Not Suitable For Children

Today I take a break from my series on Occupy Baltimore, which will continue soon.

Last night, at a Baltimore Blast game, which I attended with my family, I ran into one of the major culprits in the City's fiasco with The Senator Theatre. You know who you are. I didn't say what I wanted to say, because I would have had to say it in front of both of our families, and it's hard to say without a lot of profanity. So let me get that out of the way right now: FUCK FUCK FUCKITY FUCK, MUTHAFUKKA!

First of all, you accomplished nothing. The Senator looks like crap now, and the City has already spent way more money on it than they ever spent during Tom Kiefaber's award-winning stewardship. It's now being run by people who don't have any passion for it, don't have much real experience running classy theatres, have a crappy plan for expansion that will ruin the building, and already aren't maintaining it properly. Way to go, idiot.

Second, you ruined a good man's life and reputation. Let me say it again. YOU ruined a good man's life and reputation. It had nothing to do with money, as evidenced by the fact that the City is now spending more money than ever on The Senator. But you lied about that to the press, and you know it. It had to do with the fact that Tom had spoken out against the actions of the BDC. Political favoritism and retribution, paid for by taxpayer dollars. Way to go, idiot.

NEWS FLASH, dude, in case you actually believed any of the rumors that were spread in order to smear: there was no cash being socked away somewhere, no vacation home in the Caribbean, no drug habit. Not a dime lent by the city. Not a dime wasted. Just a beautiful historic single-screen theater slowly going the way that just about every other historic single-screen theater in the country has gone: to the dustbin of history.

And a heroic, civic-minded man who spent well over one million dollars of his own money and operated that theater in an award-winning manner that made The Senator nationally lauded, just trying to ensure the theater would remain open long enough for others to realize its value, let him know that he was not alone in appreciating it, and come to the rescue. The Senator only still exists because of Tom Kiefaber, and he kept it going for about 20 years beyond the time when it probably would have otherwise failed. He did this to the great benefit of Baltimore City, but the cavalry never came. The wolves did.

Maybe when you're nearly 60 years old, someone will take your whole life away, and you'll have to rebuild from scratch. At 60. Maybe then you'll know how it feels.

You were not alone in this. You were joined by other present and past BDC officials, a city councilman, and a head of a local foundation.

Some of these people who were involved in the City's Senator Theatre fiasco are the same people who have been major players in the City's EBDI (East Baltimore Development Inc.) fiasco, where they forced relocation of 584 families, and then the project wasn't funded properly and the neighborhoods that have been razed are just a big empty space now.

FIVE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-FOUR FAMILIES. Most of them poor and black. Their neighborhoods destroyed, and many lives ruined. No matter what you gave them in relocation costs, you can't give them what they had back. YOU DESTROYED LIVES.

This is obviously a much much bigger heartbreaking fiasco than The Senator one, but I haven't been directly involved. I don't know any of the victims. That's why my first thought was to cuss you out for The Senator deal, but this EBDI thing is even worse, by all the reports I've heard.

I know of other cases of the City's biggest official egos ruining people's lives for goals they thought would be good ideas. Some of the victims don't want me talking about what I know, so I won't.

All I can say is, YOU SUCK. Try to develop some humanity, and some compassion. I guess you don't even know what that is. Whatever the City's goals are, if it involves ruining innocent lives in the process, it probably isn't worth it. Your career and your movement up in the local pecking order isn't worth it, either.

Coalition of Candidates Calls Election Wired

A coalition of candidates for the office of City Council President held a press conference today to protest the lack of public debate in the race for the office of City Council President. There have been fifteen mayoral debates, many of them televised, and not a single one for the second highest office in the City. Candidates for City Council President formed a coalition, after they realized their voices were being silenced.

The candidates said that the single scheduled debate for them had been canceled after the recent earthquake, when the City put pressure on the Pratt Library to close that evening, even though the building was sound. The debate was not rescheduled.

Candidates Tom Kiefaber, Leon Hector, Armand Girard, and Renold B. Smith were present at the conference. Two other candidates, Charles U. Smith and David Anthony Wiggins, had signed up to suppor the coalition, but were unable to appear at the press conference.

The 3 minute highlights video is here:



Press Conference:



Q&A:

Tom Kiefaber's letter to CHAP

Former Senator Theatre owner Tom Kiefaber copied me and also several others, including reporters for the local media, on this letter to Baltimore City's Commission on Historical and Architectural Preservation (CHAP) before their meeting today. I have asked for and received permission to distribute it.

