Gilmore Field

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Gilmore Field is the name of a former minor league baseball park that served as home to the Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League from 1939-1957 when they, along with their intra-city rivals, the Los Angeles Angels, were displaced by the transplanted Brooklyn Dodgers of the National League.

Gilmore Field sat between Gilmore Stadium (a football field) and the famous Pan-Pacific Auditorium, along Beverly Boulevard. Both facilities were named for an early settler who struck oil on this property, part of Rancho La Brea where the famous tar pits are still a tourist attraction of proportions only slightly better than the Trees of Mystery in northern California.

The Stars were owned by Bob Cobb of Brown Derby Restaurant fame and the inventor of the California Cobb Salad. In their salad days, as it were, the Stars attracted glamorous actors and other celebrities or anyone else who wanted to be "seen", much as Dodger Stadium would later. One of the L.A. Angels players, Chuck Connors, made a successful move from one side of the box seat railing to the other, becoming a popular TV star.

Although Wrigley Field seemed to get the lions' share of screen time, Gilmore Field also had its moments on celluloid. It was featured in a movie called The Monty Stratton Story, starring James Stewart and June Allyson, the true story of a promising pitcher whose career was curtailed due to a hunting accident that left him with an artificial leg. Stratton's major league baseball career was over, but he made a comeback at the minor league level. The scenes at the end of the movie were set elsewhere, but were filmed at Gilmore Field.

Not to be outdone, or maybe so, Gilmore Stadium also had a brief moment in the sun, in a Three Stooges short featuring a football game.

The ballpark site is now part of the CBS Television City complex.

Primary source: "Lost Ballparks", by Lawrence Ritter.Poppopgiff 22:34, 31 March 2007 (UTC)