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Image / Game at Wrigley Field, Los Angeles

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Title
Game at Wrigley Field, Los Angeles
Alternative Title
Los Angeles Photographers Photo Collection;
Creator
Schultheis, Herman
Contributor
Made accessible through a grant from the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation
Date Created and/or Issued
Circa 1937
Contributing Institution
Los Angeles Public Library
Collection
Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection
Rights Information
Images available for reproduction and use. Please see the Ordering & Use page at http://tessa.lapl.org/OrderingUse.html for additional information.
Description
Title supplied by cataloger.; Herman J. Schultheis was born in Aachen, Germany in 1900, and immigrated to the United States in the mid-1920s after obtaining a Ph.D. in mechanical and electrical engineering. He married Ethel Wisloh in 1936, and the pair moved to Los Angeles the following year. He worked in the film industry from the late 1930s to the mid-1940s, most notably on the animated features "Fantasia" and "Pinocchio." His detailed notebook, documenting the special effects for "Fantasia," is the subject of a 14-minute short-subject included on the film's DVD. In 1949, he started employment with Librascope as a patent engineer. Schultheis was an avid amateur photographer who traveled the world with his cameras. It was on one of these photographic exhibitions in 1955 that he disappeared in the jungles of Guatemala. His remains were discovered 18 months later. The digitized portion of this collection represents the images Schultheis took of Los Angeles and its surrounding communities after he relocated to the area in 1937.
Wrigley Field, built on 10 acres of land in South Los Angeles between San Pedro Street (on the west), Avalon Blvd (to the east), E. 41st Place (to the north), and E. 42 Place (to the south), served as host to minor league baseball teams in the region for over 30 years, and was the home park for the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League. Chewing gum magnate, William Wrigley, Jr. purchased the Angels in 1921 for the (then) astronomical sum of $150,000 and then built a stadium for the team a few years later. Construction for Wrigley Field began in 1924 and the 21,000-seat, million-dollar stadium opened on September 29, 1925. For 33 seasons (1925-1957) the park was home to the Angels, and for 11 of those seasons (1926-1935 and 1938) it had a second home team in the rival Hollywood Stars. The Stars eventually moved to their own new ballpark, Gilmore Field. Prior to 1925, the Angels played at their former home at Washington Park, and before that, at Chutes Park. In February 1957, Phil Wrigley (heir son of William Wrigley), sold both the team and Wrigley Field to Walter O'Malley, owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, for $3,000,000. The last Pacific Coast League game at Wrigley Field was played on September 15, 1957. In 1961, the Los Angeles Angels joined the American League as an expansion team and took residence at Wrigley Field for just one season. The Angels then moved into Dodger Stadium with the Los Angeles Dodgers, until 1965. In 1966, the Angels moved into their own home, Anaheim Stadium. Sadly, with no minor league baseball teams left in the area, Wrigley Field was torn down in the mid 1960s; Gilbert Lindsay Park presently occupies the site.
Partial view of the "first" Wrigley Field - home for the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League. The bleachers are practically bursting at the seams with eager spectators cheering on their favorite teams. It is unknown which team is out on the field but may be either the Los Angeles Angels, or the other home team, the Hollywood Stars. The double-decked grandstand extended from the left field foul pole to home plate, and around to the right field foul pole. Bleachers and a scoreboard were located in right field. There was no seating in left field, just a 15-foot-high concrete wall (not visible from this angle), though it offered little to no protection for the houses located directly behind it, as they were constantly getting pelted with flying homeruns.
Type
Image
Format
1 photographic print :b&w ;11 x 15 cm.
Photographic prints
Identifier
00081848
Herman J Schultheis Collection; Los Angeles Photographers Collection;
N-005-190 8x10
CARL0000082177
http://173.196.26.125/cdm/ref/collection/photos/id/36025
Subject
Los Angeles Angels (Baseball team)
Hollywood Stars (Baseball team)
Wrigley Field (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Baseball players--United States
Spectators--California--Los Angeles
Baseball--California--Los Angeles
Baseball fields--California--Los Angeles
Lost architecture--California--South Los Angeles (Los Angeles)
South Los Angeles (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Schultheis Collection photographs
Pacific Coast League

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