Harold Lloyd’s Love Affair at the Birch North Park Theatre

Is the Birch North Park Theatre haunted? Some think so. Legend has it that silent film star Harold Lloyd and his love, Bebe Daniels (both pictured below), may be continuing their life-long love affair in the afterlife... right here in our theatre. Why is that fitting? Because our second annual classic silent film event on September 11 features a Harold Lloyd film! This story of their romance makes us even bigger fans of the bespectacled comic genius, and turns out to play a bigger part in the story of our theatre than we realized.

   

Harold Lloyd first came to San Diego with his father, fell in love with acting, and was discovered by Hal Roach, who made the “Our Gang” movies. Harold’s first leading lady and love was the actress Bebe Daniels. His father was a famous philanderer and Harold himself appeared to have problems with monogamy, but he always returned to Bebe.  When he asked her to marry him, she refused, because in those days a woman would have to give up her life and career to marry. She had no interest in giving up her career or Harold. She performed with Harold in San Diego several times and appeared with him in a theatrical event at the Panama Pacific Exposition in Balboa Park, after he became engaged to his second leading lady, Mildred Davis. 

Both Bebe and Harold married other people but appear to have continued seeing each other throughout their tempestuous marriages and the ups and downs of their respective careers. In 1924, Harold began producing and owning his own movies, and made a pact with William Fox to open a theatre in San Diego, putting up some of his own money to show his films. The North Park Theatre (picture below) was opened in 1928, followed by the Fox Theatre downtown in 1929 – now Symphony Hall.

William Fox lost control of the Fox Film Corporation in 1930 during a hostile takeover, but the theatre still gave Harold a reason to regularly visit San Diego, where often Bebe would be waiting for him. It can be presumed they often rendezvoused at the theatre for the openings of his movies, in the early 1930s. Bebe finally quit Hollywood in 1935 and moved to London with her husband to pursue a successful career in radio and television there. She returned to Hollywood for a few years after the war but returned to England for good in 1948.

Bebe had a stroke in the 1960s and of course Harold came to her side. They remained close until he died of prostate cancer on March 8, 1971. Bebe died of a cerebral hemorrhage just eight days later, on March 16, 1971.

Andrea Rustad of Ghostly Tours in History says that through the many restorations of this theatre, particularly in the 1970s and early ‘80s when it was used by Calvary Church, laughter, whispers and the sounds of someone calling for someone else could be heard in the building. She says Ghostly Tours has personally done two investigations at the theatre and have recorded a man confirmed to be named Harold. Could it be Harold Lloyd, returning to the scene of the happiest times in his life with the woman he loved? It would be nice to think so.

Tickets are now available for “Music and Mirth at the Movies Part II,” featuring Harold Lloyd’s “The Kid Brother” (1927), with live musical accompaniment by Dr. Philip Carli, Saturday, September 11, at 7pm. General Admission $12, Students/Seniors $10, Children $8.

Thanks to the North Park Historical Society and Ghostly Tours in History for background information on Harold Lloyd's history in San Diego, his relationship with Bebe Daniels, and his (possible) ongoing presence at the Birch North Park Theatre.