1940s at a glance

NEWPORT BEACH

Population: 4,438

Lido Theater admittance: 35 cents

New state-of-the-art homes are built “from the the inside out” and range

in cost between $2,500 to $3,000; monthly payments are $30

COSTA MESA

Population: 4,692Housing lots start at $250

Used pianos sell for $39

Costa Mesa Globe-Herald subscriptions: $1 annually

Two-bedroom stucco house for sale, plastered inside, with new roof,

garage, new automatic water heater... $2,000 with $200 down payment

House for rent... $20 a month

Santa Ana Army Air Base in Costa Mesa, officially named April 7, 1942,

covers 1,283 acres

On the base:

-- a main post office and five branches

-- three movie theaters

-- a service club

-- post library

-- four chapels

-- a 1,500-bed hospital

-- a water system and sewage system adequate for 40,000 people

-- 17,548 feet of spur railroad trackage

-- 28 convalescent wards

-- 18 school buildings

-- 155,000 sqare feet of administration buildings

-- 17 warehouses

-- 30.9 miles of electric lines

-- 39.2 miles of paved roads

-- 1,357,120 sqare feet of barracks;

-- 563 prisoners of war and 220,000 servicemen passed through the base

during wartime.

1940 COSTA MESA GLOBE HERALD HEADLINES

-- “Dogs Blamed in Chicken Killings”

-- “A Lost Child Causes Alarm”

-- “Residences Being Built in this Community All the Time”

-- “Woman may be in County Senate Race”

-- “Mrs. Bouchey Hurt in Recent Fall”