How the Pomona Fairgrounds almost became Howard Hughes's playground.

I am sure that most of you know who Howard Hughes was....builder of the Spruce Goose, the largest plane to fly but just once and never fly again, and to die a deranged man ravaged by a condition so severe that he was afraid of his own shadow or any human contact.

Howard Hughes was indeed one of those individuals that made his mark on the 20 th century....In LA, Howard Hughes Parkway and Hughes Aircraft make his name immortal.

But few people know of his plan to take over the Pomona Fairgrounds and turn the grounds into a giant Aerospace Center.....In 1951 his representatives approached the board of directors at the fairgrounds tying to formulate and finalize a deal that would have ended the LA County's Fair's run at Pomona.

The Korean war was just starting up and growing fears about the USSR made the deal seem almost a done deal as far as those involved in the negations were concerned.

On March 15th 1951, the old Los Angeles Examiner reported the possible cancelation of the fair and the emanate takeover of the grounds by Hughes and would be turned into a giant guided missile assembly plant....Just what you would want 35 miles away from a major city....I remember reading the papers and recalling seeing giant maps drawn out to show where missile installations were, aerospace facilities and military bases were located and how much damage a Nuke strike would do in the southern California area....Since we had March Air Force Base out in the Sunnymead area, that painted an overlapping bull's-eye right across the inland empire.

The papers also noted that there were other corporations interested in the fairgrounds as possible aircraft plants....Boeing had expressed some interest in the property as had General Dynamics who finally settled in on Mission and the 71 expressway.

But then something changed Hughes mind and decided to cancel his endeavors of taking over the fairgrounds.....On March 27, little more than a week after expressing his interest, all talks had ceased, with no explanation given by either party.

On September 14 the Fair opened for its two week run, and aside from being bought out by the Fairplex Corporation, the fair continues to operate to this day, just having completed another successful two week run.

Gary Hall, theghostpainter