Hoover Dam in popular culture
Hoover Dam has made frequent appearances in various forms of media on account of its size and national prominence within the United States. 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) with the "Los Angeles Times" 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, cementing the dam in the American popular consciousness. Influential artists such as modernist Charles Sheeler, muralist William Gropper, illustrator Hugh Ferriss, and photographer Ansel Adams 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, Coca-Cola, Jim Beam, Pan Am, Pontiac, R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, Sunoco, Studebaker, 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 the 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 of Las Vegas, Hoover Dam became increasingly culturally tied to the city.