Rendezvous Ballroom
No expense was spared in the construction of the ballroom, which was a city block long, and half a block wide. It featured reinforced concrete walls, a "floating" hard wood floor and a tile roof. After a fire in 1935 the ballroom was rebuilt with an arched roof supported by sectional girders of wood in a cross pattern, the same as used in the nearby blimp hangars for the Marine Corps.
The Rendezvous Ballroom caught fire again in 1966, and was never rebuilt. The site now has beachfront condominiums.
Famous performers
Among the notables who played at the Rendezvous was Stan Kenton, jazz band leader, who originated a TV show from there in 1957-58 and recorded the albums Rendezvous with Kenton (1957) and Back to Balboa (1958) at the venue. The ballroom was closed until surf-rock guitarist Dick Dale began performing there in 1960. Attendance grew from a few hundred to a capacity crowd of 4,000 on Saturday nights. When Dale left for the Pasadena Civic Auditorium in 1962, attendance at the Rendezvous continued to grow with bands like The Beach Boys, The Challengers, The Righteous Brothers and others.
References
- http://www.ocregister.com/articles/rendezvous-169619-ballroom-balboa.html
- http://encyclopediaofsurfing.com/entries/rendezvous-ballroom
- http://bos.ocgov.com/legacy3/newsletters/pdf/The_Tustin_Hangars.pdf
- Malcolm Gault-Williams (12 December 2012). LEGENDARY SURFERS Volume 3: The 1930s. Lulu.com. pp. 98–. ISBN 978-1-300-49071-5.
- Jeff Delaney (2007). Newport Beach's Balboa and Balboa Island. Arcadia Publishing. pp. 66–. ISBN 978-0-7385-5575-1.<
33°36′06″N 117°54′02″W / 33.60161941267734°N 117.90061873745951°W