Lights, Camera, Fastball: How the Hollywood Stars Changed Baseball
The Hollywood Stars were the most inventive team in baseball history, known for their celebrity ownership and movie star following during the Golden Age of Hollywood.

In Lights, Camera, Fastball: How the Hollywood Stars Changed Baseball, Dan Taylor delivers a fascinating look at the Hollywood Stars and their glorious twenty-year run in the Pacific Coast League. Led by Bob Cobb, owner of the heralded Brown Derby restaurant and known more famously as the creator of the Cobb salad, the Hollywood Stars took professional baseball to a new and innovative level. The team played in short pants, instigated rule changes, employed cheerleaders and movie-star beauty queens, pioneered baseball on television, eschewed trains for planes, and offered fans palatable delicacies not before served at ballparks. On any given night, Clark Gable, Jimmy Stewart, Barbara Stanwyck, Humphrey Bogart, and dozens more cheered on their favorite team from the boxes and grandstands of Gilmore Field.

During the Hollywood Stars’ history, its celebrity owners pushed boundaries, challenged existing baseball norms, infuriated rivals, and produced an imaginative product, the likes of which the game had never before seen. Featuring interviews with former players, Lights, Camera, Fastball is an inside look at a team that was far ahead its time, whose innovations are still seen in professional baseball today.

1137608301
Lights, Camera, Fastball: How the Hollywood Stars Changed Baseball
The Hollywood Stars were the most inventive team in baseball history, known for their celebrity ownership and movie star following during the Golden Age of Hollywood.

In Lights, Camera, Fastball: How the Hollywood Stars Changed Baseball, Dan Taylor delivers a fascinating look at the Hollywood Stars and their glorious twenty-year run in the Pacific Coast League. Led by Bob Cobb, owner of the heralded Brown Derby restaurant and known more famously as the creator of the Cobb salad, the Hollywood Stars took professional baseball to a new and innovative level. The team played in short pants, instigated rule changes, employed cheerleaders and movie-star beauty queens, pioneered baseball on television, eschewed trains for planes, and offered fans palatable delicacies not before served at ballparks. On any given night, Clark Gable, Jimmy Stewart, Barbara Stanwyck, Humphrey Bogart, and dozens more cheered on their favorite team from the boxes and grandstands of Gilmore Field.

During the Hollywood Stars’ history, its celebrity owners pushed boundaries, challenged existing baseball norms, infuriated rivals, and produced an imaginative product, the likes of which the game had never before seen. Featuring interviews with former players, Lights, Camera, Fastball is an inside look at a team that was far ahead its time, whose innovations are still seen in professional baseball today.

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Lights, Camera, Fastball: How the Hollywood Stars Changed Baseball

Lights, Camera, Fastball: How the Hollywood Stars Changed Baseball

by Dan Taylor
Lights, Camera, Fastball: How the Hollywood Stars Changed Baseball

Lights, Camera, Fastball: How the Hollywood Stars Changed Baseball

by Dan Taylor

Hardcover

$42.00 
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Overview

The Hollywood Stars were the most inventive team in baseball history, known for their celebrity ownership and movie star following during the Golden Age of Hollywood.

In Lights, Camera, Fastball: How the Hollywood Stars Changed Baseball, Dan Taylor delivers a fascinating look at the Hollywood Stars and their glorious twenty-year run in the Pacific Coast League. Led by Bob Cobb, owner of the heralded Brown Derby restaurant and known more famously as the creator of the Cobb salad, the Hollywood Stars took professional baseball to a new and innovative level. The team played in short pants, instigated rule changes, employed cheerleaders and movie-star beauty queens, pioneered baseball on television, eschewed trains for planes, and offered fans palatable delicacies not before served at ballparks. On any given night, Clark Gable, Jimmy Stewart, Barbara Stanwyck, Humphrey Bogart, and dozens more cheered on their favorite team from the boxes and grandstands of Gilmore Field.

During the Hollywood Stars’ history, its celebrity owners pushed boundaries, challenged existing baseball norms, infuriated rivals, and produced an imaginative product, the likes of which the game had never before seen. Featuring interviews with former players, Lights, Camera, Fastball is an inside look at a team that was far ahead its time, whose innovations are still seen in professional baseball today.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781538138625
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date: 03/17/2021
Pages: 400
Product dimensions: 6.20(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Dan Taylor is a former award-winning television sportscaster. He is the author of Rise of the Bulldogs, A Scout’s Report: My 70 Years in Baseball, and Fate’s Take-Out Slide in collaboration with George Genovese. Taylor is a member of the Society for American Baseball Research and the Pacific Coast League Historical Society. He resides in Fresno, California.

Read an Excerpt

4/16/2021: Writer Joe Guzzardi discusses the history of the Hollywood Stars baseball team, their owners, and the impact they had on the game.

Link: https://www.ivpressonline.com/open/the-brown-derby-hollywood-stars-and-a-long-ago-era/article_a972cf24-9e32-11eb-9504-8fbf25bd0987.html

Table of Contents

Foreword vii

Acknowledgments xi

1 "You Can Sell It out of a Hat" 1

2 "Not without Me" 15

3 "Wholly Owned by Hollywood People" 21

4 "Go in and Get a Uniform" 31

5 "Play Ball!" 45

6 "A Few Steps ahead of Them" 55

7 "Clean up That Mouse Trap" 71

8 "We're Both Irish" 79

9 "The Coast League Has Been Fast Asleep" 87

10 "A Day That Will Live in Infamy" 101

11 "A Sweet Prospect" 109

12 "The Terrible Twinks" 117

13 "We Fellows Will Win This Fight!" 127

14 "Don't Worry about Him" 139

15 "Didn't We Make a Fortune?" 149

16 "The Boy Wonder" 155

17 "The Business Is Not for Sale" 167

18 "Give 'im My Regards When You See Him" 177

19 "Let Me Have It for Three Years" 185

20 "Hooray for Haney!" 197

21 "It's Funny about Kids" 209

22 "Aren't They Sexy?" 215

23 "They'll See a Lot More Movie Stars There" 227

24 "This Is Major Class" 235

25 "A Frankenstein Which May Eat Its Own" 249

26 "Run Your Guts Out!" 263

27 "A Natural" 277

28 "That's the Wrong Sanchez" 289

29 "It Was a Good Clean Riot" 301

30 "You're Looking at Something Special" 309

31 "Home Runs Are My Business" 315

32 "I'll See You at Chavez Ravine" 323

33 "We Are at a Loss" 335

34 "Those Were the Halcyon Days" 343

Notes 349

Bibliography 369

Index 377

About the Author 385

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