What does it mean to be a hero? How does it feel to be remembered? Was Willy even all that chilly?
These are questions we wish we could ask to one brave posse'd penguin-or-maybe-person who has captured the hearts of ostensible-billions around the world.
Inception
Back in February in downtown Seattle, my girlfriend and I came upon this delightful piece of graffiti stating "Chilly Willy has a posse". It would seem that Pike Place Market is crawling with Chilly Willy fans, as we found multiple pieces of art depicting this iconic penguin.
The Rabbit Hole
The phrase is almost hypnotic. Almost instantly, I found my inner monologue repeating it. We found ourselves repeating it out loud to each other. It still occasionally spirals around my head like the soggy cereal in my clogged sink more than six weeks later.
It would seem Chilly Willy's posse is unbelievably contagious, and thus we were unable to fight the urge to learn more about this wonderful penguin.
Into the rabbit hole we fell...
Chilly Willy Hit By a Car
After some speculation this is somehow the very first piece of information we found on Chilly Willy.
Oct. 18, 2012 Tragedy strikes.
Police said William Major, 58, better known as "Chilly Willy", was hit by a 2009 Hyundai Sonata on the 1900 block of East 7th Street
This article hit me like a 2009 Hyundai Sonata near Jackalope Jack's Bar on a Thursday at 9pm.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said they are investigating a fatal crash that claimed the life of one of Charlotte's most well known homeless men
All of this raised more questions than it answered for me.
- Was Chilly Willy ever actually a penguin or just a person the whole time?
- How is he only one of Charlotte's most well known homeless men? How many famous homeless people are there in Charlotte?
- Why is he famous anyway? And how did he get his posse?
The search continued.
The Cartoon
I simply cannot explain to you how I managed to come across that news article before learning about the far more well known cartoon, for whom the homeless man was presumably named.
Debuting in 1953, Chilly Willy is a cartoon character created by Walter Lantz.
Chilly was mute in most of his 1950s cartoons and early 1960s cartoons
Chilly Willy the Man was born in September 1954, precisely nine months after Chilly Willy the Penguin made his December 1953 debut.
Did Chilly Willy the Man and Chilly Willy the Penguin come into existence at precisely the same moment? Was Chilly Willy the Man playfully referred to as Chilly Willy while he was in the womb?
You'll notice that Chilly Willy the Penguin and Chilly Willy the Man shared their muteness between the approximate dates of December 1953 and September 1955.
Chilly Willy is a supporting character in the 2018 Woody Woodpecker animated series
Chilly Willy the Penguin managed to outlive his namesake[1] by about six years and was last seen at the age of 64.
The Legacy
Chilly Willy the Penguin lived up to our childhood ideals of courage, cleverness, and lifelong friendship. Chilly Willy the Man lived up to our matured ideals of being kind, earning respect, and turning a place into a community. Both pursued diverging dreams to a similar end.
After spending an unreasonable amount of time trying to discover the origin of the phrase "Chilly Willy has a posse" to no avail, it appears that someone on Facebook or Instagram[2] must have coined the phrase in order to sell merchandise. It leads me to wonder if this unlicensed Chilly Willy posseman[3] even knows about Chilly Willy the Man.
However for this moment, I will suspend my cynicism, for if it weren't for one profiteering influencer, I wouldn't have come to know the enduring legacy of two not-too-warm Willies.
[1] I used this word correctly.
[2] This person has posted some controversial stuff before. I do not know them or endorse their views.
[3] A member of a posse.