Smokey and the Bandit sponsored a racer in Atlanta's Southern Classic and wants to celebrate in style when he wins. They find local legend Bo "Bandit" Darville at a roadeo at Lakewood Fairgrounds in Atlanta and offer him $80,000 to pick up 400 cases of Coors from Texarkana (the closest place it could be legally sold at that time), and bring it back to Atlanta in 28 hours. Bandit takes the bet and recruits his partner Cledus "Snowman" Snow to drive the truck, while Bandit drives a black Pontiac Trans Am bought on an advance from the Burdettes as a "blocker" to divert attention
Joe Palooka "I'm Popeye The Sailor Man", composed by Sammy Lerner in 1933 for Fleischer Studios' first Popeye the Sailor cartoon: "I'm Popeye the sailor man / I'm one tough Gazookus / which hates all Palookas". In "On the Waterfront" (1954) Marlon Brando's character, Terry Malloy, references Palooka, in the phrase "a one-way ticket to Palookaville". In the 1977 film "Smokey and the Bandit", after having been drawn into a fight and taken a beating, character Cledus "Snowman" Snow (Jerry Reed) tells his friend Bo "Bandit" Darville (Burt Reynolds) over the CB radio, "Look, you ain't gonna believe this, but I just