<\/p>\n
Balboa Theatre in San Francisco\u2019s Richmond District opened in 1926 with newsreels and a \u201cFelix the Cat\u201d cartoon.<\/p>\n
Santiago Mejia\/The Chronicle<\/p>\n
Attendees laugh during a screening of the cult comedy \u201cSo I Married an Axe Murderer,\u201d at the Balboa Theater in San Francisco in 2023.<\/p>\n
Scott Strazzante\/The Chronicle<\/p>\n
\u201cNorton, The It\u2019s It\u201d greets an attendee before a screening of the cult comedy \u201cSo I Married an Axe Murderer,\u201d at the Balboa Theater in San Francisco in 2023.<\/p>\n
Scott Strazzante\/The Chronicle<\/p>\n
Luke Franklin carries a bag of popcorn from the concession stand before watching \u201cTop Gun: Maverick\u201d at the Balboa Theatre in San Francisco in 2022.<\/p>\n
Stephen Lam\/The Chronicle<\/p>\n
When the New Balboa Theater opened in the outer Outer Richmond District in 1926, the cinema might as well have been operating in the Farallon Islands.<\/p>\n
Market Street had a wealth of new movie palaces, and Balboa Street between 37th and 38th avenues was still marked by empty lots and lit by gas street lamps. But the cinema-building Levin family believed in this isolated foggy outpost, hiring the Cliff House and Fairmont Hotel architects<\/a> to design an 800-seat neighborhood theater.\u00a0<\/p>\n Balboa celebrates 100 years<\/p>\n The Balboa Theater celebrates a century in San Francisco from April 13-19.<\/p>\n Saturday April 18: The theater’s first Balboa Award, unveiling a new mural and celebrating the work of costume designer\u00a0Aggie Rodgers, who will introduce “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” and “American Graffiti.”<\/p>\n Sunday April 19: Screenings of “Rent,” “Return of the Jedi” and “Tramp, Tramp, Tramp” are free to the public.\u00a0<\/p>\n More information and tickets at\u00a0www.balboamovies.com<\/a><\/p>\n Bigger and less remote west-of-Masonic movie theaters \u2014 the Coronet and Alexandria included \u2014 have long since shuttered. But the Balboa abides, through a combination of hard work, neighborhood support, a wild and perfect film mix (\u201cPee-Wee\u2019s Big Adventure,\u201d \u201cFruitvale Station\u201d and \u201cThe Fugitive\u201d all playing in the next week<\/a>) and one of the most fascinating retail ecosystems in the city.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n I\u2019m a Balboa regular, and still register surprise after traveling 40 blocks into the Richmond and finding a cinema here. There\u2019s no subway, the bus lines are slow and there are few nearby guidebook destinations. The Balboa has endured on vibes. It survives, I\u2019m convinced, because it\u2019s the most San Francisco place in San Francisco.<\/p>\n At the 100th anniversary of the theater \u2014 that date passed in February, but the Balboa is celebrating for a week starting Monday April 13 with free movies on April 19<\/a> \u2014 I became obsessed with the concoction of factors that got us here. A truly special mix of nearby restaurants, a lobby that doubles as a museum and a mystical dive bar across the street with its own enduring history.<\/p>\n Ryan Andersen works the counter at the Balboa Theater in San Francisco in 2019.<\/p>\n Scott Strazzante\/The Chronicle<\/p>\n But the answer for its longevity can be traced back to the theater\u2019s first days, more than a year before \u201cThe Jazz Singer\u201d debuted as the first \u201ctalkie\u201d picture with synchronized dialogue.<\/p>\n San Francisco Chronicle Logo<\/p>\n Make us a Preferred Source to get more of our news when you search.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n The Chronicle had no coverage of the Balboa until the day it opened. Other 1920s cinemas including the Castro and the opulent Fox Theatre<\/a> received days of stories before they premiered, and Hollywood celebrities arriving by train. The Balboa received one paragraph on page 19.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cSamuel H. Levin will open his New Balboa Theater in the Outer Richmond District tonight with fitting ceremonies,\u201d the Chronicle announced on Feb. 27, 1926, \u201ca news reel and a \u2018Felix the Cat\u2019 cartoon will be included.\u201d<\/p>\n But the months that followed told a better story. Electric lighting was installed in May of that year, the Chronicle reported. Two more major city developers built commercial structures, including in the empty lot next to the Balboa. By the end of the year the Chronicle was writing about \u201cconsiderable improvement\u201d on the block, including an array of new eateries.<\/p>\n That\u2019s how I found the block when I made my first visit to the Balboa in 2018. Then-Chronicle columnist Heather Knight and I were looking for a place to screen a San Francisco movie for the followers of our new Total SF project, and we struck out or were priced out of larger cinemas.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bagpiper Lynn Miller plays before a Total SF screening of the cult comedy \u201cSo I Married an Axe Murderer\u201d at the Balboa Theater in San Francisco in 2023.