Skip to main content

Image / Balboa Pavilion

Have a question about this item?

Item information. View source record on contributor's website.

Title
Balboa Pavilion
Alternative Title
Los Angeles Photographers Photo Collection;
Creator
Schultheis, Herman
Contributor
Made accessible through a grant from the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation
Date Created and/or Issued
Circa 1937
Contributing Institution
Los Angeles Public Library
Collection
Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection
Rights Information
Images available for reproduction and use. Please see the Ordering & Use page at http://tessa.lapl.org/OrderingUse.html for additional information.
Description
Title supplied by cataloger.; Herman J. Schultheis was born in Aachen, Germany in 1900, and immigrated to the United States in the mid-1920s after obtaining a Ph.D. in mechanical and electrical engineering. He married Ethel Wisloh in 1936, and the pair moved to Los Angeles the following year. He worked in the film industry from the late 1930s to the mid-1940s, most notably on the animated features "Fantasia" and "Pinocchio." His detailed notebook, documenting the special effects for "Fantasia," is the subject of a 14-minute short-subject included on the film's DVD. In 1949, he started employment with Librascope as a patent engineer. Schultheis was an avid amateur photographer who traveled the world with his cameras. It was on one of these photographic exhibitions in 1955 that he disappeared in the jungles of Guatemala. His remains were discovered 18 months later. The digitized portion of this collection represents the images Schultheis took of Los Angeles and its surrounding communities after he relocated to the area in 1937.
The Balboa Pavilion, built as a Victorian bathhouse and terminal for the Pacific Electric Red Car, is one of California's last surviving examples of waterfront recreational pavilions from the turn of the century and the unquestioned focal point of the Balboa Peninsula. The Pavilion was built in 1905 by the Newport Bay Investment Company, who hired freelance architect Fred R. Dorn. On July 1, 1906, the 65-foot-high Victorian style building was fully completed to coincide with the completion of the Pacific Electric Railway Red Car Line extension. The original building had a second story meeting room and a first story bathhouse. The Pavilion has also been home to the big bands of the 30s and 40s, a bingo parlor, an amusement arcade, a ten-lane bowling alley, sports fishing, harbor cruises, Catalina ferry service, seafood restaurant, shell museum, and the first home of the Newport Harbor Art Museum. In 1968, the Pavilion was named a California State Historic Landmark (CHL). In 1981, it was designated a California Point of Historic Interest. On December 15, 1983 it was added as State Historic Landmark #959. In 1984, it became National Historic Landmark (NHL) #84000914. On May 17, 1984 the property was listed in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP), which is the highest honor a historic building can receive. The Balboa Pavilion is located at 400 Main Street in Balboa.
Balboa Pavilion, located at 400 Main Street in Newport Beach, as it looked in the early 1900s. A large sign reading "Sportland" can be seen high on the building, just below the tower, and a large banner reading "Tournament of Lights - Sat. Aug. 21" hangs between buildings on either side of the street. The Pavilion is surrounded by a drug store, bakery, cafe, post office, fast food restaurant, and bait and tackle shop.
Type
image
Format
1 photographic print :b&w ;11 x 14 cm.
Photographic prints
Identifier
00079521
Herman J Schultheis Collection; Los Angeles Photographers Collection;
N-005-954 8x10
CARL0002886910
http://173.196.26.125/cdm/ref/collection/photos/id/36056
Subject
Balboa Pavilion (Newport Beach, Calif.)
Post office buildings--California--Newport Beach
Drugstores--California--Newport Beach
Pavilions--California--Newport Beach
Bakeries--California--Newport Beach
Streets--California--Newport Beach
Architecture, Victorian--California--Newport Beach
Architecture--California--Newport Beach--Spanish influences
Balboa (Newport Beach, Calif.)
Newport Beach (Calif.)
Schultheis Collection photographs
Dorn, Fred R
Newport Bay Investment Company

About the collections in Calisphere

Learn more about the collections in Calisphere. View our statement on digital primary resources.

Copyright, permissions, and use

If you're wondering about permissions and what you can do with this item, a good starting point is the "rights information" on this page. See our terms of use for more tips.

Share your story

Has Calisphere helped you advance your research, complete a project, or find something meaningful? We'd love to hear about it; please send us a message.

Explore related content on Calisphere: