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. The field was the site of several professional boxing title matches. It was also the home of the Hollywood Bears (formerly the Hollywood Stars) of the football version of the PCL - the team competed off-and-on from 1937 to 1948, showcasing the talents of College Football Hall of Fame member Kenny Washington when the National Football League barred his participation because of his race.

Gilmore Field sat between Gilmore Stadium (a football and midget-auto-racing field) and the famous Pan-Pacific Auditorium, along Beverly Boulevard. Both facilities were named for early settler E. B. Gilmore, who struck oil on his farm while drilling for water. His find was part of Rancho La Brea where the famous tar pits are still a tourist attraction.

The baseball 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.

The field had intimate quarters from the spectator standpoint - first and third bases were 24 feet from the first row of seats. Home plate was 34 feet from the stands.^[1] The outfield gave the pitchers more of a break with foul lines 335 feet long, power alleys about 385, and 407 to center field. (Ritter, p.75) The power alleys were thus 40 feet deeper than in the cross-town counterpart, Wrigley Field.

Although L.A.'s Wrigley Field seemed to get the lions' share of screen time, Gilmore Field also had its moments on celluloid. It was featured in a 1949 movie called The Stratton Story, starring James Stewart and June Allyson, the true story of a promising pitcher (Monty Stratton) 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. The layout of the outfield, and especially the exceptionally high left and right field corners, help to identify it.

The ballpark site was abandoned after 1957, and is now part of the CBS Television City complex.