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Elsa Sevilla: Thank you to the San Diego Historical Society for the use of the historical society's pictures.

For more information, contact the San Diego Historical Society at sandiegohistory.org.

Elsa: Coming up next, the Balboa Theatre sat vacant for decades.

It was nearly demolished to make room for a parking structure.

It will soon debut this historic rare Wonder Morton organ.

I'll give you a sneak peek at the restored one of a kind.

♪♪♪♪♪ Elsa: The North Park Theatre was once condemned, it was ready for demolition.

I'll explain how the community saved it and you'll see a wonderfully preserved eight millimeter film about the theater's construction.

I'll tell you who had the film all these years.

♪♪♪♪♪ Elsa: Spreckels Theatre is grand and beautiful.

You'll find out what Hollywood movie pioneer once operated the theater.

It's been in the same family since 1931.

♪♪♪♪♪ Elsa: And the stories about the historic theaters that didn't survive.

I'll tell you why they began to disappear in the '40s, '50s, and '60s.

Some great black and white photos from the San Diego Historical Society show an era that's been lost, but certainly not forgotten.

That's all next.

♪♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪♪ Elsa: Hello and welcome to "San Diego's Historic Places" where you get a glimpse of the past and a look at the city's history.

I'm Elsa Sevilla.

On this episode, I visit three historic theaters.

I'll also show you some of the most lavish beautiful theaters that have been lost.

But we began with the Balboa.

Like many, the historic theater had been abandoned.

It was a familiar sight in downtown during the '70s.

All that would change after the redevelopment of the early '80s.

While many older buildings were lost, others were saved.

The historic Balboa Theatre was built in 1924.

It's on Fourth and East Street in downtown San Diego, next to Horton Plaza.

These black and white photos show the theater's grandeur in its glory days, the Balboa has been fully restored and the interior is just beautiful.

David Marshall: It was built as a vaudeville theater originally and it was named after Vasco Núñez de Balboa, who was the Spanish explorer, the first European to set foot in the Pacific.

So, the theme of the building, and a lot of the motif of the building including Balboa's ship, are an important part of the theater.

Elsa: Architect David Marshall oversaw the $26 million, two year restoration in 2005.

At the time, the Balboa had been abandoned for 20 years and it was in bad shape.

David: During that period, you know, the building had a new roof on it but it was vacant.

Pigeons were in the building.

There was termite damage.

There had been some previous water leaks.

Over the many years it was used there were staining from cigarette smoke and everything else and a lot of the old bronze powder paint had tarnished and a lot of the decorative finishes had been painted over.

So, a lot of what made the building special and unique and beautiful was--couldn't be seen.

Elsa: The theater was nearly torn down numerous times in the '50s and '80s.

But putting the Balboa on the National Register of Historic Places more than likely helped save the building.

David shows me how many areas of the theater were preserved.

David: What we see here are the original entry doors to the theater, which still function as kind of the lobby doors.

And what's unique about this space is this great mosaic tile floor which is originally 1924 and it's got Balboa's ship with the year that he set foot in the Pacific Ocean.

So, this really kind of sets the theme for the theater.

Elsa: Despite the fact that the mosaic tile was exposed for decades, it is still intact.

The lobby on the main floor has been fully restored to reflect the period.

The colors were carefully replicated from those found on the theater's walls.

David: We had to scrape through and find some stencils and some murals on the walls.

The second floor lobby has some great murals and they had all been painted over.

So, just a plain wall, and we had photographs that showed us that there used to be murals there.

Otherwise, we may not have known even to look for those murals.

Elsa: The main mural on the second floor was one that had been covered in layers of paint.

It was recreated with the help of some black and white photos.

David: Yeah, historic photographs from the historical site are really, probably, our primary source of information because even if you have the old drawings, you don't necessarily know it was built that way.

But photographs show you the way it was.

And even though they're black and white, they tell you a lot of good information.

Elsa: The best view of the theater is from the second story balcony.

♪♪♪♪♪ David: But up here you have an overview of this great reproduction curtain and the two waterfall niches on either side, as well as this great ceiling with all this colorful palette that we have.

So, to me, this really puts you in the center of the space and even though you're not closer to the stage, I think it lets you appreciate the building that much more.

♪♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪♪ Elsa: Outside, the historic fabric was also maintained.

The marquee and blade sign are the first to be noticed.

David: One of the greatest features of the exterior of the building is this blade sign that says Balboa.

And that was something that had been missing for many years.

