Gilmore Field, on Beverly Boulevard near the intersection of Beverly and Fairfax in Hollywood, California, opened on May 2, 1939 and was the home of the Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League until September 5, 1957. An intimate stadium with seating capacity of 12,987, it was named after Earl Gilmore, an oil tycoon who owned oilfields on the site and whose construction company built the ballpark. A couple hundred yards to the
west was Gilmore Stadium, an oval-shaped venue built several years earlier, which was used for football games and midget auto racing. Gilmore Field was razed in 1958, and much of the site is now occupied by a parking lot at CBS Television City, near the Farmers Market. In September of 1997, the Pacific Coast League Historical Society, CBS, and the A.F. Gilmore Company dedicated a bronze plaque in commemoration of Gilmore Field on a wall outside CBS Studio 46. In 1938, Herbert Fleishaker moved his Mission Reds baseball team from San Francisco to Los Angeles and took the name "Hollywood Stars Baseball Team". After but one season, the team was sold to new owners, including Robert H. "Bob" Cobb, who owned the Brown Derby Restaurant. The team moved from Wrigley Field to the newly built Gilmore Field at Beverly Blvd. and Farifax Ave. The Club's ownership list read like a Hollywood "Who's Who". Bob Cobb accumulated a prestigious group of owners including such notables as George and Grace Burns, William Frawley, Barbara Stanwick, Gary Cooper, Cecil B. DeMille, Bing Crosby, George Stevens and Walt Disney. The new Stars caught on and became a very popular team, winning three pennants before 1958. In 1955, actress Jayne Mansfield was named Miss Hollywood Star. The Stars became genuine rivals of the Los Angeles Angels, and it was not uncommon for fights between the teams to break out during Angels-Stars games. The Stars were innovators. They began the custom of dragging the infield during the fifth inning, creating an artificial break in the action hoping fans would run to the concessions stands. The Stars also had the dubious distinction of being the first team to replace the traditional bloused baseball trousers and stirrup socks with shorts and long socks in 1950. The theory was that players could run faster in this gear than in the baggy wool or cotton flannel uniforms of the day. In 1949, Fred Haney took over the managerial reins of the club and harvested two pennants, one second and one third in four years. Bob Bragan followed Haney and guided the Stars to another pennant. In 1956, the Stars, under the management of Clay Hopper, ended up in fourth place. The acquisition of the Brooklyn Dodgers by Los Angeles meant the ruin of the Pacific Coast League. After years in the Pacific Coast League, the Hollywood Stars played their last game on September 5, 1957, in front of 6,354 spectators. The Gilmore Field was razed in 1958 to make way for CBS Television City. Gilmore Stadium is just east of West Hollywood.
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