Typed onto a piece of paper attached to the image: "As Los Angeles Welcomed Howard Hughes Home, Los Angeles, Cal. --- Governor Frank Merriam, Howard Hughes, and Mayor Frank L. Shaw (left to right) as they rode through the crowd-packed streets of Los Angeles during the reception -- one of the greatest and wildest the city had ever seen -- as Hughes and his four daring companions on his World-Flight arrived in the city. Credit Line (ACME). 8/2/38."
Howard Hughes checking the instrument panel of the HK-1 Hughes Flying Boat (400,000 pound, 24,000 horsepower airplane) with his crew before the taxi tests, at Terminal Island in the Los Angeles Harbor.