Black Maria

Black Maria is usually pronounced using the archaic pronunciation Mariah, rhyming with 'pariah', and is therefore sometimes written as "Black Mariah". It may refer to:

Vehicles

• A "Black Maria" or a Paddywagon, a vehicle used by the police to transport prisoners.
• The "Black Maria" was a three-unit experimental diesel-electric locomotive set fielded by the American Locomotive Company.
• The Sopwith Triplane of Canadian WWI ace Raymond Collishaw was named "Black Maria".
• An all-black HH-3E Jolly Green Giant that was used during the Vietnam War by the CIA had the nickname "Black Maria".

Media

• Black Mariah, an English electro-rock band.
• "The Black Maria", a Canadian rock band.
• Black Maria, a song by Todd Rundgren.
• Big Black Mariah, a song by Tom Waits.
• Black Maria, a cartoon collection by Charles Addams
• The Black Mariah, a 1994 novel by Jay R. Bonansinga.
• Black Maria, the 1991 novel by Diana Wynne Jones.
• Black Maria, written on the side of the truck driven by the hero of the original The Texas Chain Saw Massacre movie.
• "Black Maria", the name of an independent film and video festival.
• "Black Maria" an independent animation studio in Spain: http://www.blackmaria.es

Other

• The "Black Maria" film studio created by Thomas Edison. See Edison's Black Maria.
• "The Black Maria" was the nickname of a guitarist from local Adelaide band "The Committee of Public Safety", Commonly Known as "C.O.P.S.".
• Black Maria is a card game, also called Black Lady, a British variant of Hearts, requiring slightly different tactics. Passing is always to the person on the right, hearts may be led at any time apart from the first round (which gives an advantage to the player with the 2) and the scores are Q 15, A 5, K 4, Q 3, J 2, with all other hearts one each.
• The phrase "Black Maria" comes up in the song "The Guns of Brixton" by the British punk band The Clash: You know it means no mercy/They caught him with a gun/No need for the Black Maria/Goodbye to the Brixton sun.
• The song "Afterhours" by The Sisters Of Mercy contains the lyrics "One more night spent on your mirror, Black maria, in your eyes, This stuff so strange and lonely, England fades away, In your eyes".
• The song "The Edison Museum" by They Might Be Giants uses the phrase "Black Maria": ("Just outside the gate/I look into the courtyard,/Underneath a gathering thunderstorm./Through the iron bars/I see the Black Maria/Revolving slowly on its platform.")
• The song "Hang 'Em High" by My Chemical Romance contains the lyrics "The angels just cut out her tongue, call her Black Mariah"