Dear Ms. Kotarba and Mr. Leon: Please pass on my protest over the manner in which today's CHAP hearing is being conducted to the commissioners. I will also attempt to forward this communication to them individually as well. To proceed on this matter today under these circumstances is improper, as I elaborate below.

Sincerely, Tom Kiefaber

August 9, 2011

Dear Chairperson and CHAP members:

I am writing in my capacity as the former owner of Baltimore's once-beloved and currently degraded Senator Theatre and as an award-winning professional in the field of historic theatre operation and preservation.

It has become apparent through manipulation of the courts by way of a "Peace Order" that Ms. Kathleen Cusack, a key representative of the tenants seeking CHAP concept approval of a fourth new iteration to significantly alter The Senator Theatre, has tactically barred my in-person participation and testimony in today's CHAP commission hearing. My lawyer has advised me not to attend or risk arrest.

Today's CHAP hearing represents the forth major change in the "competitive" RFP plan awarded by the City of Baltimore, and it has become a fundamentally different project from what was approved by the BDC on behalf of the citizen owners of the renowned National Historic Landmark facility. Today's CHAP commission hearing is auspicious in that it represents a significant departure from prior CHAP approvals of three earlier concept plans for significant modification of The Senator Theatre.

From the incomplete set of drawings I was provided by CHAP staff upon request, it appears that the applicants have chosen to take the oft-delayed project in a disappointing direction by converting the remarkably intact historic structure to create a cramped and substandard four-screen film multiplex. This current direction of the controversial project is alarming, considering the ongoing seismic changes in the motion picture exhibition industry that have rendered such modified re-configurations of National Historic Landmark theatres as outmoded, costly folly. The truncated and incomplete schematics I was provided by CHAP staff show a plan that will effectively desecrate an irreplaceable and celebrated historic structure in myriad ways.

In seeking a viable alternative to my in-person testimony regarding this latest modification, which the the surrounding business and residential community has not yet been apprised of, I requested on their behalf a simple set of plans and renderings to review. I was planning, in my former capacity as the long term former independent owner and steward of the Senator Theatre, built by my family in 1939, to be able to submit to the commissioners a clear, well-reasoned written list of informed observations and valid objections to the plans being considered for concept approval at today's CHAP hearing.

Unfortunately, as often occurs surrounding past hurried CHAP meetings regarding The Senator, I was not supplied any complete and up-to-date information, and what I received also contained no second floor plan at all, nor the details of existing exterior openings, cut-throughs, fire exits, materials and elevations required to evaluate the plan.

At 11:15 am today a fuzzy image appeared by email that was useless to me, particularly with a written submission deadline to CHAP, at at noon. The additional material I requested prior to today from CHAP was also requested by me from designer Alex Castro personally. What just arrived from CHAP staff are crude electronic images that are wholly insufficient to comprehend.

In light of the factors listed above, and the highly-charged significance of this oddly convoluted, public/private profit-sharing joint venture project intending to modify one of the most intact and celebrated motion picture theaters of its type remaining in America, I respectfully request that today's CHAP hearing on The Senator be postponed for cause.

Please note as well that today's hearing is inexplicably listed on CHAP's online agenda and in the document I was provided by staff as being submitted by my Senator Limited Partnership, which no longer owns the theatre.

Please postpone and re-scheduled the CHAP hearing to allow the public and myself to actively participate in an open and transparent agency process that is accountable to, and respects the rights of the citizen owners of The Senator Theatre.

Sincerely, Thomas Kiefaber

My Comments for Today's CHAP Meeting on The Senator Theatre

I am unable to attend today's meeting of Baltimore City's Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation (CHAP), which will consider the 4th significantly changed plan for The Senator Theatre submitted by the new operators in about a year. Instead, as one of the founding members of Friends of The Senator, I submitted my comments by email as follows:

Comment to be placed in the public record

Baltimore City CHAP:

The Senator Theatre is an important, largely intact and rare example of art deco/art moderne theater design by Baltimore-born theater architect John Zink. It is a precious component of Baltimore City’s built environment, which once lost, could never be replaced. It has been recognized nationally as an important monument on the National Register of Historic Places, and as such, it belongs not only to all citizens of Baltimore, but all citizens of the United States, the world, and future generations.

Thoughtful and well-planned preservation of historic buildings of the caliber of The Senator is essential for any metropolitan area that aspires to be both livable and a worthy destination for tourists.

