In Media
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| This early image shows Lombard Street in 1933, before the hydrangeas were planted. | |
| This early image shows the houses on the south side of the block were destroyed to create a fire break during the 1906 Earthquake and Fire. In this photo taken during street construction, the south side is still not built up. | |
In his film Vertigo (1958), Alfred Hitchcock chose to make 900 Lombard Street the home of John "Scottie" Ferguson.
The street, and the difficulty of driving it, is parodied in the Bill Cosby sketch "Driving in San Francisco" on the album Why Is There Air? (recorded in Las Vegas):
- "They built a street up there called Lombard Street that goes straight down, and they're not satisfied with you killing yourself that way—they put grooves and curves and everything in it, and they put flowers there where they've buried the people that have killed themselves. Lombard Street, wonderful street." (audience reacts with knowing cheers and applause).
It was also included in the comic car chase scene in Peter Bogdanovich's film What's Up, Doc? (1972) starring Barbra Streisand and Ryan O'Neal.
It is also featured at the beginning of the promotional video for "People on the Street" from the Neil Young album Landing on Water (1986).
In 1994, the MTV reality show The Real World: San Francisco was filmed at 949 Lombard Street.
In the final scene of The Simpsons episode "Lisa the Tree Hugger" (2000), a log is shown traveling down the street on its way to the Pacific Ocean.
In the Monk episode "Mr. Monk and the Garbage Strike," there is a scene where Adrian Monk goes to the Mayor's office during a citywide sanitation union strike. He suggests his idea of evacuating the whole city, burning it down, then burning the ashes, and rebuilding the city, saying "Think of it, we rebuild San Francisco ...from scratch. Start fresh, everything clean. Everything brand new. Gonna have that new city smell. Fresh off the lot, we can even straighten out Lombard Street while we’re at it." In the tie-in novel Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu, when Monk and Natalie Teeger visit the Mayor's office during a major police strike, Monk again brings up his request to straighten Lombard Street.
The street features in multiple video games, including the 2000 video game Midtown Madness 2, and the 2004 video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas as Windy Windy Windy Windy Street.
In 2010, the street was briefly featured in an episode of MythBusters. The MythBusters "delivery crew" encountered problems during an experiment when their step van could not complete the tight turns on Lombard Street, culminating with the delivery truck stalling and holding up traffic at the bottom of the hill.
The game San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing shows Lombard Street as a shortcut on the circuit 3.
The game Driver: San Francisco has an Achievement/Trophy for driving down Lombard Street, going at least 20 miles per hour without hitting any obstacles.
Read more about this topic: Lombard Street (San Francisco)
Famous quotes containing the word media:
“The media no longer ask those who know something ... to share that knowledge with the public. Instead they ask those who know nothing to represent the ignorance of the public and, in so doing, to legitimate it.”
—Serge Daney (1944–1992)
“Few white citizens are acquainted with blacks other than those projected by the media and the so—called educational system, which is nothing more than a system of rewards and punishments based upon one’s ability to pledge loyalty oaths to Anglo culture. The media and the “educational system” are the prime sources of racism in the United States.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)