Westwood Theatre

1634 Ocean Avenue,
San Francisco, CA 94112

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Additional Info

Architects: James Reid, Merritt Reid

Firms: Reid Brothers

Styles: Mission Revival

Previous Names: Balboa Theater

Nearby Theaters

Westwood Theatre

This first Balboa Theater opened on December 23, 1922 with Charles Ray in “A Tailor-Made Man”. Located at 1634 Ocean Avenue in the Westwood Park neighborhood, and not to be confused with the second, better known, and still operating Balboa Theatre, about five miles away, which opened in February 1926 as the New Balboa Theatre.

Confusion over its identity seems to have begun as soon as the second one opened, and after five years, this one’s name was changed to Westwood Theatre, but it soon closed, not so much a victim of the depression, as unable to compete with the much larger and grander El Rey Theatre a few blocks away.

It was torn down, and a grocery store built on its former site in the early-1930’s.

Contributed by Tillmany

Recent comments (view all 2 comments)

teecee
teecee on February 16, 2005 at 1:20 pm

1928 photo of the theater here:
View link

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on September 9, 2023 at 12:35 pm

An article about the new Balboa Theatre in the March 31, 1923 issue of Motion Picture News said that the house had been deigned by Reid Bros., who made it a “…‘rambling’ structure, suggestive of some early California mission….” to fit into its predominantly residential neighborhood. The Balboa was owned by Samuel H. Levin, who operated a number of neighborhood houses in the city, including the Coliseum and the Haight.

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