On a Completely Trivial Matter

Last night I watched Chinatown for the umpteenth time (so sue me! It's one of my all time top personal fave flicks) and I finally decided (well, make that "actually remembered to...") check out the mention of the Van der Lip Dam disaster which the character, Hollis Mulwray, bases his refusal to build another dam in the San Frenando Valley.

Well, I just did a google search on it and discovered that the Van Der Lip Dam is fictional but is based on an actual dam (the Saint Francis) and disaster which happened in 1928. Here's a link to the information. (And yes, the character, Mulwray, is loosely based on William Mulholland who built the St. Francis Dam.)