Muffler Man

RA ID#: 554
Type: Hybrid
Town: Chicopee
State: Massachusetts

Arm position: left arm down, right hand waving

Accessories: top hat

On the periphery of classification as a Muffler Man is this "Southern Gentleman," or "big White Guy," a puzzling mixture of the rare Texaco Big Friend and an ersatz Muffler Man head with sleepy eyes.

From his platform in front of the Plantation Inn, he greets cars as they exit the Mass Pike. In an earlier incarnation as Uncle Sam, he stood in front of Mutual Ford in Springfield, Massachusetts, until 1999. Before that he served as a pizza chef in Framingham, Massachusetts.

Today, Southern Man is painted completely white, with the aforementioned head and top hat. He appears to be a mix of liquor branding gentility: the top-hatted Johnny Walker with the white-suited Jack Daniels. The catch-phrase of The Plantation Inn is "Southern Hospitality in New England."

The Big White Guy may also serve as an unofficial visual marker for the C-5As that lumber frequently overhead, landing at a nearby Air Force base.

Reported Sightings | Tracking Chart

Top-hatted Muffler Man

He's the whitest of Muffler Men.