It’s too early to make any informed decision on the latest plan submitted by City’s appointed lessees of The Senator, which is the 4th significantly different plan they’ve submitted in about a year. This new plan has not been seen by the public, and the plan that was submitted to CHAP, as of a few days ago, is nonsensical and incomplete, missing elevations and exit doors. It turns the historic theatre into a poorly planned multiplex and winebar, and still includes a proposal to mutilate the facade’s sight lines.

This has been the pattern all along: the new operators have submitted poorly thought out, incomplete plans which have slid by every approval stage of the process at the City level. Later, when they find out the plans won’t work, those plans change.

The BDC’s choice of a new operator, without any significant or legitimate input by either the public or historic theatre preservation professionals, has been a disaster so far.

The promised increase in traffic to the theatre has not materialized, nor do the numbers thus far support the suggestion that traffic will increase as promised once the project is complete. There comes a point where even exponential growth will not be enough, and this project is never going to attract the approximately 1,000 visitors per day attendance level that was projected in the original proposal to the City.

Worse yet, the theatre is not being adequately maintained. Marquee lights that burn out are left off for months. When parts of the aged neon go out, they are not reconnected. Graffiti is ignored and left to metastasize on the building’s exterior. The inner lobby is now painted an inappropriate color, found nowhere in the original design. A large plastic chute that was used in roof work to funnel debris to a dumpster is left hanging off the building, flapping in the breeze for months after the work was completed and the dumpster hauled away. The place looks like a dump.

The new operators have also shown beyond a doubt that they do not possess the aesthetic, historic, or design sensitivities to do an appropriate restoration. They initially proposed tearing out the original Ladies’ Lounge, a signature feature of Zink’s design for the building. This mutilation would never have been proposed by anyone with a real appreciation of the building’s design.

When that proposed change didn’t fly, for reasons that were obvious to everyone but the new operators and the BDC, they submitted a series of changed proposals. The one they submitted to the Maryland Historical Trust, in an attempt to get historic tax credits, was rejected by MHT, apparently due to its proposed mutilation of the building’s sight lines on the facade and/or its proposed mutilation of the original Men’s Lounge.

Perhaps unbeknownst to most of its members, Baltimore City’s CHAP commission has already done immeasurable harm to the future preservation prospects of The Senator Theatre, when it succumbed to ill-advised direction, apparently from Commissioner Robert C. Embry, in 2009, and placed ill-timed and probably unconstitutional interior landmark restrictions on The Senator Theatre, just in time to drive down the theatre’s value at auction, scaring off viable interested parties. This enabled Baltimore City to accomplish a land grab of The Senator from its former owner, Tom Kiefaber – a man who had made planning for and gathering the resources for the eventual judicious and top-notch restoration and preservation of the theatre his consuming passion and the number one priority in his life for over 20 years.

CHAP thus succeeded in handing The Senator Theatre over to the Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC), a body that is notoriously anti-preservation.

That Mr. Kiefaber was brutally harmed over a decade, and not helped in his determination to preserve The Senator, by the BDC and the Abell Foundation, is a permanent stain on the records of those organizations, to their everlasting shame.

The CHAP Commission is also tainted in this matter. It’s rife with conflicts of interest, since Mr. Embry, who has long worked to undermine Mr. Kiefaber, and Mr. Cusack, the new operator chosen by the BDC, are both on the board.

This Commission has been rendered incapable of making any decision regarding The Senator that will not be tainted by its politicized record.

I’m through with pretending that The Senator Theatre was acquired from its former owner by a legitimate process, put through a legitimate RFP process by the BDC, and is now being put through a legitimate design review process. I’m not going to give lip service to those falsehoods any longer.

None of this is legitimate. It’s all been one big shameful corrupt fiasco from the beginning. As one of the citizen owners of The Senator Theatre, I reject this body’s authority to make any decision that will allow any modification of The Senator Theatre by the current operators, who have clearly shown that they don’t deserve the honor.

The only legitimate decision that CHAP could make, in my opinion, is to put a moratorium on ANY changes to The Senator until such time as Baltimore City’s lease to the current operators is revoked, and a legitimate historic theatre planning process is done by real, nationally recognized professionals in the field, with the full input of the former owner and the community. Anything less is a travesty and a shame.



Signed,

Laura Perkins
Friends of The Senator Theatre

City Hall Revokes Kiefaber's Constitutional Rights

In a bizarre and illegal move, Baltimore City officials have banned former Senator Theatre owner Tom Kiefaber from attending public meetings at City Hall in clear violation of his constitutional rights.