We don't know when it went away, but it was just a blank spot on the building.

And so, this was recreated from photographs, like many of the features of the building, and at the very top is Balboa's ship once again making an appearance.

Elsa: Here's a special preview of the rare Wonder Morton organ.

It's the first of only five built by a California company in the 1920s.

Local organ expert Wendell Shoberg shows me how it works.

Wendell Shoberg: This is a 23 ranked, 4 manual Robert Morton theatre organ.

Means it's got 23 different voices in it, different instruments, like clarinets and flutes and oboes and strings and trumpets.

Elsa: The pipes in the solo and main organ chambers were recreated.

The organ was built in Van Nuys, California, for the Loew's Valencia Theatre in New York.

They, of course, were very popular during the silent movie era.

But years later, the organ would be removed from the Valencia and put into storage for ten years until now.

The organ has been fully restored by Shoberg and his team.

It now has a new home in San Diego to soon debut at the Balboa Theatre.

Elsa: For more information on the pipe organ, you can contact the Balboa Theatre.

Next, I visit the North Park Theatre on 29th and University Avenue.

If you can believe it, the theater was just a few months away from demolition, but thanks to some concerned citizens, it was saved.

♪♪♪♪♪ The historic Birch North Park Theatre has many unique features.

It was built in downtown North Park, away from the city's hustle and bustle intended as a single screen motion picture and vaudeville theater in the late 1920s.

It has an Italian Renaissance facade.

At the time, it was one of the more successful theaters in the Fox West Coast Theatre chain.

The Lyric Opera San Diego now owns the building.

Dick Bundy: The theater itself was 1200 seats all on one level, which was somewhat unusual because usually a theater of that size with 1200 seats would have had at least 400 of them in the balcony, but this was all on the main floor.

And with quite a bit of ornate detail on the walls and on the ceilings.

Elsa: Architect Dick Bundy from Bundy and Thompson worked on the theater's restoration in 2004.

He and his team came across this black and white film from the theater's construction.

You can see workers busy pouring concrete and laying materials to erect the building in 1928.

Dick: When we started working on the project early on, obviously, we're in the building measuring and with the doors open and there was a gentleman in the neighborhood who--was had--had kept or had access to an eight millimeter film that had been made of the construction of the theater itself.

Elsa: The famed Quayle brothers were the architects who designed the building.

You can see one of them with the theater's developer, Emil Klicka who owned a number of businesses in the area.

From the beginning, the two story building featured numerous storefront businesses and there was office space on the second floor, a Bank of America branch with Klicka as the bank's manager.

Dick: The theater was developed and built by Emil Klicka who was a fairly important person in San Diego in the late '20s and early '30s.

He was also involved in the development of the 1935 World's Fair Exposition in Balboa Park.

Elsa: Years later, with business declining in the '70s and '80s, the North Park Theatre would lay vacant for some 20 years until a private developer, the city and the Lyric Opera San Diego would step in to save it.

Dick says restoring abandoned buildings can be costly and usually never an easy task.

Dick: The pigeons and the homeless folks had pretty much taken over the building and there--or from time to time have been a few little fires in the building, which hadn't done much damage, but you could see where that happened.

But basically, it was pigeons and other wildlife had taken over the building and-- Elsa: Surprisingly, much of the theater was preserved, including the 1200 original seats.

Today, only 800 are being used.

Some were removed to make room for an extended lobby.

♪♪♪♪♪ Dick: Were all in fairly good shape, cast iron, decorative support, and wood seat bottoms and upholstered backs and the like.

All of the seats were removed from the theater and they were fully restored.

All of the wood was sanded and refinished.

All of the metal was cleaned and repainted.

Elsa: They look beautiful.

Something you don't see, but cost a quarter of a million dollars, was retrofitting the building.

Dick: It's always difficult to reinforce something and then put it back the way it was.

So, there was a--there's a lot of putting metal and rebar and bolts and things like that inside existing concrete walls and some--in some cases, having to remove the surface treatment, whether it be decorative or not, and then putting it back once it's done and-- Elsa: The theater would later be condemned because it was reportedly structurally unsafe.

It was apparently just three months away from being demolished when a group of concerned citizens intervened.

The theater has been fully restored.

Dick: The interior of the theater probably is more typical of what you would expect from a movie palace built in the late '20s with some fairly elaborate lights sconces and chandeliers and detail.

Elsa: A lot of detail went into the theater's cooling system.

It was the first of its kind, it has been upgraded and it is still in place today.

