What’s Right With This Picture?

The other afternoon before dinner, I approached the gorgeous historic theatre with my family, walking under the beautiful marquee. After standing in line briefly at the box office, we purchased our tickets to a popular current film at a member’s discount.

The membership to the non-profit theatre had been a Christmas gift from my mother – one I had requested. My recent experience with Baltimore City’s inept and clueless handling of The Senator Theatre had made me all too aware of just how precious the other historic theatre in my life actually is.

We strolled into the outer lobby of the theatre, where an usher took our tickets. We stood in line for concessions, and were quickly served fresh popcorn with real butter, delivered in paper buckets and not bags. Passing through another set of doors, we strolled into the glittering inner lobby of the theatre, all of its gilding and original decorations looking stunning, as they always have for many years now.

Walking into the fully restored original auditorium, we found an open row of seats in front of the overhanging balcony. The gilding on the ceiling shone and dazzled as the organist played live music on the theatre’s period organ before the show.

My family and I had arrived at the most stunning entertainment venue in Southeastern Michigan – the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor, Michigan – for a matinee showing of “The King’s Speech.”

The Michigan Theater was built in 1928 by the W.S. Butterfield Company, a regional theatre chain. It is now owned by a non-profit that uses memberships and donations to supplement its ticket sales and keep the restored theatre in prime condition. Hundreds of historic theatres across the nation are best served by non-profit ownership, which can raise the funds to keep the expensive buildings as beautiful as they were designed to be. Theatres like the Michigan often receive around 40% of their funding from donations and memberships, not ticket sales – an important consideration in today’s economic climate of dwindling attendance for films in theatres.

The Michigan’s schedule is a mix of high-quality, critically acclaimed new films, classic films, live music and other special events, and even the occasional blockbuster. Laurie Anderson and Lyle Lovett & John Hiatt will all appear there in January. Lewis Black will be there and the theater will also host a Charlie Chaplin film festival in February. Jeff Beck will appear there in March.

All in all, the Michigan is one of America’s prime examples of historic theatre ownership and operation done right. It should serve as a model for what The Senator Theatre should become, if only the input and advice of experts in the field would be sought and heeded.

I’ve described the Michigan in some detail above, primarily because I think Baltimoreans who have not been to a successfully restored non-profit theatre like it have often had a difficult time envisioning such a thing. No such thing exists in Baltimore, after all. In other cities, like Ann Arbor, however, such theatres are magnificent and thriving cultural assets.

Almost every little thing is perfect at the Michigan, but not quite. As I left the theater and looked back at the lit marquee, I noticed that just a few of the tiny little light bulbs surrounding the name of the theater were out. Just a few, and they’re those tiny little pain in the butt light bulbs that were so numerous on theatres of the Michigan’s vintage (older than The Senator). Really a major task to keep them all lit at the same time. The bulbs are tiny and there are hundreds of them, so it’s almost a given that a few will always be out on any theatre of that vintage.

Even so, I smiled to myself as I reflected that if my friend Tom Kiefaber were responsible for that marquee, he would not rest for a moment until each tiny light bulb was lit. Anal retentiveness, thy name is Tom.

Perhaps the lesson here is that, even if a city has the foresight and vision to do the right thing with its historic theatre, and even if it has enough funding to take care of the major restoration, it still helps to have an uncompromising, obsessive person or persons with a real passion for the theatre – people like former Senator owner Tom Kiefaber – if every little thing is going to be truly perfect, at least most of the time.

Sadly, this reminded me that the new for-profit operators of The Senator Theatre have been badly neglecting its marquee and its neon – allowing nearly half of the much larger, less numerous light bulbs under it to burn out over the past couple of months, neglecting to keep the neon behind the glass bricks lit, even allowing the neon letters to go out so that, last time I passed by The Senator at night, the letters read SE—TOR, and not The Senator. Tom Kiefaber would never have allowed this neglect of easily maintained key features of the exterior for even one day, if it was humanly and financially possible to repair them. The new operators have been neglecting these simple repairs for months now.

But unlit neon and neglected changes of light bulbs are not the worst of the new operators’ problems. Attendance at the theatre has not improved much since they took over, although they got a temporary boost from all the publicity surrounding the reopening. That means the basic underlying economic problem is still there.

It should be no surprise that people are not going to flock back to The Senator in attendance numbers to rival the 1940s, but somehow Baltimore City has been slow to grasp this fact. In fact, I recently ran across a Daily Record article from April, 2009, in which then Deputy Mayor Andrew Frank is quoted as saying “At its peak [the Senator] drew 350,000 people a year, and that’s the goal we’re trying to get back to.” Uh, Mr. Frank? There are 365 days in a year. That works out to almost 1,000 people a day. Hate to break it to you, but that’s not happening again with first-run films. NOT. EVER. AGAIN. This is quite a revealing quote, however, that shows one of the totally erroneous assumptions on which the City has based their handling of this matter.

