Imaging Hoover Dam: The Making of a Cultural Idol was published eleven years ago but the book only came to our attention recently. Author Anthony Arrigo of course deals primarily with that gigantic plug on the Colorado River that generates electricity and diverts much of the Colorado’s flow to thirsty southern California. Our collection of dam memorabilia contains material imaging Hoover as well as dams across America, even some around the world. We have not only acquired artifacts that comport to Dr. Arrigo’s linkages to American cultural currents, but we have some whose meaning is cryptic.
Cast in pot metal, the ashtray that issues smoke from the openings in the head appears to be a knock-off of a ceramic four-eyed man (drunk?) made by Ensco. Conceivably it was offered long ago to tourists as a souvenir.
The very survival of the then-small Bureau of Reclamation hinged on the successful completion of Hoover Dam. Fortunately for them, the BOR was a publicity-savvy bureaucracy. They flooded the media with interesting images taken by their staff photographers accompanied by glowing press releases praising this symbol of American technological expertise.
One of their first official photographers was Cliff Segerblom hired in 1938. He had never used a camera before but had training as an artist. The Bureau hooked him up for instruction with Margaret Bourke-White and Ansel Adams—both had done contract work for them. Although Segerblom only worked for the BOR for several years he fulfilled their need to control the public opinion of the giant, expensive project.
As for the miniature doll house plastic toilet with a picture of Lake of the Ozarks’ Bagnell Dam, we could easily transfer this from our dam collection to our kitsch collection. Souvenirs are often obscene or scatological, failed humor assaults on good taste. They sometimes say nothing at all about their subject
He posed his wife-to-be, Jean Wines, placidly peering down at the dam to counter his earlier images of construction whose brutality may have given the impression that the dam was a dangerous place to visit. This tranquil view was reproduced in a 1941 Arizona Highways magazine and more recently on the cover of Imaging Hoover Dam.
There are some very different, but similar compositions. A sightseeing day trip to the dam and reservoir is a tradition for Las Vegas visitors. When tourism developed, the BOR lost control of the imagery that they had enjoyed during construction when photographers needed a pass to even see the dam. German art photographer and specialist in erotica, Helmut Newton, doubtlessly cared little what the BOR would have made of his view of Hoover Dam. We have not found out if this were an assignment from Vogue, Vanity Fair, or even Playboy. Las Vegas was a go-to resource for curvaceous females who would disrobe on request. We speculate he may have brought a showgirl in a thong to add pictorial interest to the scene of this great engineering accomplishment.
Contrasting Segerblom’s demure Mormon fiancée with a Vegas showgirl is a rather dramatic illustration of Arrigo’s thesis that Hoover Dam doesn’t have a single picture—its image is a mix of often very different views.
General view,” photo by Cliff Segerblom (left). Hoover Dam Overlook, Helmut Newton (right).