Broadcasting Telecasting (Jan-Mar 1956)

communities like Laguna (an artists' colony) and Newport or Balboa. In the latter twin communities, a yacht at the pier is as common as a car in the garage elsewhere. Some 4,000 small boats and yachts are moored here in one of the nation's biggest recreational harbors. Sailing down Newport channel on Sunday afternoon is as tricky as driving through Time Square. In the south central part of the county is El Toro, the Marine Corps' largest air station on the coast. It pours an annual $23 million military and civilian payroll into the county and its information section produces the weekly half-hour Magic of Music on MBS and has ventured into tv. SAN BERNARDINO-RIVERSIDE At the eastern doorstep of Los Angeles, just below the San Bernardino Mountains which constitute one of the state's principal recreational areas, the cities of San Bernardino and Riverside have awakened as industrial giants after many years as principal markets for the agricultural wealth of their respective counties. They are combined focal points in a billion dollar market. In this double city area the industrial growth includes steel mills and other primary metal and fabricating plants, chemicals, aircraft, food processing, building materials and electrical machinery. Forming a rapidly growing joint metropolitan area in the San Bernardino Valley with the greatest concentration of populations, the two cities are the county seats and principal trading centers for their respective mammoth counties which range eastward over mountains and deserts to the state's border with Nevada and Arizona. San Bernardino County is the largest in the U. S. and equal in size to New Jersey, Delaware, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. It sprawls over 20,157 square miles (12.9 million acres) but 90% of its area is in the Mojave Desert. The remainder, its southwestern corner near Los Angeles, consists of the wooded southern slope of the San Bernardino Mountains and a rich valley which forms about 50 miles of the citrus belt of Southern California. Less than 30% of the county is under private ownership. The San Bernardino Mountains, ranging 5,000 to 8,000 ft., with San Gorgonio on the eastern end rising to 11,485 ft., include the resort and recreational areas around Arrowhead, Gregory and Big Bear lakes in the San Bernardino National Forest. The road to Las Vegas runs north out of the city of San Bernardino through Cajon Pass. Once through the mountains, you are in the desert and except for the irrigated oases of the Mojave River at Victorville and Barstow, or Needles far to the east on the Colorado River, there is little to view but an arid expanse of desert valleys and low mountain ranges broken only by Joshua tree cactus, mesquite and other desert bush. Desert hills and dry lake beds, however, offer rich mineral deposits. Riverside County is a narrower strip, thrust eastward to the Arizona border and into the great Colorado Desert which makes up about half of the county. With 4.6 million acres it is just a third the size of its northern neighbor. The northwestern section of the county, Page 92 • January 30, 1956 where the city of Riverside is located, begins in the San Bernardino Valley, drained by the Santa Ana River. This stream begins in the mountains north of San Bernardino and flows west to the Pacific through rich farm lands and citrus belt. South of the valley a portion of the Peninsula Range of mountains rises 3,000 to 5,000 ft. and separates Riverside from the coastal Orange County. At the center of the county, near Palm Springs, is the fertile Coachella Valley, which runs about 60 miles northwest from the Salton Sea between the San Jacinto and Little San Bernardino Mountains. Like Imperial Valley to the South, Coachella is a rich agricultural area made possible through irrigation with Colorado River water. From the valley eastward is desert, except for a similar area at the border, Palo Verde Valley. Agricultural production in each county exceeds the $100 million mark annually but in the eastern regions the farms are being pushed farther inland as industrial plants and suburban housing developments swallow up the rural lands around the twin cities. Last year, San Bernardino County's population was 386,500, a change of 139.9% over 1940 and 37.2% over 1950. Special censuses since 1950 have pointed up the growth of the cities, with San Bernardino growing 17% to 73,827 by the short time a new count was made in 1952. Nearby Ontario jumped 50% to 34,255 by 1954 and Redlands grew 15.4% to 21,266 last year. Barstow was up 25.6% to 7,707 by 1953. Incomes of civilian residents in the county climbed to $466.8 million in 1952, an increase of 