To make matters worse, the new operators’ poorly-defined, ill-advised, and preservation-insensitive plans for renovation were rightly rejected recently by the Maryland Historical Trust, the state authority that determines the award of state historic tax credits, based on the national standards for historic preservation that have been set by the U.S. Department of the Interior. The rejection of the sub-standard plans is a huge opportunity to revisit the overall plans for the future of The Senator and course-correct a scheme that has gone badly awry from the beginning. Now is the time to do what should have been done in the first place, and consult historic theatre preservation and redevelopment experts, not just about the plans for renovation or restoration, but about the whole overarching plan.

Unfortunately, though, Baltimore City government is poised to bungle this again, as they may just continue to push through the existing plan, which has already gone so badly awry in just a few months. Outside experts need to be brought in, and they need to be brought in now, if we are to avoid the further slow decline and probable eventual destruction of The Senator Theatre.

Personally, I’d advise starting with a little research into the hundreds of theatres like the Michigan, all across the country, that are doing this right.

David Arquette: Feeding America from a Plexiglas Box

David Arquette spent today sitting in a Plexiglas box atop the marquee of Madison Square Garden in New York City. No, really. And he'll be there tomorrow, too. David is there to raise awareness of hunger in America for Feeding America. His stay in the box is being sponsored by Snickers, which is also raising money through a Facebook page.

David told me today that he first got involved with Feeding America when he began working on a program to provide school lunches for needy kids throughout the summer. He's been working with them ever since.

I went up to New York today to visit with David in the box, thanks to his friendship with the folks at The Senator Theatre here in Baltimore. David visited The Senator at some point and made friends with manager Gayle Grove and owner Tom Kiefaber. They've been keeping in touch with him ever since, and David has blogged about the need to preserve The Senator for future generations. So, David invited Tom and Gayle up to visit him in the box, and I tagged along as their videographer.

Although it was noisy in the box with all the traffic and the fan trying to move the air and dispel the heat on a New York summer day, I think I got some great video. I'm on the bus on the way home now, so I hope to be able to post that soon. David and Gayle even did the running man dance, which is a Gayle Grove tradition everywhere she goes.

Thanks to David Arquette for letting us visit, and especially for supporting such a great cause. Please go to the Snickers page on Facebook and join the cause.

UPDATE: Some of the photos...

An Open Letter to Councilman Henry from Tom Kiefaber at The Senator

The Senator's listserv just sent the following open letter to Bill Henry, which I'll paste in after my own comment.

From my personal perspective, if Bill Henry wants to show his good faith with regard to The Senator, he could make sure the city stops spraying massive amounts of water all over The Senator's roof and marquee from their temporary pipes along Rosebank Avenue FOR THE SECOND TIME IN ABOUT A MONTH. I took video of this today, which I'll probably put up on YouTube at some point.

Coincidentally, the water started spraying all over the marquee soon after Bill Henry had his little chat on the phone with Tom Kiefaber that is described in the open letter, but I suppose it's just my own paranoia to think the two might possibly be connected. Just to be clear, I'm going to point out that Tom K actually laughed at me when I suggested to him that the two might be connected, so it's definitely only me that thinks so.

UPDATE: Gayle at The Senator called the city and someone came out and said they couldn't fix it because it was contracted out, but noted that it was the second time it had happened in the same place. Somebody put a large orange plastic object used for diverting traffic on it, which does have the effect of at least keeping the water from spraying up in the air. When I arrived at the theatre a few minutes ago, a guy in an orange vest was at least working in the general vicinity. Now Gayle just reported it's shut off.

Well, enough about the mysterious spraying water. Here's the open letter from The Senator's listserv:

July 6, 2009

Dear Councilman Henry:

I was hoping that your call today was for the purpose of discussing the alarming upcoming city auction of The Senator Theatre and the BDC's misguided Russian roulette approach to the theatre's uncertain future.

While I understand your concern over the marquee message currently displayed at The Senator, our assertion that you have declined to date to address the murky situation in an open and transparent manner is the truth. If it hurts to see the truth displayed on The Senator's marquee, then do something about it beyond simply ordering it to be removed.

Your stance of avoidance in refusing to agree to meet at The Senator with your constituents and other concerned citizens is unacceptable. Running out the clock and ducking the issue at this juncture is a dangerous and irresponsible course of action. It's not how you represented yourself to the community to obtain office.

We sincerely feel that your representation of your constituents regarding The Senator Theatre and its uncertain future has been abysmal to date. Aligning with the BDC and The Mayor's Office and overtly shilling for their potentially disastrous, disingenuous approach, rather than responding to community and constituent concerns over this matter, does not reflect your avowed platform and values when you requested our support.

