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.
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.
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 ing the Balboa’s presence in San Diego, but it s its ability to other organizations throughout the county.”
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.
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, who we are, be decent to one another and listen to one another. There’s something ephemeral and very touching about it.”
Balboa Theatre history
March 28, 1924: Balboa Theatre opens to the public at 868 Fourth Ave. in downtown San Diego. Theater impresario Robert E. Hicks, who also owned San Diego’s Cabrillo Theatre at the time, spent $800,000 building the multistory Moorish Spanish Revival-style structure, which was designed by architect William Wheeler and had 1,534 auditorium seats, a 40-seat orchestra pit and enough dressing rooms for dozens of performers.
Its most striking interior features were large Moorish ceiling lamps and 25-foot-tall recessed grottoes on the walls at both sides of the stage, where real water tumbled down rocks on a faux desert landscape (the fountains still work today). The theater also opened with a Wonder Morton Organ, though it was removed in 1929 as “talkies” replaced the silent films that required organ accompaniment.
Nov. 30, 1930: In response to the city’s growing Spanish-speaking population, the theater was remodeled with a new neon marquee sign, renamed El Teatro Balboa and began screening contemporary films from Mexico City. The Balboa Theatre name was restored sometime in the 1940s and ’50s.
1942-45: During World War II, the theater’s office wing served as a bunkhouse for sailors who lodged there before shipping out overseas.
1959: The now-derelict theater was facing demolition so the property could be used for a parking lot. Instead, the Russo family of San Diego purchased the property and operated it for the next 25 years as an English-language action movie cinema.
Aug. 4, 1972: The city of San Diego designates the Balboa Theatre as a City of San Diego Historic Site (No. 77 on the registry).
1985: Centre City Development Corp. (CCDC), the city of San Diego’s redevelopment agency, purchases the theater through eminent domain.
1996: The Balboa is recognized on the National of Historic Places by the U.S. Department of the Interior.
2002: After numerous attempts for private development fail, the CCDC commits to retain the Balboa Theatre as a community asset and invest the funds required for its renovation and restoration (the CCDC shut down in 2012).
July 25, 2005: Construction begins on the renovation, which would include all-new electrical, plumbing and mechanical systems along with earthquake retrofitting. The original small, narrow auditorium seats were replaced with larger, wider ones, reducing the total number to 1,335.
Jan. 31, 2008: Following a $26.5 million renovation, the Balboa Theatre reopens to the public with a gala that raised money for the theater’s endowment fund.
2009: To replace the pipe organ removed from the Balboa in 1929, the city obtains another Wonder Morton Organ from an old theater in Orange County. Restored and installed by Wendell Shoberg, the Balboa’s replacement organ is believed to the oldest of its kind still in existence.
2023: Theater operator San Diego Theatres repaints the Balboa exterior white in preparation for the 100th anniversary. Local historical preservationists voiced concern that this color is not historically accurate (the original colors were mustard and burnt orange), but the white exterior paint remains.
March 28, 2024: Balboa Theatre will celebrate its 100th anniversary with a three-day celebration.
Sources: The San Diego Union, The San Diego Union-Tribune, San Diego Theatres, Save Our Heritage Organisation
Balboa Theatre centennial events
100th Anniversary Gala featuring Hershey Felder and the Great American Songbook: Playwright, pianist and performer Felder will lead the sing-along concert of music performed at the Balboa over the past century, plus a special performance by organist Ken Double on the 1929 Wonder Morton Organ. 6:30 p.m. March 28. $45-$60.
Centennial Salute honoring San Diego’s Military: In tribute to the military’s long presence in San Diego, this program will celebrate local military service with a screening of the 1929 Roman Navarro silent film “The Flying Fleet,” which was partially set in San Diego. The film will be accompanied on the Wonder Morton Organ by Ken Double. More than 800 local military officers and their families have been invited to attend. 7 p.m. March 29. $3.50.
Toons and Tunes: Families are encouraged to dress up in “Roaring ’20s” attire for this family-friendly event featuring screenings of classic cartoons, music by organist Ken Double and a pre-show children’s costume parade with prizes for the winners. 10 a.m. March 30. $3.50.
San Diego Spotlight: TV host Kimberly King will emcee this event featuring performances by a dozen or more San Diego arts organizations. Performers include Mission Bay High School Preservationists jazz band; DanzArts; San Diego Opera; San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus; Classics 4 Kids; Voices of Our City Choir; LAO SD Laotian American choir; Mariachi Garibaldi; Golden State Ballet; Naruwan Taiko Drumming and more to be added soon. Ken Double will also perform on the Wonder Morton Organ. 6 p.m. March 30. $3.50.
Where: Balboa Theatre, 868 Fourth Ave., downtown
Online: sandiegotheatres.org/balboatheatre100
