Broadcasting Telecasting (Jan-Mar 1956)

[:•:■: m 700 ► 600 ► 500 t 400 ► 000 ► CALIFORNIA LEGEND 1939 or 1940 = 100 (applicable date shown on each bar) 1955 200 ► 100 ► I I Population Civilian Total Per Capita Value Added Cash Farm Employment Personal Income By Income Income Manufacture Retail Sales Per Capita Motor Manufac Utilities Retail Sales Vehicle Reg turing Revenue istrations Employment Telephones industry ranks second only to New York in dollar value. It has long been recognized as the world's chief motion picture production center as well as principal radio-tv production center next to New York. Los Angeles also makes more pumps and compressors, refrigeration equipment and machinery, canned sea food and heating and plumbing goods than any other area. Other second place rankings which it claims are transportation equipment (exclusive of aircraft), pressed and blown glass, concrete and plaster products, storage batteries, jewelry and silverware, wood millwork and oil field machinery and tools. The area ranks third in such fields as petroleum refining, pottery, non-ferrous foundries, tractors and farm machinery, contruction and mining machinery, conveyor equipment, rubber industries, furniture and fixtures. In summary, 32 different industries in Los Angeles rank in the $25 million category and above. That is diversity. Value added by manufacture in the metropolitan area has soared to an all-time high of around $5.5 billion, up from $2 billion in 1947 and $500 million in 1939. Capital investment in new and expanded manufacturing plants in the Los Angeles district last year hit a third record high of $249 million, creating 26,500 new jobs. A total of 125 new plants spent $36.7 million getting started, giving employment to 4,500 people, while more than 400 existing plants spent $212.3 million in expansion and adding 21,900 employes. Highest year so far was 1952, stimulated by the Korean conflict, when capital investments totaled $330.4 million, divided about evenly between new and expanded facilities. 1951 recorded $308.3 million as second biggest year. Biggest World War II expansion year was 1943 with $161.9 million. "Factory employment in the Los Angeles metropolitan area rose by 12,900 in November to a new high of 706,500 wage earners and salary workers," Ernest B. Webb, California Director of Industrial Relations, said a few weeks ago. "This was the first time the number exceeded 700,000. The October-November rise reflects seasonal expansion in apparel, increases in automobiles and aircraft and termination of work stoppages in the fish canning and electrical equipment industries." The seasonal decrease in fruit and vegetable canning and some minor losses in a few other groups tempered the overall rise, which was an 8% gain since November 1954. Biggest gains for the year were aircraft, automobiles, electrical equipment and machinery, while new employment records were established in November in the apparel, electrical equipment, food products, chemicals and scientific instruments industries. Employment in aircraft represented a postwar record. The Chamber of Commerce estimated manufacturing employment has increased 40% in just five years. "You can see just how diversified our industry has become just by looking at the factory employment figures," one industrialist said. "Although aircraft is still the top industry, it now employes only 28% of the total manufacturing labor force. During the peak production of World War II the figure was around 43%." This diversity comes in part from the blue chip group of national firms with plants or subsidiaries here. Included according to total assets rank are U. S. Steel, Socony Vacuum Oil Co., Texas Co., Ford. Bethlehem Steel, General Electric, Standard Oil of California, International Harvester, Shell Oil, Chrysler Corp., Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Aluminum Co. of America, Dow Chemical, International Paper Co., National Steel Corp., Eastman Kodak Co., Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., Armour & Co., Swift & Co., Procter & Gamble, U. S. Rubber Co., Armco Steel Corp., Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co., Allied Chemical and Dye Corp., B. F. Goodrich Co. and RCA. Others by rank include Inland Steel Co., American Can Co., Deere & Co., Union Oil Co. of California, Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co., American Cyanamid Co., American Smelting and Refining Co., Phelps Dodge Corp., Reynolds Metals Co., Tide Water Associated Oil, Borden Co., Continental Can Co., Burlington Mills Corp., Crown Zellerbach Corp., Monsanto Chemical Co., Coca-Cola Co., Kaiser Steel Corp., National Lead Co., Richfield Oil Corp., Borg-Warner Corp., American Radiator and Standard Sanitary Corp., Bendix Aviation Corp., Nash-Kelvinator Corp., Owens-Illinois Glass Co., St. Regis Paper Co., U. S. Gypsum Co., General American Transportation Corp., National Biscuit Co. and Crane Co. Many are Los Angeles industrial "pioneers." But the diversity is assured by the small factory which dominates the more than 12,000 industrial plants in the area and represents the reason why California is a creative center of the nation. Some of the most significant industrial developments last year included the new $2.5 million manufacturing facility now being developed by International Telephone and Telegraph Corp. on a 13-acre site in the Sylmar area of the San Fernando Valley and the new 330,000 sq. ft. brass mill now under construction in the Paramount district by the American Brass Co. of Waterbury, Conn. I. T. & T. will produce electronic products and American Brass will produce copper sheet, strip, tubing and drawn products. Also during 1955, Ford Motor Co.'s Mercury Division purchased a 200-acre site near Washington and Rosemead Blvds. in Los Angeles for the early construction of another large new auto assembly plant and the Fisher Bodies Division of General Motors began construction of a substantial addition to its Van Nuys plant. Other typical expansions included a $5 million building program started by AiResearch Mfg. Co., a $2 million building program started by Douglas Aircraft Co. on a new 10-acre site in Culver City, sizable new Page 82 • January 30, 1956 Broadcasting • Telecasting