Mr. Kiefaber has never harmed anyone and is not a physical threat, but City Hall officials clearly do not like what they think he might say. Kiefaber made one spontaneous peaceful protest at a City Council meeting and was thrown out. A week or so later, he was thrown out of a Board of Estimates meeting he had sat in for 40 minutes without saying a word and without doing anything, apparently because city officials thought he might have an opinion about the next item on the agenda, the West Side "Superblock" project.

The Baltimore Sun appears to be in collusion with City Hall on this, as I will illustrate below. When I saw the Sun article, which does not include a quote from Kiefaber, a hunch told me to call Kiefaber and find out what happened.

My call quickly confirmed that the Baltimore Sun had received the letter from City Solicitor George A. Nilson, but Kiefaber had not received it. When Kiefaber got a late Saturday afternoon call from the Sun about a letter he did not have, he questioned Sun reporter Tricia Bishop about why they had the letter and he did not. Bishop told him that Nilson had sent it to an address in Sparks, Maryland, where Kiefaber has not lived for over a year.

Bishop asked Kiefaber for a quote over the phone, but given Kiefaber's experiences over many years with the Sun, which has a pattern of either not quoting him or twisting his words and cherry picking the most negative part of his words out of context, Kiefaber insisted on putting the quote in writing. Kiefaber says Bishop then got miffed and wrote in her article that he refused to comment.

After the Sun article came out this afternoon, Kiefaber called the Sun and spoke with Steve Kilarp, who appeared to see that an injustice had been done and promised Kiefaber that if he sent him a quote in writing, he would make sure it got into later editions of The Sun. Kiefaber sent Kilarp the following quote in email:

I appreciate an opportunity to comment on this article for later editions of The Sun. Ms. Bishop reports incorrectly that I refused comment. That is not true. I merely insisted on providing prompt answers to her questions, in writing, a methodology that Ms. Bishop refused to indulge. She was apparently miffed and proceeded to mischaracterized my position in her error-laced article.

Rather than update the article as promised, however, someone at the Sun apparently decided they did not like the quote he sent them, and instead updated the article with the following lie in bold print:

Kiefaber refused to make a comment on the letter or criminal summons by phone, saying he preferred to do so in writing. No written statement had arrived late Saturday. He also said that The Sun was not covering him fairly.

Kiefaber then called the Sun again and spoke to Content Editor Andy Rosen. Kiefaber asked Rosen why the Sun had not printed the comment he sent them, and had instead lied and said he did not send a comment. Rosen told him they were not going to update the article.

Kiefaber also asked Rosen to meet with him to discuss the pattern of the Sun's documented smear campaign against Kiefaber. Rosen said no and hung up the phone, according to Kiefaber.

The Sun's article also falsely states that Kiefaber was recently escorted out of The Senator Theatre. I was there. Kiefaber came out on his own. Nobody escorted him. Kiefaber also called the police himself after his argument with the new operators.

Kiefaber Agrees to Six Months in Heaven

Is it a punishment to agree to stay away from what unfortunately seem to be two of the worst run movie theaters in the city for six months? Methinks not.

Given how difficult it must be for Tom Kiefaber to see The Senator being degraded day by day by the questionable management skills of the new operators, I'm assuming he welcomes today's agreement that he will not go to The Senator or the Charles Theater for six months.

Boo fuckin' hoo, y'all!

The agreement comes after Kiefaber tried to intervene to protect a child with leukemia, when Kathleen Cusack had apparently decided to deny the boy's rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

The resulting argument left the Cusacks with a fine opportunity to complain to the press about the man who once ran The Senator with a style and panache the Cusacks seem unable to approach or even comprehend. Their frivolous complaints look like an obvious political maneuver to harm Kiefaber's candidacy for City Council President.

Yawn. At least TK won't have to look at the marquee that the Cusacks can't seem to keep lit.

Cusacks refuse to accomodate sick child, file restraining order against Kiefaber

The Baltimore Sun has just reported that Kathleen Cusack, one of the new operators of The Senator Theatre, have filed a restraining order to keep Tom Kiefaber away from the theatre he was the proud and loyal steward of for over 20 years. In typical Baltimore Sun fashion, they neglected to report the other side of the story, when it comes to Kiefaber.

I was there when the incident happened. Here's the comment I posted on the Sun's article, although it has come to my attention that it's somewhat misleading, and I address that in the update below.

laurajperk at 1:23 PM July 16, 2011
I was a witness to this incident. Kiefaber was attempting to protect the health of a sick child, who had been advised by his doctor not to sit in the auditorium at the Harry Potter midnight show, because he has leukemia and has no immune system left.