<\/p>\n Scott Strazzante\/The Chronicle<\/p>\n Walking inside the Balboa I immediately fell in love. The cavernous lobby, filled with\u00a0Playland-at-the-Beach amusement park memorabilia and a \u201cRobotron\u201d arcade game, was a colorful museum-like experience that was perfect for post-movie conversation.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n There were local beers and It\u2019s It ice cream sandwiches on the menu. The eclectic movie schedule \u2014 an even split of new releases, classics and cult wild cards \u2014 was curated in part by a chalkboard outside the theater encouraging neighborhood recommendations. We screened \u201cSo I Married an Axe Murderer\u201d to a sold out crowd, and followed with at least 15 more S.F. movies. What struck me each time is how, in a black box that\u2019s meant to transport you to another place, I still felt like I was in San Francisco.<\/p>\n The factors that contribute to this came to me slowly. The Balboa has been run by just three groups: The Levin family had it for 75 years, then Landmark Theatres founder Gary Meyer rescued the theater for a decade, before CinemaSF<\/a>\u2019s Adam Bergeron and Jaimi Holker took over management in 2011.<\/p>\n The Balboa Theatre in San Francisco’s Richmond District is a neighborhood theater success story.<\/p>\n Peter Hartlaub\/The Chronicle<\/p>\n The foggy isolation, which I assumed would be a negative, actually adds to the mystique. When the mist rolls in, the neon of the vertical marquee blade \u2014 spelling \u201cB-A-L-B-O-A\u201d in red letters that emerge from top to bottom \u2014 is even more of a beacon.<\/p>\n \u201cFog is good,\u201d Meyer told the Chronicle\u2019s Sam Whiting in 2003. \u201cIf it gets really sunny, people want to be outside.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n So are the retail surroundings. Balboa Street manages to feel like a small New England coastal town \u2014 the boulevard still hosts a bait shop and archery store \u2014 while carrying the most cosmopolitan collection of restaurants in the city. Within two blocks of the theater there\u2019s a trendy bagel shop<\/a>, dim sum, a white tablecloth Italian restaurant, sushi, Shanghainese cuisine, a bohemian coffee shop, Vietnamese and a cash-only Mexican place<\/a> with my favorite carne asada in the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n But the symbiotic relationship \u2014 the Venom to Balboa\u2019s Eddie Brock<\/a> \u2014 is Hockey Haven, an across-the-street dive bar founded in 1949, and the greatest spontaneous after-party location in the history of movies.<\/p>\n Jek Cunningham is introduced before a screening of the cult comedy \u201cSo I Married an Axe Murderer,\u201d\u00a0at the Balboa Theater in San Francisco in 2023. Cunningham appears in the movie as a bagpiper.<\/p>\n Scott Strazzante\/The Chronicle<\/p>\n I\u2019ve led colorful mobs across the street a dozen times, and the stoic\u00a0bartending staff never blinks an eye, whether we\u2019re bringing moviegoers dressed as nuns from a \u201cSister Act\u201d revival or an already half-in-the-bag crowd after a presentation of the 2015 fever dream disaster film<\/a> \u201cSan Andreas.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The worst thing about the Balboa are the theaters themselves. The cinema was twinned after a 1978 fire, and the two resulting screens are narrow, with shotgun sightlines. If you’re watching a quieter screening, you might\u00a0hear sound from the action movie next door.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n But somehow that\u2019s its own advantage. The laughs and scares stay in the room. The more intimate screens are perfect for filmmaker interviews or unamplified preshow entertainment. (I\u2019ve run trivia contests there without a microphone.) And for movies that require audience participation, the imperfect setup makes the crowd seem like part of the show.\u00a0<\/p>\n Balboa programming can be gloriously random. \u201cThe Room\u201d director Tommy Wiseau<\/a> has appeared in person at the theater for more than 25 screenings. \u201cRemembering Playland at the Beach,\u201d a hyper-local 2010 documentary about the seaside amusement park, was held over 20 weeks. The theater\u2019s biggest annual event is Godzillafest<\/a>. All while showing the biggest family blockbusters for the children of the district. (Yes, \u201cSuper Mario Galaxy\u201d plays three times today.)\u00a0<\/p>\n A Godzillafest poster hangs outside the Balboa Theater in 2021.\u00a0<\/p>\n Carlos Avila Gonzalez\/The Chronicle<\/p>\n Magical things happen at the Balboa. When we hosted \u201cAxe Murderer\u201d we invited\u00a0Jek Cunningham, the Rod Stewart-playing bagpiper<\/a> from the film who revealed during a pre-show interview that he had never seen the movie with a crowd. When he appeared on screen the entire theater turned toward Cunningham and gave him a standing ovation.<\/p>\n Another time we screened \u201cThe Towering Inferno,\u201d and the neighborhood’s San Francisco Fire Department house showed up in uniform. Once we double-booked a bagpipe player, and six-time cable car bell-ringing champion. They spontaneously played a bagpipe\/bell duet<\/a> that brought the house down<\/a>: the most San Francisco moment I\u2019ve ever seen, in the most S.F. movie theater.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n