Dick: Essentially, the whole underneath side of the floor of the movie theater is a great big air duct, obviously broken down into smaller pieces.

And there are something like 400 little floor boxes underneath the seats where air comes out of each one of those to condition the space.

Elsa: A historic theater that's been restored for many to enjoy.

It features many live performances including some black and white films from the era.

Elsa: Next, I visit the Spreckels.

It is marvelous and grand.

The theater was once operated by a Hollywood movie pioneer.

His daughter now owns and operates the historic theater.

The Spreckels Theatre on Broadway is considered one of the oldest historic theaters in San Diego.

It is beautiful, decorative, and majestic.

The interior is luminescent and grand.

It opened in 1912, built to greet the Panama-California Exposition.

♪♪♪♪♪ Sugar magnate, John D. Spreckels commissioned a number of local buildings, including the theater, Spreckels, which shaped San Diego's history by investing heavily in local real estate and by establishing the San Diego Electric Railway.

The seven story office building and the theater were designed by architect Harrison Albright.

♪♪♪♪♪ Elsa: Spreckels would settle in San Diego after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

Following that experience, the tycoon would have the theater built to withstand earthquakes and fires.

The Spreckels would later become an independent movie house.

Many years after, the concrete and steel building would be threatened for demolition.

Jacquelyn Littlefield: At one point, they've thought of condemning the building because it wouldn't be earthquake proof and so forth.

And I got to the head of the seismic committee who told me that he wrote a letter and he said you couldn't knock it down.

When it hits eight, it'll start to crack tiles.

Elsa: Miss Jacquelyn Littlefield now owns and operates the theater.

Her father, Louis B. Metzger, a Hollywood movie pioneer, would supply Universal and Columbia studio films to the independents.

He would later obtain the lease on the theater in 1931.

After his death, at just 18 years old, Miss Littlefield would take over the family business.

Jacquelyn: Was selling film.

He was a young guy and his uncle gave him a job selling film.

He was like 25 years old.

He was very bright and he saw that the little independent theater, which this was, couldn't get product.

Elsa: Theaters, movies, and art are a passion of Miss Littlefield.

So, too, for Spreckels Theatre manager Shaun Davis.

Shaun Davis: This was originally built as a vaudeville opera theater, which is why we have such a deep stage.

We were not built as a movie house.

The movies came later.

Our acoustic rating in here is in the high 90 percentile.

We were made for live performance.

Elsa: At one point, the theater held almost 2000 seats.

It now has about 1500.

In the entry, the tile is original.

So is the alabaster marble on the walls.

The box office still holds the original ticket racks from when the theater first opened.

In the lobby there are new chandeliers and there have been minor changes, but it still looks from the period.

When you walk into the lobby, it feels like you're walking back in time, literally.

Shaun: Well, again, everything is very original to the building.

The whole building is a national historic site, so she's made a great effort to preserve it.

Elsa: To further preserve the Spreckels, Miss Littlefield returned the one time movie house back to a live performance theater in the 1970s.

With her interior decorator experience and an eye for excellence, she's been the driving force in protecting the building for the past 78 years.

When you walk into the theater.

I mean, it blows you away, really.

There's so many places to look at.

So, can you describe that for me?

Shaun: Well, it's a baroque building.

We have beautiful paintings in the ceiling along with some statuary on each side of the proscenium.

It's a very ornate building.

And Mrs. Littlefield's decorated it in a way where it really brings out the ornateness with the gold on the friezes and on the plaster work.

Elsa: Miss Littlefield truly exudes the elegance and charm of a bygone era.

It's probably what's helped preserve the theater all these years.

There have been many plans to tear down the building for new development, but Miss Littlefield and her family are determined to preserve it.

Jacquelyn: So, I'm a designer.

I collect art.

I care about the beauty of the eras and some vestige of what was there.

You erase it, what do you have?

Elsa: What you have today is a magnificent historic building, which was, and still is, one of the most beautiful theaters in the country.

And in just a few years, the theater will mark its 100th anniversary.

You can count on a special celebration to mark the occasion.

♪♪♪♪♪ Elsa: There have been so many performances at the Spreckels Theatre including Katharine Hepburn, the great conductor and composer John Philip Sousa, and famous tenor Enrico Caruso, just to name a few.

And the Spreckels continues to have some great performances.

Finally, they were considered as some of the most luxurious and popular theaters in the West Coast, but they've been torn down.

That era may be lost, but certainly not forgotten thanks to some great photos from the San Diego Historical Society.

