Notable Appearances in Popular Culture
In the 1971 film Cold Turkey, which was actually filmed in 1969, a Goodyear blimp was used to announce that the President of the United States would locate a missile factory in the fictional town of Eagle Rock, Iowa.
In the original 1974 version of Gone in 60 Seconds, a Goodyear blimp can be seen displaying the title drop in the marquee message, "Lock your car or it may be gone in 60 seconds."
In 1976, Goodyear allowed use of its blimps for the filming of Black Sunday, based on the novel by Thomas Harris, about a distressed former P.O.W. blimp pilot who helps Middle Eastern terrorists attack the Super Bowl with a lethal device attached to the airship's car. Two blimps were used for the conclusion. The base scenes were shot in Carson, California, using the Columbia. The Super Bowl scenes were shot in Miami, Florida, using the Mayflower, which was smaller than Columbia.
In the 1983 American epic crime film Scarface, Tony Montana (Al Pacino) sees the Goodyear blimp showing the words "The World Is Yours."
In the American rapper Ice Cube's 1993 hit single "It Was a Good Day," he says he sees the lights on the Goodyear blimp, which read "Ice Cube's a Pimp."
On 23 October 2011, the comic strip Red and Rover mentioned the Goodyear blimp by name. Red sets an electric football game on the ground in his back yard, plugged in. In the last panel, Red and Rover both sit on a picnic table above the game and Red says, "This is my favorite part – piloting the Goodyear blimp!"
During the last third of the Beatles' second motion picture, Help!, the Mayflower was used centrally as a stunning visual way to transport two villains intent on leading them into a trap where Ringo's sacrificial ring could be taken.
In Pixar's Cars & Cars 2, the Goodyear blimp appears as the Lightyear blimp. Lightyear is a parody of Goodyear, and is named after another Pixar character, Buzz Lightyear.
In the 1988 film The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!, Frank Drebin describes the "same old story" of "Boy finds girl, boy loses girl, girl finds boy, boy forgets girl, boy remembers girl, girl dies in a tragic blimp accident over the Orange Bowl on New Year's Day". Jane Spencer then asks "Goodyear?", to which Drebin replies "No, the worst.".
In young adult writer Judy Blume's novel Starring Sally J. Friedman as Herself (which was apparently based on her own childhood), Sally's father takes the whole family (Sally, her mother and her teenage brother Douglas) on a ride on the Goodyear blimp. The Freidman family enjoys the ride, but at first, Sally's mother (who has a phobia about flying) is very nervous about riding in a blimp.
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“In one notable instance, where the United States Army and a hundred years of persuasion failed, a highway has succeeded. The Seminole Indians surrendered to the Tamiami Trail. From the Everglades the remnants of this race emerged, soon after the trail was built, to set up their palm-thatched villages along the road and to hoist tribal flags as a lure to passing motorists.”
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