Yes, there really was a streetcar named Desire, which rumbled through New Orleans almost six decades ago, and ultimately inspired Tennessee Williams to title his steamy 1947 play “A Streetcar Named Desire.”
Desire Street itself was named after Desiree Montreuil, the daughter of a local plantation owner who owned the land in the mid-19th century. The streetcars didn’t arrive for 70 years, however.
The Desire Line was organized by the New Orleans Railway and Light Co. in 1920, originating at Canal Street, then traveling down Bourbon, Esplanade, Decatur, Elysian Fields, Chartres, Desire, Tonti, France and Royal streets. The line catered to the nightclub section of the French Quarter along Bourbon Street.
It was the streetcar itself that appealed to the playwright.
Williams had revised his play for months in the late 1940s, titling it “The Moth,” “Blanche’s Chair on the Moon,” and “The Poker Night.” Once he moved to the French Quarter, he fixated upon the sounds of the “Desire” streetcar line from his balcony, named his play for it and a legendary drama had its focal point.
In ’Streetcar,’ Blanche DuBois arrives in New Orleans to visit Stella, her pregnant sister, and her sister’s husband, Stanley Kowalski — portrayed in the film version by a young and restless Marlon Brando.
To get to their tawdry little apartment, Blanche literally took the streetcar named Desire.
The real Desire line closed in 1948. It’s gone but not forgotten: New Orleans officials are studying the possibility of resurrecting the line, to the tune of $93 million.
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