In response to your specific request, The Senator's marquee once prominently displayed "ELECT BILL HENRY", in the largest font possible. We agreed to display that message to all concerned in good faith, based on your words and promises to the voters and to us. Your subsequent actions however, have proven otherwise. What counts with us is your actions and not your words, and as a result we have come to regret our past support of your candidacy.

Ducking the last pivotal town hall meeting over The Senator Theatre crisis called by Senator Joan Conway, while choosing to take calls from the town meeting perched on a barstool at Zen West, did not go unnoticed. Neither did your celebration with the Mayor's office insiders and BDC representatives at Zen West immediately following the town meeting you were too busy to attend.

I note this behavior because from our perspective it's indicative of the cavalier manner that you have been conducting yourself throughout this crisis regarding The Senator Theatre and its perilous future.

Enough is enough.

As a result, we will not acquiesce to your demands to remove the critical message on our marquee, which from our perspective reflects a growing understanding of your allegiance to others and not to the community. It tells it like it is.

It is also unfortunate that you still refuse to meet with the community at The Senator Theatre, despite our standing offer to schedule a timely gathering with your constituents, based around your busy schedule.

Please also note that our refusal to remove the message displaying your name from our marquee does not justify hanging up abruptly. It's counter productive to an expeditious resolution of the critical issues at hand.

Emotions aside, we look forward to working with you and representatives from the city to explore timely alternatives to the city's auction, alternatives that will avert the unacceptable risks the auction represents. Your leadership is sorely needed to help fulfill the mandate formed in the past two years among our extended North Baltimore communities to ensure that The Senator makes the critical transition to not-for-profit ownership.

Not-for-profit ownership of The Senator is the community's mandate that has been achieved in scores of other communities nationwide to preserve, protect and enhance the uses of their beloved historic theatres. It's a mandate that can and should take place at The Senator Theatre.

The "cliffhanger" situation at The Senator Theatre can still have a happy ending, and we encourage you to meet with the community and recognize the wisdom of this approach before it's too late.

Sincerely,

Tom Kiefaber

The City's Auction is Russian Roulette or a Rigged Sham!

Just because I had to share...

I'm looking forward to hearing Tom Kiefaber get a bit more of the true story out there on the Anthony McCarthy Show on Friday. The media coverage has been so dismal on The Senator generally, with a lot of misinformation out there, but I know last time Tom went on the Anthony McCarthy Show it was really informative. The show will be on WEAA FM 88.9 and Tom will be on from 6 PM to 7 PM on Friday.

If you missed the recent interview with Tom Kiefaber on the Tom Marr show, you really should hear it. (Direct link to MP3 file.) Again, very informative, but there was a question or two that Tom K couldn't answer, such as why Bill Henry believes the city will control The Senator's future through an RFP process after the auction, and how he knows it won't become a church. He's been making those claims, but nobody understands how he can be so sure about the outcome of the public auction on July 21.

I know Tom Marr has invited Bill to be on the show and explain. Bill couldn't make it on Monday, which was the initial invitation date, due to an emergency community meeting. I understand that, and of course it was important for him to be at that meeting. I believe the invitation to be on the show still stands, though, so I hope Bill Henry will take Tom Marr up on his invitation soon.

Anyway, if you get a chance to hear Tom Kiefaber on either radio show, you'll understand the situation better. Tom has been the owner of The Senator for the past 20 years, and knows better than anyone what is really going on here. At times I think he has been reluctant to speak openly for fear of repercussions, but it seems like he's beginning to speak a bit more freely now.

My Name In Lights!

I'm a star! My name (or at least my blog's name) will be up in lights when the marquee goes on this evening. Thank you, Tom K!



Oh, and...the Church of What's Happening Now? What's that about? ;-)

We only need 2 Mil of the found $40 Mil

Thank You Tom!

Gayle at The Senator put this message up on the marquee today and snapped this photo:



I'd like to add my voice to this. As I said in the town hall meeting last night for anyone who stayed long enough to hear it, Tom Kiefaber is a true hero. Judging by the shouts and cheers of approval I got when I said this, I don't think I'm alone in this view. Without his amazing efforts to do what is nearly impossible day after day, year after year, The Senator would long ago have been just a memory. The fact that we're even able to have a discussion about The Senator's future today is reason to thank him and his incredible staff.

It's not clear who is going to fill the void, now that Tom has expressed a desire to move on and hand The Senator over to another operator. We can only hope his expertise will be consulted going forward, because it was clear last night that without his leadership, there's a difficult and uncertain road ahead.

I hope that Baltimore City realizes before it's too late that we need Tom's expertise in this transition. The meeting last night, which had a much larger turnout than expected with a house that looked pretty full, demonstrated that there is strong public demand to stop the foreclosure auction and give the community more time to find a solution. The public also showed their respect for Tom's work with a lengthy standing ovation at the very beginning of the meeting when he welcomed the community, before turning it over to the Senator Community Trust, which had called the meeting.