"They'll love it in Pomona."
The first time I saw the film "Sunset Boulevard," I thought that was a funny line when William Holden's Joe Gillis says that to Gloria Swanson's Norma Desmond about the script she's working on. I thought "Pomona" was random. But apparently, prior to WWII, Pomona was considered to be a good area to test films, being that Pomona was primarily an agricultural town back then, and many Hollywood film makers thought that Pomona represented the rest of the US, attitude-wise. To this day, Pomona still hosts the annual Los Angeles County Fair. Of course now, Pomona is a very developed city, with its own "big city" problems of crime and gangs in some of its neighborhoods.
So for shits and giggles, I thought I'd post some old photos of Pomona.
Divided highway near Pomona, 1938
USC archive
Designed by Clifford A. Balch and Floyd E. Stanberry, Pomona's Fox Theater cost $350,000 to build. It included top-of-the-line customer comfort, state-of-the-art projection and sound systems, and was the first refrigerated air conditioned theater east of Los Angeles. Opened on Friday, April 24, 1931, the theater served as an English language movie house until 1977, at which time it switched to Spanish. In the late 1990s/early 2000s, it was used as a live venue for a concerts, which caused significant interior damage to the structure. After a costly restoration and upgrade, the theater reopened in early 2009.
lapl.org
State Theater, built in 1940
lapl.org
Now in its 87th year, the L.A. County Fair is the largest county fair in the United States, with attendance topping one million people in every year but one since 1948, and generating a national economic impact of more than $250 million dollars. The Fair is held each September on 543 acres of fairgrounds known as Fairplex (L.A. County Fair, hotel and exposition complex), and is operated by the Los Angeles County Fair Association.
LA County Fair, ca. 1930s:
lapl.org
Hot rods in Pomona, 1952
USC archive
OK Pomona is getting a little too provincial for me; time to head back to Los Angeles.