Hobo Homage Trivia Quiz

Answer: Born To Run

"Born To Run", from the album of the same name is included in the 500 songs that shaped rock and roll by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and although written by Springsteen, was first recorded by Allan Clarke of British band The Hollies, which while an interesting version, lacks the passion of "The Boss" in my opinion.

Interestingly, Springsteen's name, as songwriter is misspelled Springstein on the Allan Clarke version.

Answer: George Orwell

"Down And Out In Paris And London" (1933) was the first full length book by Orwell and was based on his time living in a lodging house in Paris in the late 1920s and also living in rooms and "tramping" around the streets of London prior to that. Because he was worried about how friends would react to some of his experiences, Orwell didn't want to publish the book under his real name of Eric Blair and so chose the alias George Orwell, under which he would publish all future works such as "Animal Farm" and "Nineteen Eighty-Four".

Answer: A dog

"The Littlest Hobo" ran from 1963 to 1965 and was then revived in 1979 and ran until 1985. The German Shepherd in the show is never named, other than temporary names given to him by people he helps, much in the same vein as "Lassie"; and the show featured some big stars during its run, all playing second fiddle to Hobo, such as DeForest Kelley ("Star Trek"), Patrick Macnee ("The Avengers"), John Vernon ("Animal House") and Leslie Nielsen ("Airplane!").

Answer: Boxcar Willie

Martin served in USAF from 1949 to 1976 and saw action in the Korean War. Whilst still a serving flight engineer, he wrote a song called "Boxcar Willie" and this proved so popular, it became his nickname and he eventually adopted it as his stage name. Following his retirement from the Air Force, he became a full time musician and continued to perform right up to his death in 1999.

Answer: Mitchell and Webb

David Mitchell and Robert Webb's show, "That Mitchell And Webb Look" also featured characters such as Ted and Peter, the snooker commentators, BMX Bandit and Angel Summoner and the hilarious, nonsensical game show "Numberwang". The show ran for four seasons between 2006 and 2010, but the pair may be better known for long running comedy show "Peep Show" (2003-2015). Sir Digby Chicken Caesar is a drunken psychotic tramp who seems to believe he is Sherlock Holmes and with his faithful sidekick, the equally alcoholic Ginger, constantly battles the henchmen of his unnamed and unseen arch nemesis. If you've seen it, I'm sure you're doing the off key "Devil's Galop" tune in the manner of Sir Digby right now.

Answer: Charlie Chaplin

Chaplin, whose career spanned from 1914 to 1967 was world famous for his tramp character; in fact during the early 20th century he was acclaimed as the most famous person on the planet. He wrote the script for the majority of his movies and produced, directed and composed the score for many of them also. Chaplin and Keaton starred in "Limelight" (1952), and Fatty Arbuckle was a mentor to Chaplin with whom he appeared in several films, most notably "The Rounders" (1914) in which they played two drunkards trying to escape their nagging wives.

Answer: Babes In Arms

Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart worked on almost 30 stage musicals before Hart's untimely death in 1943, after which Rodgers teamed up with Oscar Hammerstein to produce such classics as "Oklahoma!" (1943), "The King And I" (1951) and "The Sound Of Music" (1959). "Lady Is A Tramp", originally from 1937, proved its eternal popularity when in 2011, Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga recorded it as a duet.

Answer: Lady And The Tramp

"Lady And The Tramp" was an animated movie about a Cocker Spaniel named Lady who lives with a high class family and falls in love with a mongrel named Tramp. The movie also featured Jock the Scottish Terrier and Boris the Russian Borzoi as well as Siamese cats named Si and Am, who sing, what is my opinion the most annoying Disney song ever, "The Siamese Cat Song", voiced by Peggy Lee who would go on to record "Fever" (1958).

The movie also features one of the most iconic scenes ever, involving spaghetti and an "accidental" kiss.

Answer: Cher

"Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves" spent two weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100, knocking Rod Stewart's "Maggie May" off the top spot and restricting Isaac Hayes and "Theme From Shaft" to two weeks at number one and two weeks in the number two position.

Answer: Sail her. It's a ship

Tramp steamers, or trampers, are contract carriers which unlike other freight ships have no fixed contract or destination, simply sailing according to supply and demand. In the 19th century, they were immensely popular for transporting coal from Wales to wherever it was required to fire boilers and the like.

After WWII, bulk carrier trampers grew in popularity as they had the ability to carry several cargoes to several different ports as opposed to single commodity liners.