445% over 1940 while wages and salaries totaled $331.2 million, a gain of 555% over 1940. Government contributed the largest payroll, $92 million. Manufacturing payroll in 1954 was $79.2 million, 88% above 1949. According to new figures, retail store sales in the county hit $382.6 million in 1954, 55.3% above 1950. First quarter taxable sales last year were reported 75% above 1950. The county ranks tenth in the state with assessed valuation of $576.4 million. Home building in the first six months last year was exceeded by only two dozen states. Building permits in 1954 totaled $99.8 million, a 50% increase since 1950. Value of agricultural production fell off in 1954 to $96 million from a high of $112 million the previous year. Chicken eggs were the top item, representing a $28.5 million income. Oranges ranked next with $14.6 million followed by dairy products with $13 million, chicken meat $6.4 million and lemons $5.9 million. Potatoes, grapes and nursery stock topped $3 million while other million dollar crops included cattle, alfalfa hay, turkey meat, grapefruit and peaches. San Bernardino produces a greater variety of minerals in commercial quantities than any other county in the state, of particular significance to manufacture in the greater Los Angeles area. These include asbestos, barite, borates, bromine, calcium, chloride, clay, copper, dolemite, feldspar, fluorspar, gems, gold, gypsum, iron ore, lead, lithia, limestone, manganese, mineral paint, mineral water, perlite, petroleum, potash, pumice, quartz, quicksilver, salt, silica, silver, sodium sulphate, strontium, talc, trona, tungsten ore, turquoise and zinc. High grade iron ore of quality similar to Brazilian or Norwegian ore is mined near Twentynine Palms. Exclusive of petroleum, mineral production runs $50 million annually to make this the top county in the state. Tungsten production through the years has been valued at a total of some $20 million. Kaiser Steel operates the state's largest "fully integrated" steel mill at Fontana, adjacent to San Bernardino city, where some 1.5 million ingot tons are cast annually. Kaiser employs 6,500 and plans major expansion. Nine rolling mills turn out a wide variety of materials for further fabrication by manufacturers of the whole Los Angeles region. San Bernardino this year will get a new $12 billion plant to be constructed by Permanente Cement Co. San Bernardino also is the site of a jet engine overhaul assembly line for the West Coast, a large railroad repair shop and manufacturers of machine parts, tools, storage tanks, sheet metal products, clothing and other products. The city also is the site of Norton Air Force Base, employing around 8,000 civilian workers, and is command headquarters of the 27th Air Division, southern California's aerial defense. The Air Force's Inspector General's office for flight safety reseach and procurement inspection also is here. West of San Bernardino is Ontario, the county's second largest city, which has an annual industrial payroll of more than $26 million, nine times what it was at the end of World War II. More than 3,000 workers are employed at the Ontario International Airport, 2,000 of them with Lockheed Aircraft Service. Others here include Northrop Aircraft, Southern California Aircraft and General Electric Co. By early last year, Riverside County had grown to 230,000 population, a 117% change over 1940 and 35% over 1950. The city of Riverside by last year had a population of 65,823, 40.8% above 1950. Palm Springs since 1950 increased 35% to 10,381, a special 1953 census showed, while Indio grew 22% to 6,450 between 1950 and 1952. Corona was up 12% to 11,462 by 1954. Incomes of individuals in Riverside County rose 353% from 1940 to 1952 to a total of $239.2 million, with wages and salaries contributing $147.4 million. Manufacturing payroll in 1954 was $34.5 million, 10% over the previous year and 205% over 1949. Building permits in 1954 totaled $51.7 million, 22% over the previous year and a 125% change from 1950. Retail store sales in 1954 were $244.2 million, 48% above 1948. Soil, topography and climate are so diverse in Riverside County that every week there is a harvest. There are three chief agricultural areas. West of the San Jacinto Mountains near Los Angeles is to be found the bulk of the citrus, deciduous fruit, grain, grazing and truck crop land. Just east of the mountains is the irrigated desert area of Coachella Valley while a similar irrigated region lies far eastward along the Colorado River. In these desert valleys cotton is the chief crop, while dates, grapes, grapefruit, alfalfa and truck crops also are produced. Riverside's 1954 agricultural production Broadcasting • Telecasting