in real life. Also, instead of the Illinois Central, Casey worked
for the fictional "Transcontinental Railroad Co." In other words,
it is not at all based on the life of Casey Jones.
An episode of
the animated
seriesthe Real Ghostbusters, entitled
"Last Train To Oblivion" (airdate: 11/24/1987), features the
ghost of Casey Jones trying
to prevent a railway accident in order to atone for the wreck which
took his life.
A sketch from the children's program
Sesame
Street was inspired by Jones. The segment, entitled "The
Ballad of Casey McPhee," features Cookie Monster as a brave engineer who
"must get his train through."
A vigilante crime-fighter
character named "Casey Jones" also appears in the animated series
Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles.
Cookie Monster as "Casey McPhee"
Disney's "The Brave Engineer"
In film
On March 31950,
Disney
Studios released a short cartoon titled The Brave
Engineer about Casey Jones. Narrated by madcap comic
Jerry
Colonna, the film depicts Casey's attempts to prevail over
floods, train robbers, mechanical failure (he pushes his locomotive
so hard that it literally begins to fall apart) and other hazards
in an attempt to get his mail train through, ultimately culminating
in the accident (here depicted as a head-on, rather than a
rear-ending). Unlike real life, however, the cartoon ends with
Jones having survived the collision to bring (what's left of) his
train in almost on time.