The boy in question had apparently been to all previous Harry Potter midnight shows at The Senator and was determined to attend. The Cusacks had been asked to accomodate the boy's medical needs by allowing him to use the upstairs party rooms, which would have separated him from bathing in the sea of germs in the auditorium. The Cusacks refused.

Kiefaber was there because he was outraged by this lack of concern for this boy's welfare. His intention was to persuade the Cusacks to reconsider. The incident got out of hand primarily because of the Cusack's unbelievable lack of concern for the kid's health.

There are emails that have been circulated between one of the child's parents and Kathleen Cusack that substantiate the reality of this situation. I will not quote them at this time, because I have not spoken to the family. In them, Ms. Cusack changes her story about why it is impossible to accomodate the child's medical needs several times.

Also, I did not follow Kiefaber into the building, but it's my understanding that the shoving was begun by the staff of The Senator, attempting to shove him out the door. Hopefully more on this will surface later.

UPDATE: I realized that my comment on the Sun site earlier had given some people the mistaken impression that Kiefaber was angry when he went into The Senator. That's not what I intended to convey. In fact, he was in a good mood when he went in, because he believed he had worked it out with some members of The Senator's staff (not the Cusacks) that they were going to go ahead and accomodate the kid's medical needs. He simply went in to ensure that this was in fact happening. It was when he found out that they intended to let the kid just sit there in the auditorium, being exposed to countless germs, that he got mad.

UPDATE #2: Kiefaber has now posted at least some of the email exchanges between the parents and the Cusacks, which were forwarded to him, in comments on the Sun site. He had sent them to the Sun, but the reporter refused to report on them, and slammed down the phone, apparently when the story stopped fitting her preconceived agenda.

UPDATE #3: Some of the info Kiefaber has posted in comments on the Sun site below:

PART 1 The reporter just told me she is "finished with this story" and slammed the phone down. The Truth hurts so I wioll now post the information she's chosen to ignore.

Adam,

I understand that it is within my rights , in order to defend my self & my actions tonight at The Senator, to put the email exchange between us that I originally placed [within the exchange in writing] , off the record, on the record and release it if I care to do that. Presently that appears my only option to insure that the truth is adhered to in this needless drama,.this situation is absurd, and should never have gotten to this.

I was assaulted tonight at The damn Senator Theatre! Unbelievable. It's a real drag Adam. I simply tried to advise you, dammit, in good faith to just help this kid above all else, that's all, be Solomon remember? as you should note when you review your copy of the correspondence. It just didn't happen.

I was simply was in neighborhood tonight, in my district after campaigning all day, and stopped by the theatre line outside to renew od friendships etc. Then decided, for sound night's sleep, really, that's what I was thinking when I wandered into the outer lobby at around 10:30 to reassure myself that wisdom prevailed and the young man was safely in one of the lounges, where he wanted to be anyway. I was shocked, dude, when it was like, get out! What do you want?

PART 2
I just wanted to know that it all worked out, and that the kid who was so ill was not being exposed to that invisible cloud of airborne virus and bacteria from a packed house when he NEEDED TO BE UPSTAIRS, before they let the crowd in. He has leukemia and his immune system is hardly there , if you recall. It's just that cut and dry, possibly life or death cut and dry. As you know, his doctors as Sinai forbade him to go at all !! Nada. And the management said there were 870 people in there. That's too packed. 870 in there is cheek to jowl. Starting to see this nightmare shaping up? Well I sure did, and I was trying to reason with a blank wall of go away.

So when all these hundreds of patrons were rolling into the auditorium coughing and shedding virus and bacteria, i am thinking of this very sick kid with no immune system is now stuck in there for OVER THREE HOURS, in a sold out show, I got a little jiggy wid it.

Alarmed and frustrated is more like it, at the abject s u p i d i t y of it all.

Part 3

So it became a bit of a scene, after I was treated very rudely for my simple, smiling inquiry. Then words were exchanged I was jostled and taunted by someone named "Chris", who was not even staff as far as I could tell. Like a friend of the staff. I plan to file assault charges on him in the morning downtown if I figure out who he is and how to do that. . I have never been treated like that anywhere, particularly there.., the guy really jammed me. Seriously.

Words were exchanged , I used some profanity, and then was assaulted by a few staff, [I'm OK] and the Chris guy in particular, and then screeched at by Katheen Cusack in my Face with, "the kid's sitting down stairs, That's it! Now please leave our building immediately".

