Gilmore Stadium

David Hegler
11 minutes ago
2 min read

Earl Gilmore loved auto racing. Having grown enamored with the Indianapolis 500, the man who built the Gilmore Oil Company into a West Coast juggernaut had the means to build a race track of his own. In 1934, he had an 18,000 seat stadium built on the Gilmore Farmer's Market property at West Third Street and Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles, believing that midget auto racing would be a terrific marketing tool for his oil company.

Although he was right, it was the film industry that first made his stadium famous when late that first year, the Three Stooges filmed the football scene for Three Little Pigskins at Gilmore Stadium. Ironically, this was the best that his stadium would ever do for the sport as it never did attract large crowds to its numerous football games in a pre-NFL Los Angeles.

In 1938, the PCL's San Francisco Mission Reds were sold to a Hollywood group led by famed restaurateur Bob Cobb and moved to Hollywood to become the Stars. While waiting for Gilmore Field to be built, they spent their first year in Hollywood sharing Wrigley Field with the Angels.

Construction delays forced the Stars to briefly play at Gilmore Stadium. With the venue being of an oval shape, it was an odd structure to host the national pastime. Still, the Stars acclimated to their surroundings, paying little mind to the lack of dugouts. Like their opponents, the Stars were enthused that right field was just 270 feet. To prevent cheap home runs, a pole was placed behind the fence in right-center field (325 feet). Any ball hit into the stands to the right of the pole was a ground-rule double.

The Stars played a seven game series against the Portland Beavers, winning four. In that series, the Beavers enjoyed a .317 batting average while the Stars drilled the Beaver's pitching staff to the tune of .333 as 15 home runs were crushed between the two teams over those seven games. Those were the only games ever played at Gilmore Stadium.

Gilmore Stadium did host the second and third NFL Pro Bowls in January 1940 and December later that same year. In a sense, it was Gilmore Stadium that first opened the NFL's eyes to the endless possibilities of having a football team or two on the West Coast and in the Golden State.

Midget auto racing did well enough to keep the stadium afloat during the Great Depression and by the end of World War II, the industry had exploded. Soon, the stadium was packed to capacity at each and every race, the fans eager to watch the many adventures of the Offenhauser engine in a competitive setting.

But alas, with the war year now behind them, America was booming in many other industries, including Hollywood. In 1950, Gilmore Stadium was demolished to make room for CBS Television City.

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