St. Francis Dam - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

• Robert Towne made numerous references to Mulholland, the California Water Wars, the aqueduct, and the St. Francis Dam disaster in his screenplay for the 1974 Neo-noir movie Chinatown. Mulholland is split between the characters of Noah Cross and the city's chief engineer Hollis Mulwray. In one scene, Hollis Mulwray makes a specific reference to the St. Francis Dam disaster, speaking of the fictitious "Van der Lip Dam":

  In case you've forgotten, gentlemen, over five hundred lives were lost when the Van der Lip Dam gave way. Core samples have shown that beneath this bedrock is shale similar to the permeable shale in the Van der Lip disaster. It couldn't withstand that kind of pressure there. And now you propose yet another dirt-banked terminus dam with slopes of two and one half to one, one hundred twelve feet high and a twelve thousand acre water surface. Well, it won't hold. I won't build it. It's that simple. I am not making that kind of mistake twice. Thank you, gentlemen.

• Also in 1974, the movie Earthquake showed the Mulholland Dam meeting a nearly identical demise to that of the St. Francis.
• Rock musician Frank Black has made several references to the St. Francis Dam disaster in his songs, including the tracks "St. Francis Dam Disaster" and "Olé Mulholland".