Hoover Dam in popular culture
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Hoover Dam Hoover Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the U.S. states of Nevada and Arizona. It was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression and was dedicated on Se ...
has made frequent appearances in various forms of media on account of its size and national prominence within the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. Prior to the dam's completion in 1936, the Boulder Dam construction project was likewise the subject of a number of films.


Description

Even before its construction, Hoover Dam had an effect on popular culture in the American west. Starting in the 1920s, politicians and newspapers in the Southwest called for the construction of a dam on the Colorado river. To rally public support for the project, conceptual sketches of the future dam were published, often accompanied with vivid descriptions of the wealth of resources the dam would provide; the project was often described with terms like "great", and was compared to other great engineering projects (such as the Pyramids of Giza and the
Great Wall of China The Great Wall of China (, literally "ten thousand ''li'' wall") is a series of fortifications that were built across the historical northern borders of ancient Chinese states and Imperial China as protection against various nomadic grou ...
) with the ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' describing the project as a "gateway of Empire." After construction of the dam began, imagery of the dam switched from conceptual to more documentary - the Bureau of Reclamation produced a large number of photographs documenting the building of the dam, publishing these in newspapers and magazines to ensure public and political support for the project continued. The immense size of the project (physically and in terms of workers employed to construct it) came to be seen as a symbol of American innovation and progress during the ongoing
Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
, cementing the dam in the American popular consciousness. Influential artists such as modernist
Charles Sheeler Charles Sheeler (July 16, 1883 – May 7, 1965) was an American artist known for his Precisionist paintings, commercial photography, and the avant-garde film, ''Manhatta'', which he made in collaboration with Paul Strand. Sheeler is recognized ...
, muralist
William Gropper William Gropper (December 3, 1897January 3, 1977) was a U.S. cartoonist, painter, lithographer, and muralist. A committed radical, Gropper is best known for the political work which he contributed to such left wing publications as '' The Rev ...
, illustrator
Hugh Ferriss Hugh Macomber Ferriss (July 12, 1889 – January 28, 1962) was an American architect, illustrator, and poet. He was associated with exploring the psychological condition of modern urban life, a common cultural enquiry of the first decades of ...
, and photographer
Ansel Adams Ansel Easton Adams (February 20, 1902 – April 22, 1984) was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his black-and-white images of the American West. He helped found Group f/64, an association of photographers advoca ...
all produced works depicting the dam. Capitalizing on the dam's popularity, private businesses began to use images of the dam to advertise products, while the National Park Service hoped to use the newly formed Lake Meade to promote tourism in the area. Hoover dam's likeness appears on many pieces of kitsch, and has been used in advertisements for
Alcoa Alcoa Corporation (an acronym for Aluminum Company of America) is a Pittsburgh-based industrial corporation. It is the world's eighth-largest producer of aluminum. Alcoa conducts operations in 10 countries. Alcoa is a major producer of primary ...
,
Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta ...
, Jim Beam,
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, Pontiac,
R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company The R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company (RJR) is an American tobacco manufacturing company based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and headquartered at the RJR Plaza Building. Founded by R. J. Reynolds in 1875, it is the second-largest tobacco comp ...
,
Sunoco Sunoco LP is an American master limited partnership organized under Delaware state laws and headquartered in Dallas, Texas, that is a wholesale distributor of motor fuels. It distributes fuel to more than 5,500 Sunoco-branded gas stations, ...
,
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, and Westinghouse; advertisements featuring the dam normally include the dam as either a symbol of engineering or as a landmark. Hoover Dam has also appeared in numerous films, tv series, and documentaries. Even prior to the dam's completion, the massive size of the construction project - coupled with its symbolic value - drew the attention of the American film industry, with several films featuring the Boulder dam project. Upon its completion, Hoover Dam was further iconized in film, with many works of media using the dam to convey a sense of scale in their productions. Others focused on the dam's reputation as a great work of engineering. Following the massive cultural and economic
expansion Expansion may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''L'Expansion'', a French monthly business magazine * ''Expansion'' (album), by American jazz pianist Dave Burrell, released in 2004 * ''Expansions'' (McCoy Tyner album), 1970 * ''Expansio ...
of Las Vegas, Hoover Dam became increasingly culturally tied to the city.


