At 6 p.m. March 28, 1924, the Balboa Theatre celebrated its grand opening at the corner of Fourth Avenue and E Street in downtown San Diego.
The program for the inaugural evening’s entertainment included a 30-minute orchestra concert, the silent film “Lilies of the Field” and a costumed tableau featuring vaudeville players Fanchon & Marco and the Sunkist Beauties re-enacting Spanish explorer Vasco Nuñez de Balboa’s discovery of the Pacific Ocean.
Usherettes dressed as Spanish cavaliers helped 1,534 lucky ticket-holders to their seats, but an estimated 20,000 people were turned away that night, according to an article in the next morning’s newspaper, The San Diego Union.
There won’t be a Spanish tableau nor bolero-clad ushers when the Balboa Theatre celebrates its 100th anniversary on March 28, 2024, but the evening’s entertainment is — once again — sure to be a sellout.
Hershey Felder, the popular playwright, pianist and actor who has been performing on San Diego stages for nearly 20 years, will host a Great American Songbook gala that evening, and most of the tickets are already sold.
Playwright, pianist and performer Hershey Felder inside the Balboa Theatre in San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter on Jan. 31, 2024. Felder will host the Balboa’s 100th anniversary gala on March 28, 2024.
(Alejandro Tamayo/The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Felder’s concert on March 28 will kick off three days of programming that will pay tribute to both the history of the Balboa and San Diego itself.
On March 29, there will be a tribute to San Diego’s military with an aviation-themed 1929 silent film comedy that was partially set in San Diego. On the morning of March 30, there will be a family-friendly program of classic cartoons, and on the evening of March 30, there will be a San Diego Spotlight event featuring performances by more than a dozen local arts groups.
Nationally known theater organist Ken Double will play the Balboa’s historic Wonder Morton Organ at all four events. And tickets for all of the events on March 29 and 30 will be priced at just $3.50, to cover ticket processing fees.
All proceeds from Felder’s gala concert on the 28th will benefit San Diego Theatres’ new Balboa Theatre Grant Fund that will allow small San Diego County arts nonprofits to rent the historic theater for little or no cost in the years to come. San Diego Theatres is a nonprofit organization that also manages the San Diego Civic Theatre.
Launched last year, the Balboa Theatre Grant Fund awarded a total of $43,000 in grants to six local arts nonprofits who presented shows at the Balboa in 2023: San Diego Opera, San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus, La Jolla Music Society, Classics for Kids, City Ballet of San Diego and San Diego Ballet. The grants covered costs that included theater license fees, staffing, stagehands, ticketing and in-house equipment use fees.
Abigail Buell, San Diego Theatres’ vice president of strategy and business development, said that while the 100th celebration next month will honor the Balboa Theatre’s past, the new grant fund focuses on the Balboa’s future.
“As we look forward, this Balboa Theatre Grant Fund allows us to make sure we’re furthering our impact on San Diego,” Buell said. “At San Diego Theatres, we’re fully or partially subsidizing the costs associated with using the theater so they can focus on performing their art.”
Buell said that in future years, the number of grants issued by the fund will grow, and there will also be a focus on arts education, with money set aside for free tickets for underserved youth.
The exterior of the Balboa Theatre in downtown San Diego after it opened in 1924.
(Courtesy of San Diego History Center)
Felder, who now lives in Italy with his wife, former Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell, visited the Balboa Theatre in late January to meet with San Diego Theatres officials and talk about his concert plans.
Felder said he was honored to be asked to host the 100th anniversary gala because he believes in San Diego Theatres’ mission to make the Balboa available to local arts organizations of all sizes.
“The Balboa Theatre is becoming a core in the heart of San Diego arts programming,” Felder said. “The grant fund is very important and I’m very proud to be part of that. It’s not just supporting the Balboa’s presence in San Diego, but it supports its ability to support other organizations throughout the county.”
Hershey Felder, and the 1929-era Wonder Morton Organ at the Balboa Theatre.
(Alejandro Tamayo/The San Diego Union-Tribune)
When San Diego Theatres officials approached Felder last year to perform at the gala, they asked if he’d like to do one of his popular solo shows playing composers George Gershwin or Irving Berlin, which have both played in San Diego in past years.
“I said those characters have played here. We’ve seen them,” Felder said. “What hasn’t played here in probably 15 years is the ‘Great American Sing Along.’ I thought, wouldn’t it be fun to tailor that kind of presentation for celebrating 100 years.”
After months of research into the history of the Balboa and all of the acts that have performed on its stage over the past century, Felder has created a concert program of American songs that will musically represent the Balboa from 1924 to today.
“The Great American Songbook is a little older than the Balboa, if we start looking back to Stephen Foster in the 1850s,” Felder said. “But the Balboa dates to the time of Gershwin and Berlin. It’s also about the 100 years we have experienced American music together. It’s a mirror of the time this theater has been running.”
Felder said the concert will include show tunes from Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals and songs by Elvis Presley and Ella Fitzgerald. There will be some modern music, too, but he wants to keep most of the song list a secret until show night.
San Diego audiences are most familiar with the Canadian-born entertainer for his canon of self-penned solo plays about famous composers. Except for the pandemic years, when he produced film versions of his shows, Felder has visited San Diego every year or two since 2006 with sold-out runs at the Old Globe, La Jolla Playhouse, San Diego Repertory Theatre and other venues.
Some shows, like “George Gershwin Alone,” have made repeat visits to San Diego. But one show locals haven’t seen Felder do in a long time is his Great American Songbook sing-along. The last time he performed it here was about 15 years ago at the Old Globe.
The Balboa Theatre under construction in 1923 in downtown San Diego.
(Courtesy of San Diego History Center)
Felder said the concept was born when he was performing his Gershwin show on Broadway and a woman audience member in the balcony began “warbling” as he played the piano music for “Summertime” from “Porgy and Bess.”
“It was barely in tune and I thought, ‘how dare you,’ but then I thought it’s not a bad thing. I said (to the audience), ‘why don’t we try singing along after the show,’ ” Felder said. “That turned into a thing and then it turned into a whole evening of sing-along. It turns out people do want to sing and you don’t have to sing well. It’s part of what we do … part of our culture.”
Felder said he’s been pleasantly surprised at some of the extraordinary singers who have emerged from the audiences at sing-alongs. One was a prison matron who had the voice of a pro. “There are musical talents all over the place.”
Over the years, Felder said he’s been moved to tears many times at the sing-alongs, not just for the beauty of the music but for the communal experience itself.
“It’s a coming together of people,” he said. “It shows there isn’t such a huge difference between us. It shows we can actually agree on something, be together in a room, remember who we are, be decent to one another and listen to one another. There’s something ephemeral and very touching about it.”
The Balboa Theatre under construction in 1923. Here the floors for the balcony seating aisles can be seen.
(Courtesy of San Diego History Center)