Wrigley Field, Los Angeles

Chicago Tribune, February 13, 1919

Pasadena, Cal., Feb. 12.—Announcement was made here tonight by William Wrigley Jr., gum manufacturer and one of the principal owners of the Chicago National League Baseball club, that he had purchased the greater part of Santa Catalina Island, the noted pleasure resort, about thirty miles off the coast from San Pedro. The property was bought from Captain William Banning and others of the Banning family, for approximately $3,000,000. Mr. Wrlgley said he would make extensive alterations to make the Island more attractive as a resort.

Reported In Chicago.
Reports to the effect that William Wrlgley Jr. had purchased Catalina Island were current In the Chicago loop yesterday. Mr. Wrlgley was said to have written local associates advising them “we are buying the Island.” The Tribune telegraphed to California. for verification. The only reply received up to 3 a.m. was the following dispatch from Los Angeles:

Secretary Fleming of company owning Catalina island says report of sale to Wrlgley is absolutely false.

Los Angeles Express, February 13, 1919

Negotlations for the purchase of a majority Interest in Catalina, island and other Banning interests by William Wrigley, jr. millionaire chewing gum manufacturer of Chicago, who is passing the winter in Pasadena, are being completed today in Los Angeles.

Mr. Wrigley proposes to develop the island by adding to its attractions, believing it can be made the greatest and most popular resort in America.

New hotels, amusement parks and a new settlement on the Avalon plan at the isthmus are among the projects formulated.

The purchase price is said to be close to $4,000,000. In addition, Mr. Wrigley proposes to advertise Catalina island in every section of the United States in a way that he expects will attract visitors by the tens of thousands. Necessarily, these visitors will come to Los Angeles as well as to the island.

Confident of Deal
David Blankenhorn, president of Blankenhorn-Hunter Company, bond and investment dealers with offices in the Los Angeles Trust and Savings Bank building, who is handling the negotiations, sald today that the transaction is not entirely consummated, although they have reached a stage at which Mr. Wrigley felt able to make his plans known.

The Banning holdings, of which Mr. Wrigley expects to become majority owner, include about 48,000 acres on the island, the new Hotel St. Catherine, docks, the steamers Cabrillo and Hermosa and 10,000 head of sheep.

Members of the Banning family will continue as minority stockholders in the companies in which title to these properties is vested.

Mr. Wrigley said he is hopeful of securing the controlling interest by March 1, after which he proposes to start development work immediately. Mr. Blankenhorn, it is expected, will be president of the Santa Catalina Island Company and of the Wilmington Transportation Company, and Ernest H. Seaver, president of the
Fulton Shipbuilding Company, will be operating manager. Robert E. Hunter and J. H. Patrick will also represent Mr. Wrigley in the enterprises.

Mr. Wrigley’s Plans
“I hope to develop Santa Catalina island and to advertise it so it will become as well known as Atlantic City.” Mr. Wrigley said. “Hotels, golf courses and other attractions will be improved and made known to the world. Transportation facilities will be increased. All restrictions will be removed and the island thrown wide open to the public.

“Plans are being formed for building another resort like that at Avalon at the Isthmus. It may be that more exclusive hotels will be built there. There is plenty of room on Catalina for the building of a playground for people of moderate means and also for a resort for the wealthy, who now And It difficult to obtain recommodations in the numerous high-class hotels of Southern Culifornia, In winter seasons taxed to capacity.”

Mr. Wrigley is a firm bellever in advertising on a big scale. He estab. lished himselfNin business by advertising his produet in every possible way before he placed an ounce of it on the market. It Is expected Catalina and Southern California will be made known to the world by similar methods.

The manufacturer Is also owner of the Chicago National League baseball team, which he bought four years ago and developed last year into a pennant winner.

Announces Policies
Mr. Blankenhorn said today that it was planned “to popularize Catalina, yet at the same time maintain the high standards set by the Bannings.”

“Besides developing and improving Avalon and establishing a new resort at the Isthmus, we will build a string of villages all around the island,” he said.

“In time there will be a settlement bordering on every one of the scores of coves that indent the coast line. The possibilities of Catalina as a resort are practically unlimited, and we will advertise them to the utmost,

“Emphasis will be laid on the advantages of the island as a family resort. Island Villa and Tent City will be enlarged and improved, and there will be accommodations for everyone who visits the island.

Slept Under Trees
“I understand that last summer visitors were actually sleeping under trees there. We will see that there is housing for everyone who makes the trip.

“Most important of all, however, is the fact that we shall make it an all-year-round resort. The St. Catharine and other hotels will never be closed, and will be classed among the great winter caravanseries of the Southland.

“There is no more delightful place in winter than Catalina island, and no expense will be spared to bring that fact to the attention of Easterners.”