Depictions in media


Film

* 1933 The plot of the 1933 film ''The Mysterious Rider'' involves a land dispute near the site of the-then newly begun dam. Footage of the dam's ongoing construction is used in the movie. *1933 The 1933 comedy ''
I Loved You Wednesday ''I Loved You Wednesday'' is a 1933 American pre-Code comedy drama film directed by Henry King and William Cameron Menzies and written by Philip Klein and Horace Jackson, adapted from the 1932 play of the same title by Molly Ricardel and Wil ...
'' follows the life of the fictional Philip Fletcher, an engineer working on the Boulder Dam project. * 1934 '' The Silver Streak'' features a team of doctors racing to transport an iron lung to Hoover Dam after a worker is injured during construction. * 1936 The protagonist of the 1936 drama film ''Boulder Dam'' works on the construction of the dam. The film's narrative see its protagonist's (Rusty) character develop as the dam is gradually constructed. *1946 Hoover Dam is seen in the 1946 (filmed 1942) short film ''
Facing Your Danger ''Facing Your Danger'' is a 1946 American short film. The cameraman was amateur filmmaker Edwin E. Olsen. Using a Cine-Kodak and 16mm Kodachrome film, Olsen shot the film in 1942 on a Grand Canyon river trip conducted by Norman Nevills. Anothe ...
'' as the ending point of the downriver journey the film documents. *1950 The penultimate encounter in the 1950 noir film '' 711 Ocean Drive'' sees the film's protagonist (Mal Granger) attempt to evade a police roadblock at the dam. After a pursuit through the dam's tunnels, Granger is killed on top of the dam in an ensuing gunfight. * 1964 The protagonists of '' Viva Las Vegas'' view the Hoover Dam, along with other Las Vegas landmarks, as part of a montage. * 1978 The dam is collapsed by an earthquake in ''Superman'' after the San Andreas Fault Line is triggered by nuclear weapons. * 1985 A comedic fight between the protagonists of '' Lost in America'' takes place on top of the dam and in one of the structure's power stations. * 1992 A scene at the beginning of the military science-fiction action film Universal Soldier takes place on and inside the Hoover Dam, showing how titular characters of the movie are deployed to the Hoover Dam to resolve a hostage situation. * 1996 In '' Beavis and Butt-Head Do America'', Beavis and
Butt-Head Butt-Head is a fictional character and one of the two protagonists from the MTV/Paramount+ animated series '' Beavis and Butt-Head''. He is voiced by the show's creator, Mike Judge. Judge got the name Butt-Head from his university days, wh ...
accidentally release the water behind the Hoover Dam, which cuts off the power to Las Vegas and causes a blackout. * 1997 In '' Vegas Vacation'' (the fourth installment in '' National Lampoon''’s ''Vacation'' film series), Clark Griswold and his family take a tour of the dam. Clark accidentally creates a leak in the dam's inside walkways. Clark then opens the wrong door and ends up outside. He takes a cable and swings himself across the dam and hits the dam wall. He is forced to climb the scaffolding to the very top to get out. * 2006 In the 2006 miniseries '' 10.5: Apocalypse'', the dam collapses when Lake Mead starts to heat up and expand beyond the spillway's capacity. * 2003 In the 2003 movie ''Disaster'', the dam is blown up by a cult leader. * 2007 In the 2007 ''Transformers'' movie, Hoover Dam is used to house the remains of the Decepticon leader Megatron, with the dam coming under attack by the
Decepticon The Decepticons are the main antagonists in the fictional continuities of the ''Transformers'' multimedia franchise. They are depicted as a faction of sentient robotic lifeforms led by Megatron, identified by a purple face-like insignia. Capab ...
s during the film. * 2007 Hoover Dam is one of the stops the protagonist of ''Into the Wild'' makes during his road-trip through America. * 2015 In the 2015 disaster film ''San Andreas'' the dam is collapsed by a massive earthquake.