Lounge A and B were both sitting empty. EMPTY. It was one of the most pointless, stupid and shamefully, dangerous things I have ever seen in 35 years running motion picture theatres, 25 of them winning award running the The Senator as professional, and not as a look-what-daddy-got-me-toy to now dangerously mismanage. And that's the truth. And you know it too.

From my informed perspective, the management of The Senator tonight committed some form of criminal negligence, of the most arrogant and stupid kind.

A very unpleasant end to an otherwise great day of campaigning.

Tom

[my account above was sent by me to a patch reporter.

PART ONE [of 2] of my email sent to reporter/slacker Julie B. earlier today.

Julie,

There's more that's even worse but I don't want to hit the inbox too hard. That should keep you busy for a bit digesting what really is going on here. I am incredulous that filed this action against me. All I can figure is that they thought the Sun may do with it what's been down so far and not tell the real story because I have been accused of assult. Let's see what ensues.

By the way, she says they sold 870 tickets? to The Senator for the midnight show. If they did as KC states, you would need the lounges to seat the overflow. The Senator only reported 750 tix sold to Warner Bros. for that show. That's public record. That's a strange income discrepancy of over $1200 that Warner Bros. is apparently looking into. Something isn't right there. The film companies want each and every numbered ticket accounted for. Each Ticket!

Email to reporter Julie earlier today: PART two

So are they allowed to have people up there in the lounges or not according to the FD? That story keeps changing from KC. Kinda, no we can't for the midnight show, buuuut we will break the regs. later and slide him up, ignoring those FD safety regs when we can get away with it? ? What is all that about? . Please run that to ground. I would also check with the FD and find out is that is true or false, or what about new FD regulations on the Senator's mezzanine? Inquiring minds want to know. See where this leads? Gonna "go there"? I doubt it...

Regards, Tom

This

This email posted below was form Kathleen Cusack, and forwarded to me by those trying to arrange for the young man Sam, who has had his immune system wiped by chemo for a possibly lethal illness he was recently diagnosed with, sit upstairs for the special midnight premiere of HP at The Senator thrusday eve, I tried to stay out of this situation but got involved out of concern for the very sick young man's well being and fuiture.

Subject: RE: Help for a sick boy



good morning:

logistically we cannot accommodate your request to use the screening room at the midnight premiere. as you may imagine, it is sold out and it will be a mob-scene. there will be roughly 870 people there, who begin to line up for their seats around 9pm.

however, in the alternative we would like to suggest that perhaps sam and his mother come to the first scheduled matinee show that following friday or saturday afternoon.

we will need the full names of all of those that plan to come (in the event that he would like any friends to join them; we ask that there not be more than a total of 4)

additionally, they would need to arrive and be discretely seated upstairs one hour before the crowds arrive.

please let me know if you find this acceptable so that i can begin to make the appropriate arrangements.

regards,
kathleen

Note that in this one, she changed her story to it can't happen that night that the kid can go upstairs, when she initially said it couldn't happen because it was against Fire Department regs for anyone to be in the party rooms.

More from TK...

So the burning question remains, why wasn't this extremly vulnerable, ill young man not allowed upstairs Thursday night for his safety? The family was intially told it could not happen at all, because it was prohibited by the BCFD. What?

Then the story changed to what you see in the next post below. Then they were told by KC, it's OK but not for the critical midnight show? Too busy to bother with letting him upstairs that night. Really now?? and 870 tickets sold????. No, and that's a strange claim by KC. None of this fiasco in safe theatre management and operation adds up in my mind.

Ms. Cusack essentially lied to these folks multiple times, in writing, and so she was pissed that I found out about it. So she dug her heels in, the kid marinates in potentially lethal virus for three hours and I get a restraining order trying to do something about it when I found out what was up only after walking into the lobby that nigh to simply inquire about it?

Oh no. Not for this I should not be barred form the premisie. This upcoming hearing with the judge should be interesting. What do you bet The Sun does not meke it that day. Pinkie shake?

And to all who are judging me so harshy without any of these facts, what if it was your son in there? Would I be a loudmounth crazy man then?

