Bal Theatre

This theater seats 800 & has a long auditorium. Had reopened in 2000 after being shuttered for several years. The operators at that time had spent some money sprucing up the place. The auditorium had some gorgeous paintings in it. The theater in its last incarnation was showing second run films at discount prices and even had reasonably priced concessions. It did have an occasional live concert & live state shows as well. Closed in April 2001 after the city pulled the operator's permit because of their midnight showings of "Rocky Horror Picture Show" which offended some area residents. The new attempt to open the theater is primarily being done by an operator who is looking to hold religious meetings & may possibly show family oriented films. The lack of parking in the area is an issue that has been holding it up.

The theater opened in 1946 & was a neighborhood theater until 1969, then switched to Spanish language programming until the early 1980's, then was shuttered for some time. A brief attempt to show Indian language films came in the 1990's, but it lasted just a few months.

I attended this theatre once during its brief reopening during 2000. Though a bit dirty and waterstained, the interior is nearly all original, with very fine murals including scenes of Apollo in his chariot.

This theater has just reopened & is showing movies (at least on weekends anyway)!! Theater is now called Bringing All Love. It has reopened within the last week.

The Bal Theatre is located at 14808 E. 14th Street.

Bal Theatre was another one I used to go as a child, but when it started showing Spanish speaking movies, I stopped. It was closed for a long time and reopened briefly to show captioned movies which was a delight to the deaf community. Unfortunately, it closed again.

If anyone knows who the owner is of The Bal Theater - please email me. I would love to help them book film again and get the house
re-established as a neighborhood family theater.

I drove by The Bal today, and it appears to be open. The marquee advertised a film, "Heroes of the Bible".

Currently a religious group runs the Bal. Besides religious films, they do show second-run family films on the weekends.

Updated comment--They only show religious films now on Sundays at 9:35 AM. Apparently, the second-run films weren't drawing too well.

New update--It is now showing Indian movies again(a film called Veer Zamora was advertised on both the marquee and in the Daily Review). Apparently, it now has a Dolby Digital setup as well. (It had always been a mono sound theater in earlier incarnations.)

Update on last post--The operators of the Naz 8 in Fremont are running this theater and they are showing Indian films on a seven days a week schedule. One show Mon-Th, 2 shows Friday, and 3 shows on Sat & Sun. Perhaps this time the theater will take off.

For sale for $750,000 at

The Bal is a beautiful theatre. I wonder what happened to the beautiful blue curtain that graced the stage. The interior is a little water damaged, but the murals are intact and beautiful. I remember as a kid, there was a supermarket called LoRays that gave free passes for movies on Sat and Sun afternoons and the place was packed. The interior is a long wide auditorium, single floor, but starts to slope up in the back slightly for about 15 rows. The screen is big and the sound system is terrific. I wish I could win the lottery and just run the Bal. It had a beautiful neon sign that would flash in red and blues, you could see it all the way down East 14th Street. Only drawback was parking. There used to be a little coffee shop right next to the Bal, that made great hamburgers and back then you had to be 18 to play pinball, but the lady would let you play the one she had as long as you put money in the juke box. Ah, the memories!

This is a recent photo of the Bal Theater and this is a closeup of the marquee.

Bal sued a much larger theater group in 1962 for anti-trust:
http://tinyurl.com/sfq3s

This is a 2005 article about the Bal Theater.

I remember seeing 'Journey To The Center Of The Earth' at the Bal many years ago. They had the best 4 track stereo surround system in the 50's and 60's. Someone needs to reopen the place. Book movies from the 50's, get the seniors to come, make it like the old days. People are tired of the multiplex experience. The Lorenzo is about to be re opened one day.

Does anyone know how the Bal Theater got its name?

Here are links to several articles regarding The Bal Theatre

It's legal troubles over showing "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" in 2001
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/2001-06-22/news/culture-watch

It's conversion to showing Indian Bollywood films in 2004
http://www.sanleandrobytes.com/archives/001081.html

The Bal Theatre is still closed. The poster display window has a Bollywood Film poster still in it. The last I heard the Lobby had been painted garrish colors during the run of "Rocky Horror"

A good view of the Bal Theater in San Leandro taken by SteelePop.

Here is an article with several photos of the Bal, including some interior shots.

I haven't been able to find how the theatre got its name, but what I have found is an online excerpt from a book called "Got a Revolution" which reveals that The Bal's owner, Renny Lamarre, was also the manager of a young musician named Marty Buchwald and, not liking that surname, changed it to Balin, taking the first syllable from his Bal Theatre. Marty Balin then went on to fame as a member of the San Francisco band Jefferson Airplane.

Purely as speculation, I wonder if the theatre's name was chosen because bal is the French word for ball, as in fancy-pants dance?

The neighborhood surrounding the theater is called the Bal neighborhood.

Did the name originate with the district or with the theatre? The San Leandro Times says the Bal Districts are of mostly post-WWII development. It's easier to tell what came first in Fresno's Tower District, for example, since the neighborhood is considerably older than the theatre from which it eventually got its current name.

This is a nice 2008 photo.

There is now a Sold sign in the window. Wonder who bought it this time.

I have also recently seen that there is now a Sold sign posted in one of the windows, i have also seen a few people walking in and out of the theatre from time to time. So is there any news on who has now purchased the Bal Theatre?

2009 close-up view

Hey Lost Memory I am the son of the man who has purchased the theater i was interested in what your history is with the theater,because i am very much interested in finding out as much as i can about the building, so if you can email me it would be great my email is derrickdillman@hotmail.com
Thank you

I'd like to help you Theatre_Geek but I don't have any information about the Bal Theater. Maybe someone else here can help you.

ok thank you, i see that you have taken recent shots of the theatre
have you been informed on what type of business is going to be inside of there?

This document dated January 15, 2009 mentions, "Matter of PLN2008-00049; Conditional Use and Parking Exception; to allow the establishment of a computer repair and service business at 14808 East 14th Street. The Bal Theater would continue to be used. Assessor’s Parcel Number 077E-1593-008-00; Xzault Media Group, D. and G. Dillman (Applicants and Property Owners); SA-1 South Area – 1 District."

I'm not sure what it means by "The Bal Theater would continue to be used". Continue to be used for what, a computer repair business?

I hope they start showing cool B Movies at the Bal with the new owners.. San leandro is a gold mine for cool :)

Here is a January 1961 ad from the Hayward Review:
http://tinyurl.com/ctse5e

Here are some 1986 photos:

Photo1

Photo2

Photo3

Looks like the Bal will be opening on November 14, 2009. Here is their website.

This is a November 2, 2009 article about the Bal Theater.

There have been independently made documentaries that have been showing here on Saturdays since November. Status should be changed to "open". I am curious as to how much of an audience the documentaries are doing.