Perseverance, diversification, promotion tell story of Los Angeles' Gilmore family.

Perserverance, diversification, promotion tell story of Los Angeles' Gilmore family

Oil, Stars and Bulldogs

The wide open spaces of the West lured Arthur Freemont Gilmore to Los Angeles from his native Illinois in the mid-1800s.

L.A.'s sprawling prairies were just what the young Midwesterner needed to turn his lifelong dream of a dairy farm a reality.

Hooking up with a partner, Jules Carter, Gilmore was soon operating several successful dairy farms around Los Angeles. During this expansionary time, 30-year-old Gilmore and his partner purchased out of bankruptcy a 250-acre ranch in what is now the Fairfax district of Los Angeles. The ranch was roughly bounded by what is now Third and Gardner streets, and Crescent Heights and Beverly boulevards.

When Gilmore and Carter split up the partnership's assets and went their own separate ways in 1882, Gilmore took the 250-acre ranch as his cut of the partnership's assets and moved his wife and two young sons into the adobe house on the site. That adobe still stands today behind Farmers Market, and it serves as the Gilmore corporate office.

The Fairfax dairy farm remained profitable after Arthur assumed sole ownership, but the real jackpot came around the turn of the century, when oil was discovered on the property. Arthur wasted no time sinking hundreds of oil wells and establishing the Gilmore Oil Co.

It soon grew to become the largest distributor of oil products west of the Mississippi River, with more than 1,000 service stations serving California, Oregon, Washington and Arizona.

After Arthur's oldest son was killed in a horse accident, the reins of the growing Gilmore empire were eventually handed over to his only remaining son, Earl Bell Gilmore.

The Gilmore ventures diversified under the direction of Earl, an adventurer and avid promoter.

Under Earl's direction, the company began putting color additives into its gasoline, proclaiming the resultant blue-green gas was "fortified."

Intensive oil production activities were discontinued on the Gilmore Ranch in the late 1920s, with Earl immediately developing an assortment of entertainment-related ventures on the site. A 30,000-seat football stadium, dubbed Gilmore Stadium, was built where CBS Television City now stands, a full-sized major league baseball stadium called Gilmore Field was built just to the east, and a drive-in theater was built near the southeastern corner of the property.

Student athletes from USC, UCLA and other local universities began putting together semi-pro teams and having weekend games during the 1930s and '40s. The players were paid between $25 and $50 a game, handsome fees.

The teams eventually became full-fledged professional teams -- the Los Angeles Bulldogs played football at Gilmore Stadium and the Hollywood Stars played baseball next door at Gilmore Field. The Stars actually won a pennant in the old Pacific Coast League while playing at Gilmore Field, which has since been converted into a CBS parking lot.

Tens of thousands of local fans turned out for the games and Earl Gilmore couldn't have been happier.

Midget auto races were also held at Gilmore Stadium, on Tuesday nights. On quiet summer evenings the roaring engines could be heard all the way to Culver City.

Harry Truman delivered his only Los Angeles presidential campaign speech from the stadium; Esther Williams performed her famous swim shows in special tanks at the stadium; rodeos and boxing matches were held.

The Gilmores didn't turn their backs on oil, though. They constructed the largest gas station in the West on the site of what is now a Texaco station on Beverly Boulevard. It was one of the nation's first serve-yourself stations, and was itself an entertainment attraction. Slaloming in and around the station's 40 gas pumps were a number of roller-skating young beauties, collecting customer's money and returning change.

Earl was quick to cash in on the growing popularity of auto racing, too. Gilmore Stadium was the initial training ground to several auto racing legends who eventually went on to Indianapolis fame and fortune. The engine-building Offenhausers, race drivers Sam Hanks and Wilbur Shaw, and many others started their careers at Third & Fairfax.

And Earl, determined to catch a ride on their coattails, soon arranged for Gilmore Oil Co. to become their corporate sponsor. Gilmore Oil was so promotion-oriented it was dubbed "the Burma Shave of the oil industry."

Earl also decided to build a dog track adjacent to Gilmore Stadium in the early 1930s. But the horse-racing lobby was too powerful, and the Gilmores failed to secure a state license.

At about this same time, a local businessman named Roger Dahlhjelm approached Earl about the possibility of allowing 13 Depression-weary farmers to sell their produce in the stadium's overflow parking lot. Earl agreed.

The ensuing grocery venture became so popular that Earl decided to dismantle his dog track in 1934 and reuse the timber to build retail stalls, all of which still exist today in the core of Farmers Market.

In the late 1940s, Earl began selling off large parts of the family's ranch; the chain of gas stations was sold to Mobil Corp.

Gilmore Stadium, unable to compete with the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, was dismantled. And Gilmore Field was ripped down when the Dodgers hit town.

A big parcel in the northeast section of the property was sold to a group of investors led by E.L. Cord, developer of the Cord automobile. That group built the distinctive Pan Pacific Auditorium, which burned last year. Another big parcel was sold off to CBS Inc. which, in turn, built CBS Television.

The three owners jointly developed 30 oil wells in the early '50s, and those wells still operate to this day just east of Farmers Market.

With the Gilmore family's 250-acre ranch having been whittled down to 31 acres, Earl began investing in businesses elsewhere, with somewhat less success. A trout farm in nearby Vernon was meant to supply Farmers Market with live fish. But the venture went belly up when nearly all the fish died on their way from Vernon to market.

The Gilmore's fledgling soft drink company went flat almost immediately due to insurmountable competition from Coca-Cola and Pepsi. A uranium mining venture went bust, too.

A paint manufacturing venture was only marginally successful, but a share in about 300 oil wells in Texas and New Mexico continues to contribute to the Gilmores' coffers to this day.

The 31-acre property at Third & Fairfax continued to be a bonanza. During the 1950s, legions of housewives would spend entire days on the property, which contained a grocery market, post office, car wash, gas station, bank, and laundry.

Many would return with their families in the evening to watch movies at the Gilmore Drive-In.

Earl, who had two daughters, gradually handed the family business reins over to an outsider, John B. Gostovich, in the 1950s. Gostovich had worked for Earl ever since graduating from Occidental College in the early: 1930s, and Earl had all but adopted him as the son he never had.

Gostovich, now 78, still holds the titles of chairman and chief executive officer of the A.F. Gilmore Co. But the actual running of the company has long since been handed over to Earl's grandson, Henry L. Hilty.

Hilty has sold a 50 percent interest in the family's remaining 31 acres at Third & Fairfax to JMB/Urban Development Co. And, in exchange, JMB is about to develop a 2 million square foot retail project on the site.

The project is scheduled to break ground in 1991 and be completed in late 1993.