No "Luck of the Irish" for Ernest Ball at Santa Ana's Broadway Theatre

Sheet music cover, 1912

Around 10:00 p.m., on May 3, 1927, at age 48, famed composer, pianist and vaudvillian Ernest Ball died of a heart attack in his dressing room at Yost's Broadway Theater, 416 N. Broadway, Santa Ana. Only a few minutes earlier, he'd finished a performance with his male octet act which was touring on the Orpheum Circuit. The octet went by several names including "Ernest R. Ball and his Seven Merrymakers." The show itself was dubbed "A Night with the Gang."

Ernest R. Ball

In his short life Ball wrote the melodies for over three hundred ballads. His specialty was sentimental balads with Irish themes, like his most famous song, 1912's "When Irish Eyes are Smiling." He undoubtedly chose this theme to appeal to the large number of Irish immigrants in America, but his work became an integral part of America's overall pop culture. In the case of "Irish Eyes," the lyrics were written by George Graff, Jr. and tenor Chauncey Olcott for the latter's production of The Isle O' Dreams. Curiously, Ball himself was not Irish. Often, neither were the lyricists he worked with. 

Other popular songs by Ball included "Mother Machree," "Let the Rest of the World Go By," "A Little Bit of Heaven," "Dear Little Boy of Mine," "I'll Forget You," "Isle O' Dreams," "Ireland Must be Heaven," "Pal O' Mine," "Little Gray Home in the West," and "Will You Love Me In December as You Do In May?" Virtually all of his songs idealized the five subjects of mother, home, heaven, children and love. 

Ad for show from Santa Ana Register, May 2, 1927.

This was the third time a tour had taken Ball to Santa Ana, and it was the last performance of a well-attended three-day engagement at the Broadway. Earlier in the day, he'd felt a little weak. He visited Santa Ana physician Dr. M. W. Hollingsworth in the morning, attended a local Rotary club luncheon, and then followed that with a visit to a local osteopath. In the afternoon he said he wasn't feelng well enough to conduct a scheduled interview with a journalist. At his matinee show, he was able to sing just one song, but accompanied the rest on piano. At the evening performance he was unable to sing at all, but provided accompaniment throughout. The evening show ended at 9:30 and he stayed on stage for a bit afterward and spoke with theater manager E. D. Yost. According to the Santa Ana Register, he told Yost "that he had decided that Santa Ana was his ideal of a city and that he intended to make his permanent home here." Ball said, prophetically, that he intended "to end his days" in Santa Ana. 

Photo autographed to Sims, Santa Ana Register, May 4, 1927

In his final act, Ball stopped to autograph a photo of himself for theater organist Bartley Sims. He then went backstage to his dressing room to remove his makeup and change into his street clothes. It was at this point that he "fell to the floor, gave two long gasps" and became unresponsive. An announcement was put out to the remaining audience members, to see if there was "a doctor in the house." But most of Santa Ana's doctors were at a medical convention in Fullerton and it was at least ten minutes before one arrived. Meanwhile, members of Ball's octet tried to revive him, to no avail. When the first of several doctors arrived on the scene, it was determined that Ball had died almost instantly upon his heart attack.

The Broadway Theatre, Santa Ana, 1920s

Mrs. Ball and the whole touring company were understandably shocked and heartbroken. Ernest Ball's body was temporarily taken a few doors up Broadway to Smith & Tuthill Mortuary (still standing today as the Kickin' Crab restaurant) before being transported to Cleveland, Ohio (his place of birth) for interrment at Lake View Cemetery.

The Smith & Tuthill Mortuary building, 518 N. Broadway, was built in 1885 as the home and office of Dr. Julius Crane.

Ball's death was hardly the only time the Broadway Theatre made the news. Designed by architects Carl Boller and A. Godfrey Bailey for Ed Yost, it opened on June 2, 1926. As with so many theaters, vaudeville acts ultimately gave way entirely to movie presentatioms. In February 1952, a careless smoker started a huge fire in the theater which was then rebuilt in a modern style and reopened in March 1955 as the New Broadway Theatre. By the 1960s and 1970s the theater's offerings included Japanese films and kung fu movies from Hong Kong.

The May 29, 1926 Register devoted a special section to the Broadway Theatre's opening. 

On Sunday, June 29, 1969 -- a fight started by a girl at the theater became the flashpoint for a teen riot that quickly spread across large parts of downtown Santa Ana. The police station and a Jack-in-the-Box restaurant were badly damaged. The fracas ultimately involved about 200 rioters and just as many law officers were there to quell the violence.

The Broadway Theatre after the fire of 1952

The New Broadway saw violence again in April 1974, when several homemade pipebombs blew apart the front glass doors during a dispute with the movie projectionists' union. The theater closed in 1987, burned again in 1989, and was demolished in 1990. There is still an empty spot on the street where it once stood. The old Knights of Pythias Building, next door, was also built in 1926 and still reflects the architectural style of the now-missing theater.

This Knight's of Pythias building was the sister of the Broadway Theatre, which was located in the empty spot at left.

And for those who came into this article thinking it would be about famed guitar string entrepreneur Ernie Ball,... It turns out Roland Sherwood "Ernie" Ball was the grandson of the famed songwriter. Ernie also had an Orange County connection, having important connections to Fullerton inventor and musical instrument manufactuer Leo Fender. But that's a story for another time.