Mr. Wrigley will take a party of Chicago friends to Catalina next Saturday to look over the island. He also plans to take his baseball team on a visit to. the island soon after it arrives in California for winter training. It is expected the team will arrive about March 22.

Nicknamed “The Boys in Blue” by their ever-loyal fans, the team’s owner, chewing gum magnate William Wrigley, Jr., executed a masterstroke when he first brought the Chicago Cubs to Catalina Island for spring training in 1921. The move brought national attention to a vacation island paradise Wrigley had owned since 1919. Nineteen Hall of Fame players trained with the Cubs on Catalina Island, including such legends of the diamond as Grover Cleveland Alexander and Dizzy Dean, who is featured in this film. Perhaps the best known of the personalities to be a part of the Cubs on Catalina was a young radio announcer named Ronald “Dutch” Reagan who eventually went on to become President of the United States.

Created for the home market in the year 1940, this silent newsreel film shows the Chicago Cubs Baseball Team in Spring Training mode on Catalina Island. Most likely this is the 1939 team as it features catchers Gus Mancuso and Gabby Hartnett, Dick Bartell, Phil Cavaretta and pitcher Dizzy Dean. The 1939 Chicago Cubs played 154 games during the regular season, won 84 games, lost 70 games, and finished in fourth position. They played their home games at Wrigley Field (Park Factors: 102/101) where 726,663 fans witnessed their 1939 Cubs finish the season with a .545 winning percentage.

In 1919, William Wrigley, Jr. gained a controlling interest in the Chicago Cubs and in 1921 he made the decision to have the Cubs train on Catalina. In doing so, he became the first baseball owner to bring a major league club out West for spring training, building a facility for the Cubs on Catalina that he humbly called “Wrigley Field.” (Regular-season major league baseball wouldn’t arrive on the West Coast until the Dodgers and the Giants made their moves west in the 1950s).

Chewing-gum magnate William Wrigley Jr. bought the Angels in 1921 as a farm team for his Chicago Cubs 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 stadium opened in 1925.

Aerial view of Wrigley Field, Opening Day, September 29, 1925.

The Los Angeles Wrigley Field was built to resemble Spanish-style architecture and a somewhat scaled-down version of the Chicago ballpark (known then as Cubs Park) as it looked at the time. It was also the first of the two ballparks to bear Wrigley’s name, as the Chicago park was named for Wrigley over a year after the L.A. park’s opening. At the time, he owned Santa Catalina Island, and the Cubs were holding their spring training in that island’s city of Avalon (whose ballfield was located on Avalon Canyon Road and also informally known as “Wrigley Field”).

Coincidentally, one of Wrigley Field’s boundary streets was Avalon Boulevard (east, behind right field and a small parking lot). The other boundaries of the block were 41st Street (north, behind left field), 42nd Place (south, behind first base), and San Pedro Street (west, behind third base and a larger parking lot). Not only did L.A. Wrigley get its name first, it had more on-site parking than the Chicago version did (or does now)

View of Wrigley Field on opening day, September 29, 1925, as seen before the stadium was filled.

For 33 seasons (1925-1957) Wrigley Field 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.

Erected in 1925 at 42nd Place and Avalon Blvd., Wrigley Field was a 21,000-seat, home-run hitters paradise. It also doubled as the set for such films as “Pride of the Yankees”, “Damn Yankees” and “Alibi Ike” and the “Home Run Derby” television show.

The “W Flag” also has its origins in Catalina. William Wrigley owned the Wilmington Transportion Company. The company was founded in 1877 by the Banning brothers, the original owners of Catalina Island. The company operated several vessels that transported visitors from mainland ports to Catalina Island, including the S.S. Catalina and S.S. Avalon. The Wilmington Transportation Company’s logo was a blue flag with a white W. In 1937, his son Philip, brought the W flag to Chicago. The flag became a symbol for the team’s wins or losses. With a game win, a white flag with a blue W was hoisted up the flagpole to signal Wrigley field passerby’s of a win and a blue flag with a white L signaled a loss for the Chicago team.

This W flag was possibly flown aboard a steam ferry built in 1924 that chugged to and from William Wrigley’s island off the coast of Los Angeles. The flag is signed by crew members from the Wilmington Transportation Company, which operated the ships. The signatures are dated 1933.

SS Virginia

SS Avalon

The Cubs trained in Avalon from 1921 to 1951, with the exception of the war years of 1942-1945. Nineteen Hall of Fame players trained with the Cubs on Catalina Island, including such legends as Grover Cleveland Alexander, Dizzy Dean, Roger Hornsby, Joe McCarthy and Hack Wilson.

Films made at Wrigley Field, Los Angeles

Television Shows made at Wrigley Field, Los Angeles

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