Pitch to KC from the boy's family:Kathleen:Sam & his group have all their tickets for the premiere screening. The pediatric oncologists at Sinai got wind of Sam's HP plans & told us that seating him in such close proximity to so many others would be very dangerous, as his immune system is shot & his treatment regimen has made him vulnerable to contagious agents in a large crowd that would not be an issue if he was not so ill. Please allow me to hone in on the specifics of our request as I may not have been clear before. We are asking that only Sam & his mother, two ticketed patrons, be permitted at showtime to be seated in one of the the mezz lounges to enjoy the film screening. Sam is perfectly ambulatory & the concern is about his being so close to so many other patrons. His doctor nixed his being seated downstairs in close proximity for a two hour period, that's all. In that light we ask that you reconsider our request with those parameters. Hopefully with this clarification it will allow you & your staff to permit Sam & his Mom to enjoy this meaningful HP evening together on your theatre's mezzanine level, the two of them.Your compassion & assistance in this regard will be greatly appreciated by all concerned. Please let me know if I can supply any additional info per this request. The doctors are happy to provide verification of Sam's illness.

UPDATE #5:

A reader asks why it was necessary that the kid be allowed to go to the midnight show, instead of some other show. My guess is the refusal to accomodate him was a violation of the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act).

The ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) is huge, and I'm not a lawyer, but it prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in public places.

I would assume that this means that you can't discriminate against someone who has a disability caused by illness (in this case a disabled immune system), when it is possible to accomodate their needs.

The party rooms were empty, according to Kathleen Cusack. They could easily have accomodated the child's needs.

Furthermore, I don't think the ADA allows you to treat disabled persons as a second class of citizens and dictate, for example, what times they are allowed to be accomodated. If the kid wanted to come to the midnight show, and they could accomodate him then, I would think they were in violation of the ADA by not doing so.

http://www.ada.gov/cguide.htm

It's official: Tom Kiefaber running for Council President

I hear it's official. Former Senator owner Tom Kiefaber has now filed to be a candidate in the Baltimore City race for Council President. He's challenging incumbent Council President Jack Young.

This all comes after Kiefaber was recently removed from a Board of Estimates meeting pre-emptively. He had been seated quietly in the meeting for over 40 minutes, not saying a word, when the Board of Estimates took a break in the meeting to eject him from the room.

Apparently the next issue on the agenda was the West Side "Superblock" project, which Kiefaber has a strong opinion about. As an advocate for preservation of West Side historic buildings, Kiefaber was recognized by the New York Times about a decade ago for having turned the tide for West Side preservation, by screening a short film called "Baltimore's West Side Story." This seems to be where Kiefaber's political troubles with the downtown power elite began.

Cognitive Dissonance

Cognitive Dissonance. It’s a concept that keeps coming up in discussions about why the local media in Baltimore has refused to revise their assessment of The Senator Theatre and its transition, and refused to investigate what really went on, in light of revelations of the truth reported on this blog and by Friends of The Senator leaders. The media has not done its job on this story, and in fact has instead perpetuated a series of falsehoods that are now believed by many in Baltimore to be the gospel truth. When the actual truth was discovered and reported by me and a few others, it was ignored. What is going on?

The false story: Baltimore City has loaned Tom Kiefaber a lot of money and bailed him out time and again.

The true story: Baltimore City has NEVER lent Tom Kiefaber a single dime, and the city neglected The Senator for over a decade. This was in order to starve Tom out of The Senator, so that they could force a change in operators (which has now been accomplished). Baltimore City is now set to give the new operators much more money in grants and loans than they ever gave Tom Kiefaber. Statements made to the press about this during the past decade by Baltimore City and Baltimore Development Corporation officials almost invariably contained either false or misleading content.

Let me repeat the basic truth here: Baltimore City has NEVER lent Tom Kiefaber a single dime, and the city neglected The Senator for over a decade. See? You still don't believe me, but it's true.

The facts are right on the surface and easy to investigate, yet since I began to uncover them, every media outlet in Baltimore has flatly refused to investigate and report the truth. Most have continued the false and defamatory storyline of “the city bailed Tom out,” in defiance of actual fact. Why?

The answer may lie in the science of brain research.

Cognitive Dissonance is a term psychologists use to describe what happens in our brains when we have one thought, which we believe is a fact, and then are presented with conflicting information. Humans don’t like cognitive dissonance. We want the information in our brains to be neatly organized, for the bits of information to agree with each other, for it all to make sense.

“If someone is presented with information that is dissonant from what they already know, the easiest way to deal with this new information is to ignore it, refuse to accept it, or simply avoid that type of information in general.” – Essay by
Phil Barker

This means when we already believe something false, we will often reject the truth when we hear it.

According to an article in the Boston Globe, researchers at the University of Michigan found that when misinformed people are confronted by facts, instead of changing their minds, they often strengthen their false beliefs.

