High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has been a staple of American popular culture since its christening in 1935. That year also marked the beginning of the popular "G-Man" phenomenon that helped establish the Bureau`s image, beginning with the aptly titled James Cagney movie, G Men. Although the detective novel and other police-related entertainment had long enthralled audiences, the FBI itself can take some of the credit for its media prominence. J. Edgar Hoover, the Bureau`s "patriarch," took an active interest to ensure that it was not only well represented in the media, but also that the FBI was depicted in a heroic, positive light and that the message, "crime doesn`t pay," was blatantly conveyed to audiences. The context, naturally, has changed profoundly since the 1930s "war on crime," and especially so since Hoover`s death in 1972.