Balboa Theater (San Francisco)

The Balboa Theater opened its doors on February 27, 1926, and it was originally named the New Balboa Theater to avoid confusion with another cinema the owner, Samuel H. Levin, operated in a different part of the city. Levin was a titan of local film exhibition who built a chain of neighborhood movie houses intended to provide domestic comfort to local families. To design this space, he hired the Reid Brothers, the same architectural firm responsible for iconic San Francisco landmarks like the Fairmont Hotel and the Cliff House. The building was designed to be modest and to blend seamlessly into the suburban landscape of the Outer Richmond district.