Television

* 1959 Hoover Dam is used as a stand-in for a fictional hydroelectric dam in an episode of '' Sea Hunt'', "The Dam". *1975 In March 1975 Hoover Dam appeared in an episode of ''The Rockford Files'', "Rounabout", which starred James Garner. * 2008 In the 2008 television special '' Life After People'', The Dam is able to make the Las Vegas area one of the last places with electricity up to a year after people. However, the generators are brought down by the quagga mussel when they place themselves on the inside of a pipe, multiply on top of one another, and eventually completely block the diameter of the pipe, preventing cooling water from moving to a generator, and causing the generators to overheat and shut down, resulting in Las Vegas going dark permanently. The Dam finally collapses after 10,000 years after people due to erosion of its concrete and the cumulative effect of seismic activity. Its becomes one of the last great collapses. * 2008 In the 2008 television documentary film '' Aftermath: Population Zero'', the Hover Dam survives despite most other dams on the Colorado River collapsing due to excessive water pressure. Once the
Glen Canyon Dam Glen Canyon Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam on the Colorado River in northern Arizona, United States, near the town of Page, Arizona, Page. The high dam was built by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) from 1956 to 1966 and forms Lake Powe ...
collapses, the flood waters race downstream towards the Hoover Dam. The water passes over the dam, forming a roaring cascade of water that thunders downstream, sweeping away other dams and overwhelming everything in the way until it reaches the Gulf of California. *2013 Hoover Dam appeared on episode 26 of the third season of the Israeli edition of ''The Amazing Race'' and served as a Pit Stop.


Video games

* 1998 The Dam was a stage featured in the ''
Vigilante 8 ''Vigilante 8'' is a vehicular combat video game developed by Luxoflux and published by Activision for PlayStation, Nintendo 64 and Game Boy Color. Although officially it has no connection to the ''Interstate '76'' series, it features several o ...
'' video game for the
PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a divisi ...
and Nintendo 64. An updated version of the same map is also present in the 2008 quasi-
remake A remake is a film, television series, video game, song or similar form of entertainment that is based upon and retells the story of an earlier production in the same medium—e.g., a "new version of an existing film". A remake tells the same ...
of the same game, called ''
Vigilante 8 Arcade ''Vigilante 8: Arcade'' is a vehicular combat video game developed by Isopod Labs and published by Activision. It was released on November 5, 2008, for Xbox 360 through Xbox Live Arcade. Isopod Labs was formed by three former members of Luxoflu ...
'' for the Xbox 360. * 1998 In '' Half-Life'', the first map of the chapter "Surface Tension" takes place in dam similar to the Hoover Dam. * 2004 A parody of the dam appears in '' Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas'' known as the Sherman Dam. It provides Las Venturas (the game's version of Las Vegas) with hydroelectric power and also regulates the height of the Sherman Reservoir behind it. * 2010 Hoover Dam plays a vital role in the post apocalyptic world of '' Fallout: New Vegas'', where multiple factions attempt to control the dam and its vital electrical output. The final battle of the game takes place across the top of the dam and in its power stations. * 2011 The dam appears as a level in ''
Duke Nukem Forever ''Duke Nukem Forever'' is a 2011 first-person shooter game developed by Gearbox Software and published by 2K Games for Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. It is the fourth main installment in the ''Duke Nukem'' series and the sequel to ''Duke ...
''. The plot of the game sees alien invaders using Hoover Dam's
hydroelectric Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined and ...
capacity to power a wormhole.


Photography

* 1941-42 American landscape photographer
Ansel Adams Ansel Easton Adams (February 20, 1902 – April 22, 1984) was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his black-and-white images of the American West. He helped found Group f/64, an association of photographers advoca ...
produced a series of photographs featuring the dam.


