LOS ANGELES HISTORY PROJECT: WILLIAM MULHOLLAND, THE DREAM BUILDER (TV)
Summary
One in this series of programs about the past of the
city of Los Angeles. This documentary chronicles the
career of controversial engineer William Mulholland, who
is credited with bringing water to Los Angeles as head
of the city's the Department of Water and Power. A
voice-over narration guides the viewer through the
program, which features old photographs, film reels,
news clippings, and interview segments. The narrator
begins with a brief sketch of Mulholland's early years
in Ireland. He ran away at the age of fifteen, arriving
in Los Angeles by the time he was twenty-two, viewers
learn. Penniless and uneducated, Mulholland was
"fiercely determined to succeed" and set his mind on
being a civil engineer. He worked during the day, going
to school at night. After achieving some financial
security, he married and slowly worked his way up to the
position of chief superintendent of the Bureau of Water,
becoming a leading expert on hydraulic engineering. The
narrator goes on to explain that by 1903 the city of Los
Angeles was desperately short of water. Mulholland
conceived of a plan to build an enormous aqueduct that
would carry water from the Sierra Nevada Mountains to
Los Angeles. Controversy erupted over the project --
and over the debt with which it would burden the city.
In an interview, Mulholland's granddaughter Catherine
describes the engineer's character and work ethic. The
narrator explains that voters finally approved the
aqueduct, and 5000 men were sent to begin construction
in 1908. The construction work is described as is
Mulholland's unfaltering faith in the project.
Completed in 1913, the aqueduct was, according to the
narrator, "the greatest engineering feat of its time...
one of the monumental wonders of the world." After
the project's completion, Mulholland had almost
unlimited authority in the Water Department. When one
of the aqueduct's power stations began to lose water in
1924, Mulholland single-handedly made plans to build a
reservoir and dam in the San Franciscito Canyon.
Meanwhile, residents of Owens Valley, through which the
aqueduct had been built, resented the aqueduct, which
had ravaged their land and brought them nothing.
Mulholland was furious when they began attacking parts
of the aqueduct, and security was set up to prevent
vandalism. To make matters worse, the St. Francis Dam
had developed successive leaks, and in 1928 it burst,
leaving hundreds dead. Mulholland's character forever
changed, suggests the narrator; he suspected sabotage.
The matter was never fully investigated, and Mulholland
resigned after fifty years of public service. Catherine
Mulholland recalls "something ghostly" after the tragedy
about her grandfather, who died in 1935.
Cataloging of this program was made possible by the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting, 2001/2002.
Details
- NETWORK: KCET-TV (Los Angeles, CA) / PBS
- DATE: November 30, 1999
- RUNNING TIME: 0:26:56
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:18446
- GENRE: Public affairs/Documentaries
- SUBJECT HEADING: Aqueducts - California; Hydraulic engineers; Los Angeles (Calif.) - History
- SERIES RUN: KCET (Los Angeles, CA) - TV
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Catherine Mulholland
- William Mulholland