Despite the decay, neglect, and chain link fence around it, the California Theatre is still beautiful.

The architecture is Spanish Colonial Revival.

It opened in 1927.

Photos from the period show the theater in its heyday.

David: It's--it had a very ornate interior.

much of it has survived.

It was chopped up a little bit when they made it into a movie house and they moved some things around, but the original grand staircase is still there.

Elsa: Architect David Marshall restores historic buildings and knows their history.

He says the movie industry would change everything when many theaters were switching from vaudeville to film.

David: You know, through history, we've had a lot of theaters in San Diego, but what you realize when you start looking into it is that many of them are gone.

And we lost a lot of them in the '40s, '50s, and '60s.

And of course, when live performances went out and movies came in and then single screen theaters were the thing and then they--then multiplexes came in.

So, there's a lot of turnover.

Elsa: The California is on the National Register of Historic Places, but its owners are in bankruptcy.

Many fear the building will be lost if something isn't done soon.

With each year that passes, more of the theater's interior and exterior details are lost.

David: Historic buildings do occasionally get torn down, it's usually an environmental process that has to be followed, but we have the Hotel San Diego on Broadway, which was built by Spreckels and that was on the--eligible for the National Register and it was torn down for a new federal courthouse.

Elsa: Other theaters would suffer the same fate.

They would be demolished for new development.

David is an avid collector of ephemera, postcards, brochures, and photos that depict a different time in San Diego.

This tourist guide from 1915 profiles many of the theaters.

David: There's a list here of nine different theaters.

And when we go through the list, we can see that the top of the list is the Spreckels Theatre, which, of course, still survives, but the unfortunate thing is, you go down the rest of the list and the other eight theaters are all gone.

The Empress, the Savoy, the Cabrillo, the Broadway, the Illusion, the Plaza, the Pickwick, and the Superba Theatre are all gone.

Elsa: The Pantages did not survive, but it was one of the most lavish.

After operating as the Pantages for a number of years, it changed its name to the archeo, Orpheum.

David: And that was built in the mid 1920s and it was demolished in 1964 and it was on Fifth and B street and it was one of the largest theaters we had, and it was really quite a beautiful building, Spanish Revival.

And there's stories about when they actually tried to tear it down, the company that was in charge of demolition went bankrupt because it was such a sturdy building that they, you know, actually couldn't tear it down.

Elsa: It eventually came down.

One that did survive, the popular Fox Theatre.

At the time, it was considered the largest in the west, but it would undergo a major transformation.

David: Another building, which is--which has survived on the interior but is lost on the exterior, is the old Fox Theatre, which is also on B street, but it was converted into Symphony Hall and it kind of swallowed up into a larger building.

So, the interior is still very much intact, but the exterior, which, again, had some Spanish influence and really some nice architecture has, you know, has been destroyed.

Elsa: The historic Old Globe Theatre wasn't destroyed for new development, but lost during a devastating fire in the 1970s.

David: Well, the Old Globe Theatre, the building itself, original building, was built for the 1935 California Pacific International Expo, our second expo in Balboa Park.

And it was unique because most of the expo buildings, as you know, are Spanish or Mission style, but this was built in 1935 and it was built in the style of the Elizabethan theater in London.

Elsa: The Old Globe almost had an entirely different identity, but the plans never fully developed.

David: It's a program from 1931 of a fundraising play called, "Heart's Desire," which was--actually took place in San Diego Stadium, which is now Balboa Stadium, and it was to raise money for the San Diego Community Theater group because they were trying to build a new theater in Balboa Park.

Elsa: The plans were scrapped.

The community group failed to raise the money because of the Great Depression and they would settle on the original building from 1935.

While many of the local historic theaters have been lost, there is a push to save the remaining few, like the California, which is on the most endangered list of historic resources.

There is still hope that someone can come forward and save the building before it's too late.

Elsa: It's great to see these wonderful historic theaters come back to life once again.

I hope you enjoyed this episode of "San Diego's Historic Places."

If you have an idea or would like to share a photo collection, you can contact me at sdhistory@kpbs.org.

I'm Elsa Sevilla.

Thanks for watching.

♪♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪♪ male announcer: Thank you to SOHO, Save Our Heritage Organization, for its partnership.

SOHO is preserving San Diego's history for the future.

Mutual of Omaha is a proud sponsor of San Diego's historical places.

Mutual of Omaha is celebrating 100 years of service to families across America.

Mutual of Omaha knows the importance of financial planning for the future.