The second incarnation of the Hollywood Stars joined the Pacific Coast League in 1909 as the
Vernon Tigers. As the Tigers, the team won two PCL pennants (and finished first in another only to lose the postseason series) before moving to San Francisco for the 1926 season. The transplanted Tigers, now known as the
Mission Reds or usually just "the Missions", foundered in San Francisco, failing to establish a rivalry with the existing
San Francisco Seals. In 1938, Missions owner Herbert Fleishaker moved his team back to Los Angeles, and took the name of the departed Hollywood Stars. After one season the team was sold. In early December 1938 the team was purchased by attorney Victor Ford Collins and Robert H. Cobb, owner of the
Brown Derby restaurants. They formed the Hollywood Baseball association and enlisted the financial support and enthusiasm of many stars and community leaders.
Roscoe Karns,
William LeBaron,
Gene Autry (who later became owner of his own
major league franchise),
George Burns and Gracie Allen,
Bing Crosby,
Cecil B. DeMille,
William Frawley,
Gail Patrick (then married to Bob Cobb) and
Harry Warner. "No one was permitted to invest any big money", wrote the
Los Angeles Times, which described the Hollywood Stars as "a civic thing ... plainly and simply, a Chamber of Commerce activity on the part of a group of people who want their little corner of the world to be better than all other corners." The club was promoted as "the Hollywood Stars baseball team, owned by the Hollywood stars". the new Hollywood Stars caught on and became a very popular team, winning three pennants before 1958. They had successful affiliations with the
Brooklyn Dodgers and
Pittsburgh Pirates of
Major League Baseball. In 1955, actress
Jayne Mansfield was named Miss Hollywood Star. The Stars became genuine rivals of the Angels, and it was not uncommon for fights between the teams to break out during Angels-Stars games. In fact, on August 2, 1953, a brawl between the two teams lasted 30 minutes, broken up only when 50 riot police were sent to Gilmore Field by Chief of Police
William Parker, who was at home watching the game on television when the fight started. The
Columbia Broadcasting System, owner of Gilmore Field, announced plans to raze the facility to build out what would become its new West Coast nucleus of
CBS Television City in 1952. In October 1957, the
Brooklyn Dodgers confirmed their long-rumored move to Los Angeles for the 1958 season, which forced the Stars and the Angels to relocate. The Angels, who had been purchased by Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley prior to the 1957 season, became the
Spokane Indians in 1958. Having no interest in operating the Twinks anywhere but in Los Angeles, the ownership group led by Frank J. Kanne, Jr., was compelled to sell the team, which it did, to a group based in Salt Lake City. The Stars, in a sense, "returned" to Salt Lake City (from which the original Stars had moved in 1926) in 1958, becoming the
Salt Lake City Bees once more.
Innovations Pioneers in broadcasting, the Hollywood Stars televised a home game in 1939 as an experiment, and became the first team to regularly broadcast home games in the late 1940s.
Mark Scott, who later became nationally known as the host of
Home Run Derby, was the team's last play-by-play announcer. The Twinks 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. A great many future Major League Baseball standouts played for the Hollywood Stars, among them
Gus Bell,
Bobby Bragan,
Bobby Doerr,
Gene Freese,
Babe Herman,
Dale Long,
Bill Mazeroski,
Bob Meusel,
Lefty O'Doul,
Mel Queen,
Dick Stuart,
Lee Walls and
Gus Zernial. The team's managers included Bragan,
Jimmy Dykes,
Fred Haney and
Charlie Root. ==Affiliations==