Blanche is mentioned in the play to arrive at Stella's apartment riding in a streetcar of the Desire streetcar line. Tennessee Williams was living in an apartment on Toulouse Street in New Orleans’ French Quarter when he wrote “A Streetcar Named Desire”. The old Desire Streetcar Line ran only a half-block away.
In the 1951 film Blanche is shown riding the car. In the interim between writing the play and shooting the film, though, the line was converted into a bus service (1948), and the production team had to seek permission from the authorities to hire out a streetcar with the "Desire" name on it.[4]
