From the outside, it appears that the Art Deco-styled Senator Theatre has not changed since its opening in 1939. The columns of glass blocks shine pink and green and the brightly lit marquee displays in red letters what the iconic building has been considered for the past 70 years and is still considered today: The People's Theatre.
But behind the neon sign and multi-colored glass lies the struggle of owner Tom Kiefaber, who purchased the Senator in 1989, to keep its doors open. A foreclosure auction of the theater, due to missed mortgage payments, was set for Monday but was canceled when Mayor Sheila Dixon announced last Saturday that the city would purchase the $900,000-mortgage from 1st Mariner Bank.
As one of the few theaters of its kind left in the country, Kiefaber is currently working with the city to ensure that the landmark continues to serve its original purpose as a first-run movie theater as well as a community-based center once it is purchased by the City.
Kiefaber, whose family has owned and operated 50 motion picture theaters in Baltimore at one point, decided to purchase the Senator to prevent the unique, single-screen theater from becoming part of a cinema complex chain.
"Oftentimes single-screen theaters are picked up in this process, run for a while and then abandoned," he explained. "I recognized what now a lot of other people recognize, which is that [the Senator] is incredible, unique and iconic, and it needed to be preserved and protected. That's why I bought it."
From the beginning, the theater has been a place for the community. In its first years during World War II, when the television had not been invented yet, the theater served as a means of news for the people. Today, it is still a place for the people, with the theater being used for free holiday shows, community meetings and fundraisers.
Perhaps the most memorable moment, Kiefaber noted, was when they showed Obama's inauguration, drawing a large number of people from the neighborhood as well as outside the community. "It was America in here, it was incredible," he said.
Several celebrities, including such famous figures as Mohammed Ali, John Travolta and Edward Norton, have attended movie premieres and screenings at the theater. Film-maker John Waters (Pink Flamingos, Hairspray), a Baltimore native, is a frequent visitor to the Senator and claims to have been inspired by films he had seen there.
Outside the theater is a Baltimore version of the Hollywood Walk of Fame - each of 85 squares of sidewalk represents a movie and has the signatures of the actors drawn into the cement. This is just one architectural feature that makes the Senator unique.
Designed by architect John J. Zink, the Senator is a single-screen theater that is famous for its architecture. The theater itself features two skyboxes for private parties, a gold curtain that parts to reveal the screen and a large backlit sunburst on the ceiling.
It is the grandeur and beauty of the architecture, explained Kiefaber, that made it exciting and attractive when the theater first opened, but its appearance evokes a different feeling today. "The art deco and art modern style was made to look like the future - a positive view of the future. And as a result, we as a family always think of it the way it was initially received, which was, 'Wow, look at that place!'" Kiefaber said. "Now some people tend to think of it nostalgically."
While Kiefaber has seen a decrease in the number of movie-goers due to the advancement of the Internet, he emphasizes the flexibility of the theater in terms of its use. For the owner, moving beyond the utilization of the theater for only film presentations is essential to its economic viability.
"I think that's the vision for the Senator's future, as the premier multipurpose entertainment center in the region," he said. "We've demonstrated that potential by showcasing a wide variety of entertainment and special events here in addition to showing here."
The Senator has held around 30 sold-out concerts, one in which the screen was used to display fractal images behind the band. Similarly, Kiefaber hopes to add an educational component by opening the theater to local schools and showing films related to their curriculums. In this way, the screen acts as a "sharp, graphical interface for learning, as opposed to just entertainment."
Although the Senator represents the glory of the past, Kiefaber is concerned only with the future.
"The Senator, particularly recently with all the negativity, has been portrayed in the news as something whose time has come and gone, or sort of a dinosaur from an earlier era where it's no longer pertinent," he said.
"This place is about the future ... it's in its design and its very DNA, it's all about the future here at the Senator, not about the past. It's both, but the significance of this theater will be recognized more and more as time goes on."
Scott Peterson, spokesperson for Mayor Sheila Dixon, stated that "it's not necessarily in the City's interest to run the theater," and acknowledged the historical and economic importance of the Senator to the Govans community. "[The Senator] is the foundation of that community, and we wanted to make sure that [it is used] more alternatively as an art space," Peterson said.
Despite the city's announcement of its intention to preserve the theater in its original form, Kiefaber expressed concern over its future in regards to maintaining its non-profit and community interests.
"Where it's going, in terms of public ownership, could conceivably turn out to be a really good thing," he said. "But as I mentioned, it's going to take the vigilance of the people and their active participation to make sure there's still a strong community-based aspect to its operation, and that its future not be determined strictly by commercial development interests."
Last year, the Senator was in a similar financial situation, in which it was to be auctioned off. When the situation became public, 3,500 people donated over $120,000 in less than eight days, with 60 percent of it coming from outside of the state of Maryland. "the sense was that when debts are revealed, people tend to pull away, even within families ... [but] it turned out that that story actually did have a happy ending," he said.
This time around, however, the result may be drastically different. Kiefaber and his family, whose house is used as collateral for the unpaid loans, may have a difficult time ahead, but he still maintains an optimistic outlook.
Repeating his grandfather's words on opening night 70 years ago - "Ours is a mission to make others happy. What a pleasure to be so engaged" - Kiefaber said, "We'll continue to do that for as long as we're able to, and then it will be up to others to carry on. We've always operated as the people's theater, but now it's officially the people's theater ... if it weren't for the people, we wouldn't be here."
?- Additional reporting by Thomas Danner and Sarah Tan