Literature

*
2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...
In the Blake and Mortimer graphic novel "
The Strange Encounter ''The Strange Encounter'' (''L'Étrange Rendez-Vous'' in the original French) is the fifteenth book in the Blake and Mortimer series created by Edgar P. Jacobs. Published in 2001, it was written by Jean Van Hamme and drawn by Ted Benoit who had ...
", the main villain
plans A plan is typically any diagram or list of steps with details of timing and resources, used to achieve an objective to do something. It is commonly understood as a temporal set of intended actions through which one expects to achieve a goal. ...
to use a
hydrogen bomb A thermonuclear weapon, fusion weapon or hydrogen bomb (H bomb) is a second-generation nuclear weapon design. Its greater sophistication affords it vastly greater destructive power than first-generation nuclear bombs, a more compact size, a lowe ...
to destroy the Hoover Dam. *2007 In the '' Percy Jackson & the Olympians'' novel '' The Titan's Curse'' by Rick Riordan, the main characters travel to Hoover Dam on their way to complete their quest in San Francisco. While at the dam Percy first meets Rachel Elizabeth Dare, a mortal who can see through The Mist, before the heroes are ambushed by undead, skeletal warriors. After delaying the skeletons by starting a food fight in the cafeteria of the tourist centre, the group escapes from Hoover Dam; carried away to safety by two automated metal angel statues. *2015 In the ''Hot War Series'' novel ''Bombs Away'' by Harry Turtledove, Las Vegas was targeted for atomic bombing by the Soviet Union on March 2, 1951, but local air-defense was able to shoot down the bomber. In all likelihood, it was revealed that the Soviets weren't actually trying to bomb Las Vegas, but rather the Hoover Dam, which was located about 30 miles (48 kilometers) away from the city. *2018 The novel ''
Lords of St. Thomas ''Lords of St. Thomas'' is a 2018 historical novel by American writer Jackson Ellis. The novel won the inaugural Howard Frank Mosher Book Prize in 2017, selected by Howard Frank Mosher himself shortly before his death in January 2017. Settin ...
'' by
Jackson Ellis Jackson may refer to: People and fictional characters * Jackson (name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the surname or given name Places Australia * Jackson, Queensland, a town in the Maranoa Region * Jackson North, Qu ...
tells the story of the last family to vacate the flooded town of
St. Thomas, Nevada St. Thomas, Nevada is a ghost town in Clark County, Nevada, near where the Muddy River flows into the Colorado River. St. Thomas was purchased by the US Federal Government and abandoned as the waters of Lake Mead submerged the town in the 1930 ...
in 1938 following construction of the Hoover Dam and creation of Lake Mead. The narrator's father, Thomas Lord, takes a job with
Six Companies Six Companies, Inc. was a joint venture of construction companies that was formed to build the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River in Nevada and Arizona. They later built Parker Dam, a portion of the Grand Coulee Dam, the Colorado River Aqueduct ...
.Robison, Vernon
New Historical Novel Tells Story Of Evacuation Of St. Thomas
'


Music

* 1977 (The) Highwayman by Jimmy Webb does not mention the Hoover Dam by name but it includes a verse about a dam builder who fell into the concrete of a dam near "a place called Boulder on the wild Colorado". The song was famously covered by supergroup The Highwaymen. * 1992 "Standing on the edge / Of the Hoover Dam / I'm on the centerline / Right between two states of mind" - Written by Bob Mould, "Hoover Dam" is a much beloved track on the album ''
Copper Blue ''Copper Blue'' is the debut studio album by American alternative rock band Sugar. It was voted 1992 Album of the Year by the NME. All of the songs were written by guitarist/vocalist Bob Mould, who also co-produced with Lou Giordano. Musically, t ...
'' with Mould's then band
Sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double ...
.


References

{{Reflist United States in popular culture