Trivia FYI":

It's something I wondered about since hearing a Red Foley song lyric back in the 50's that "history was made by Steamboat Bill" on the Mississippi by Memphis.

The "history" was apparently an old song recorded by Arthur Collins in 1910 or 1911.

Buster Keaton made a silent film "Stemboat Bill, Jr." loosely based on the song in 1928.

And, Walt Disney's first Mickey Mouse cartoon called "Steamboat Willie" (1928) was a spoof of that film with Mickey whistling the "Steamboat Bill" melody.

So it seems that Steamboat Bill is a fictional character from an old song that was well known in the late 20's, 50's and maybe even now.

What real life species was Babe the Blue Ox based upon?

A double muscled Belgian Blue.


The Belgian Blue has a natural mutation in the myostatin gene which codes for the protein, myostatin ("myo" meaning muscle and "statin" meaning stop).[4] Myostatin is a protein that acts to inhibit muscle development. This mutation also interferes with fat deposition, resulting in very lean meat.[4] The truncated myostatin gene is unable to function in its normal capacity, resulting in accelerated lean muscle growth. Muscle growth is due primarily to physiological changes in the animal's muscle cells (fibers) from hypertrophy to a hyperplasia mode of growth. This particular type of growth is seen early in the fetus of a pregnant dam, which results in a calf that is born with two times the number of muscle fibers at birth than a calf with no myostatin gene mutation.[4] In addition a new born double-muscled calf’s birth weight compared to a normal calf is significantly greater.[3]

Found a quote that applies to both of the above:


"Tell that to somebody that don't care and watch 'em look at cha funny." ~ Brother Dave Gardner

[This message has been edited by spark1 (edited 09-13-2014).]