Coming Soon: The Return of Balboa Theater

We can’t live in the past, but I would love to have waltzed across the hardwood at the old Rendezvous Ballroom on the Balboa Peninsula in the Roaring ‘20s. When the ballroom was destroyed by fire in 1927, a luxurious, Spanish-colonial Ritz Theater was built on its site. I wish I’d seen that one too.

Maybe someday we all can. That theater has been closed the past five years, but some Newport Beach residents are committed to returning it to its old splendor. All they need is lots more cash.

The Ritz Theater on Balboa Boulevard, between the Balboa Pier and the Fun Zone, began as a vaudeville and small stage theater. It was eventually renamed the Balboa Theater and specialized in first-run movies of the day instead of live shows.

The Balboa Theater has gone through several metamorphoses since. For a brief period in the 1970s, this grand structure was even renamed the Pussycat Theater. Peninsula residents still shudder that the Pussycat ran the porno movie “Deep Throat” for more than a year.

Renamed the Balboa Cinema after that, it specialized in classic films like “Citizen Kane” and “Casablanca.” The early 1980s was its foreign and art film era. Then came the “Rocky Horror Picture Show” years. The doors closed in 1992, when the owners found much-needed renovations too expensive. It’s been sitting in disrepair since.

“It’s been an eyesore,” said Dayna Pettit, a 25-year resident of the peninsula.

Two years ago Pettit and her neighbor, urban designer Ron Baers, discussed what should be done about the old theater’s future. Their conclusion: Why don’t we just buy the darned thing?

Eyesores did not fit with efforts they’ve been involved in to revitalize the Balboa Village area of the peninsula. So they formed a Balboa Performing Arts Theatre Foundation and put together purchase plans. But someone else with a lot more money had pretty much the same idea. Lido Isle resident John Wortmann and family members bought it with the idea of trying to preserve it.

Here’s where it stands right now: Wortmann and family have agreed, with a deadline in March, to sell the theater to the foundation for $550,000. That’s a good many dollars more than the $380,000 Wortmann paid for it, but he’s had numerous expenses in cleaning out the place and a hefty mortgage since then.

Through donations and fund-raisers--including a major event two weeks ago--the foundation has raised nearly $150,000 so far. It needs another $200,000 to secure the needed bank money. The foundation also needs to come to an agreement with the city for use of the municipal parking lot at the nearby Balboa Pier.

Pettit is optimistic it will all work out. The foundation already has the theater seats in storage, donated by the Walt Disney Co. Once the purchase is made, renovations will be necessary to make it earthquake-ready. But Pettit expects it could be open by late fall of next year.

She and others on the foundation have grand ideas for the place. It will primarily show first-run movies, she said, but will also be available for local stage productions and other community events. Pettit also wants Saturday matinees, perhaps with some of the classics.

“When I was a youngster I went to Saturday matinees for a dime,” she said. “It costs a lot more now, but matinees are still great family entertainment.”

Pettit sees a new Balboa Theater as a centerpiece for the peninsula’s revitalization: “It’s a grand old theater for a grand old city.”

Flunking Geography: Some of you may know my distaste when I hear Orange County promoted as a suburb of Los Angeles. I also get a little irked when a visitor from outside the county thinks that all of us live in Anaheim. (Entertainer Little Richard, for example, who put Buena Park’s Movieland Wax Museum in Anaheim in a TV interview.)

Another good example came up Thursday night at the grand opening of the Century Stadium 25 theater complex in the city of Orange. There was TV star John Stamos (“Full House”), playing electric guitar and drums behind the Beach Boys’ Mike Love, telling a huge crowd, “It’s great to be in Anaheim!”

Wrong city, John. And Stamos happens to be an Orange County native; he talked fondly about growing up in Cypress.

OK, it wasn’t a major mistake; the Pond of Anaheim was just a walk away across the Santa Ana River. Besides, no one seemed to mind. The Mike Love concert (with all the old Beach Boys hits) had the theater full of baby boomers bouncing excitedly.

Not So New: One byproduct of the new Stadium 25: The Century Cinedome on Chapman Avenue, once the city of Orange’s proud movie showcase, has begun to show films that were first-run four or five months ago. The price of popcorn may still be outrageous, but the ticket prices there are now set at $2.50 to $3.50, just half what they were.

Wrap-Up: Longtime jurist Robert Gardner, now 86, is a lifelong Newport Beach resident. I asked him if he remembered the old Rendezvous Ballroom. Remember it well, he said. And as a teenager, he worked as a gateboy the day they opened the new Ocean Boulevard Rendezvous in 1928, following the fire at the old one. A gateboy essentially collected the tickets for each dance and helped keep things in order.

“It cost 10 cents to get in and 5 cents a dance,” Gardner said. “The Rendezvous was in competition with the old Pavilion [another Newport Beach ballroom]. But it was the Rendezvous that got all the big bands.”

I asked Gardner about life in Newport Beach during the ‘20s.

“It was quite a bawdy place,” he said. “We had gambling, bootlegging from right off the boat, night life. We were New Orleans.”

Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling The Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823 or by fax to (714) 966-7711, or e-mail to jerry.hicks@latimes.com