Broadcasting Telecasting (Jan-Mar 1956)

KFXM San Bernardino in the West in California AM AMAZING MEDIUM ^J4eip 2 tamp Out ^J\J Represented by John Blair & Co. Carnation Co., whose consolidated sales for 150 plants around the U. S. totaled $310 million in 1954. About one-third of its 11,000 employes are in Southern California, where it is expanding into frozen food packing. Total employment in food processing in the Los Angeles area is 46,000, with weekly payroll of nearly $4 million. The apparel industry in the Los Angeles metropolitan area ranks second in dollar volume only to New York. Long considered a fashion leader in sportswear, Los Angeles has over 45,000 workers in this category with weekly wages of $2.6 million. A pioneer in Los Angeles is Catalina Inc., which has opened a second new plant at Whittier just one year after its first plant expansion there. Another new factory will be opened this year at Fullerton. The swim suit and sweater maker's knitting operation is on a double shift now and plans to go 24 hours soon. When it first went into swimwear around 1914, gross annual volume was about $200,000. Today domestic volume is $20 million for swim suits with another $6 million from sweaters. The furniture manufacturing industry here is the third largest in the nation and first in the West. Some 500 factories turn out products worth a quarter-billion dollars at wholesale. Close to 16,000 workers take home a $74 million annual payroll. Los Angeles County is a paradox. Now one of the nation's top industrial centers, it also is the nation's fourth largest farm. Until 1949, for a period of 40 years, it was the first in farm income. "We're giving up the land very reluctantly to new industry and houses," one farmer said. "Our fruit and truck crop acreage has almost been cut in half during the urban expansion of the last 15 years, but we've held up total production value by switching to dairy products, poultry and egg production." The farmer here is fighting for survival. To house the 165,000 annual population growth requires about 16,000 acres. The residential acreage is being cut from citrus orchard and crop land. With land value jumping from $640 an acre in 1950 to $1,058 by 1954, the farmer has had to concentrate on getting the highest yield from the smallest area. Becoming a specialist, using heavier capital investment to heighten production intensity, the farmer becomes even more subject to slight economic variations. "He can make a killing if the market is just right, or lose his shirt in one season," another observer explained. "And to think it used to take a farmer at least three or four years to go broke." Total value of farm production at shipping point last year was expected to hold at around $210 million, about the same as 1954 but off from the $243.1 million of 1953 and the all-time high of $252.7 million of 1952, according to Chamber of Commerce data. Value of farm production trebled between 1940 and 1951. According to a new report covering 1954, dairy products accounted for $67 million, while nursery stock was $22 million. Eggs were $18.4 million, chickens $13.3 million, cattle $11.5 million and oranges $10.2 million. Lemons totaled $9.2 million while cut flowers hit $8.5 million and hay was $5.7 million. Celery was $4.9 million and hogs i $4.4 million. Other million dollar crops ineluded turkeys, horses, rabbits, strawberries, dry beans, carrots, chinchillas, green onions, J goats, sheep and seed. A 1954 census of agriculture in the county ; showed 8,254 farms with about 2.6 million acres under cultivation or in pasture. The j farm population was off 11,973 from 1950. Los Angeles is proud of its dairy industry and claimed first place in the nation in the 1950 census, even outranking both of Wisconsin's two top counties, Dane and Marathon, in number of cows on the farm and quantity of whole milk sold. One of the highest valued crops per acre | is the rosebush and nearly 45% of all those grown yearly in the U. S. are cultivated within a two-hour drive of downtown Los Angeles. The grower gets about $6,000 return per acre, but it takes two years for his crop. Annual production ranges between 25 and 30 million bushes. A fair sample of the variety and beauty of this valuable "crop" is on display each New Year's Day in Pasadena's Rose Parade. "You can see just how fast the Southland is expanding and our industry booming by watching the shipping here in the harbor," a Los Angeles port official said recently. "This $150 million man-made harbor handles thousands of products every day. And the world's biggest fishing fleet operates out of here." Twin to the South By itself this is a great harbor, yet at its southern flank it has a smaller twin — Long Beach; 7,000 acres of wharves, railways and roads make up the joint harbors of Los Angeles and Long Beach. A city of ships. A thousand markets interchanging over the water. The major part of a customs district continuously fighting with San Francisco for the top position on the West Coast. A seaport where local authorities claim first place on the coast in terms of tonnage since 1923, although they admit San Francisco ranks first in dollar value. Dry cargo shipments at the Port of Los Angeles were up more than 13% last year to nearly 4.4 million tons, a 101-year record. Bulk petroleum product shipments dropped from 22.8 million tons in 1954 to 20.6 million last year as new oil supplies developed elsewhere. But the port's gross income held at $5.5 million because of the growth of high revenue shipments. Petroleum product shipments are expected to continue to drop at the port in view of new shipping facilities and refineries at Anacortes and Ferndale, elsewhere on the coast. U. S. Dept. of Commerce data discloses that value of Los Angeles imports jumped $20 million last year to $97.9 million while exports climbed $2 million to $146.6 million. General cargo, lumber and fish scored significant import gains during the year and intercoastal shipping trebled in volume during the 12-month period to a total of 746,021 tons. The Los Angeles Customs District, which includes all ports in the counties of Orange, Los Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo, registered total exports of Page 88 • January 30, 1956 Broadcasting • Telecasting