On March 28, 1924, the Balboa Theatre opened for business in what’s now known as San Diego’s historic Gaslamp Quarter.
On that evening’s opening-night bill were the vaudeville acts Fanchon & Marco and the Sunkist Beauties. Also featured was a screening of the 1924 silent film “Lilies of the Field” and there was a 30-minute concert by the 20-piece Balboa Concert Orchestra. When the Balboa turns 100 years old on March 28, 2024, its current operators have bigger entertainment plans in mind.
San Diego Theatres, which manages and runs both the Balboa and San Diego Civic Theatre, has organized a three-day centennial celebration that will run March 28-30. The schedule will include an anniversary gala starring popular stage performer-pianist Hershey Felder; the screening of a 1929 silent film with organ accompaniment that will tribute to San Diego’s long military history; a program of classic cartoons for families with small children; and a night of entertainment featuring San Diego singers, dancers and musicians.
Playwright, performer and pianist Hershey Felder will host a gala performance on March 28, 2024, celebrating the 100th anniversary of San Diego’s Balboa Theatre.
(Courtesy of Hershey Felder)
Felder — who has performed many times over the past 18 years at the Old Globe, La Jolla Playhouse and former San Diego Repertory Theatre — said he plans to research the history of the Balboa to come up with a sing-along program of popular music that might have been played or performed at the Balboa over the past century.
Proceeds from the gala will benefit the Balboa Theatre Grant Fund, which provides grants to local nonprofits to rent the theater at a reduced cost.
“As the stewards of two of the city’s most important arts spaces, all of us at San Diego Theatres are honored to celebrate Balboa Theatre, its enduring legacy, and its exciting future,” Abigail Buell, San Diego Theatres’ vice president of strategy and business development, said in a statement.
The Balboa Theatre, at 868 Fourth Ave. downtown, hails from the era of the Roaring ‘20s when opulent movie palaces sprang up in cities all over the country. Built at a cost of $800,000, it was designed by architect William Wheeler in a style that blended Moorish, Spanish revival and Mediterranean classicism, according to San Diego’s Save Our Heritage Organisation. Besides its large overhead Moorish lamps, the Balboa’s most striking design feature is the recessed waterfalls on either side of the stage, where water once tumbled over a landscape of faux rocks.
The Balboa Theatre pictured the year it opened in 1923. The Balboa’s 100th anniversary will be held March 28-30, 2024.
(Courtesy of San Diego Theatres)
In response to the city’s growing Spanish-speaking population in the 1930s, the theater was remodeled with a new neon marquee sign, renamed Teatro Balboa and it began screening contemporary films from Mexico City.
During World War II, the theater’s office wing served as a bunkhouse for sailors who lodged there before shipping out overseas.
By 1959, the theater had fallen on hard times and was facing demolition to make way for a parking lot, but the Russo family purchased the property and operated it for the next 25 years as an action movie cinema.
Ultimately, the Balboa shuttered and remained closed for nearly 20 years. In 1972, the city of San Diego designated the Balboa as an historic site and in 1985 it was purchased through eminent domain by the city’s redevelopment agency, the Centre City Development Corp. In 2008 the Balboa underwent a significant renovation and in 2009 one of the nation’s five surviving Wonder Morgan Organs from the 1920s, was installed in the Balboa.
Tickets for the Balboa’s upcoming three-day centennial will go on sale in January at sandiegotheatres/balboatheatre100.