"Recently, a few political scientists have begun to discover a human tendency deeply discouraging to anyone with faith in the power of information. It’s this: Facts don’t necessarily have the power to change our minds. In fact, quite the opposite. In a series of studies in 2005 and 2006, researchers at the University of Michigan found that when misinformed people, particularly political partisans, were exposed to corrected facts in news stories, they rarely changed their minds. In fact, they often became even more strongly set in their beliefs. Facts, they found, were not curing misinformation. Like an underpowered antibiotic, facts could actually make misinformation even stronger."

If you’re a true believer in the prevalent “the city bailed Tom out” meme, you probably haven’t read this far. Your cognitive dissonance has already maybe caused you to reject my argument. If you’re an adventurous true believer who has read this far, you’re probably sputtering right now, thinking “but…but…the Sun gave numbers. They told us how much the city had lent Tom.”

Numbers lie.

In a recent interview on NPR, I heard author Charles Seife discussing his new book “Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception,” which I admittedly have not yet read. The basic gist I got from the discussion was this:

Numbers automatically lend credibility. When people see a number quoted in a news article, they believe that information to be true, even if they cannot verify that the number quoted is accurate.

To re-quote an excerpt of “Proofiness” that’s quoted on NPR’s web site:

As he held aloft a sheaf of papers, a beetle-browed Joe McCarthy assured his place in the history books with his bold claim: “I have here in my hand a list of 205—a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department.”

That number—205—was a jolt of electricity that shocked Washington into action against communist infiltrators. Never mind that the number was a fabrication. The number went up to 207 and then dropped down again the following day, when McCarthy wrote to President Truman claiming that “we have been able to compile a list of 57 Communists in the State Department.” A few days later, the number stabilized at 81 “security risks.” McCarthy gave a lengthy speech in the Senate, giving some details about a large number of cases (fewer than 81, in fact) but without revealing enough information for others to check into the matter.

It really didn’t matter whether the list had 205 or 57 or 81 names. The very fact that McCarthy had attached a number to his accusations imbued them with an aura of truth.

McCarthy convinced the entire nation that the State Department was filled with communists, based on a number he had just made up. It seems former Deputy Mayor and former BDC official Andrew Frank had similar political instincts.

In articles in the Baltimore Sun and other places, Frank was fond of citing the figure $600,000 when discussing how much money the city had supposedly used to bail out Tom Kiefaber. Except it wasn’t true. This money had not helped Tom to keep The Senator open.

The figure Frank was talking about represented a loan guarantee, not a loan or a grant. The city had not actually paid out that money, and would never become liable for that money, unless Tom defaulted on The Senator’s mortgage with 1st Mariner bank AND the bank foreclosed on The Senator AND foreclosed on Tom’s house AND another residential property Tom had used as collateral AND all of that property still could not cover the outstanding amount of the loan. Not a very likely scenario.

In fact, the only thing the loan guarantee did was to give the city financial leverage, so that when Tom eventually could not pay the mortgage on The Senator, they were able to dictate what the disposition of the property would be, and therefore acquire it themselves. The $600,000 did not go into bailing Tom out, but instead went to the bank, so that the city could acquire The Senator. The city used the loan guarantee to get its own hooks into the property, not to help Tom Kiefaber.

Numbers can be used in a deceptive way. Take the letter to the Kansas School Board by Bobby Henderson, which used numbers and a graph to document that global warming is caused by the global decline in pirate populations. Now this is absurd – almost as absurd as claiming that Tom Kiefaber, who put over 1.2 million dollars of his own money into The Senator, and never borrowed a dime from the City of Baltimore, was bailed out by the City of Baltimore time and again.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. The way the local media has framed The Senator story is largely false, in many particulars. In example after example, known by a few insiders, what the media reports on The Senator is often actually the opposite of the truth, but detailing all of that when the population of Baltimore is still faced with cognitive dissonance over the most basic of facts would be simply an exercise in frustration.

To give one anecdotal example, after The Senator changed its programming from mainly first-run films to a more eclectic mix of film, live music, and community events in March-April of 2009, the local media persisted in repeating the falsehood that the theatre was closed. One day when I was volunteering there, a passerby saw Tom Kiefaber changing the letters on the marquee, so that they would list the next day's event. The passerby remarked that it was nice that he continued to care for the marquee, even when the theatre was closed, and asked if he was advertising events for other theatres. When Tom told him that in fact, the theatre was not closed and he was putting up the marquee information for the next day's event, the passerby refused to believe him, and argued with Tom for several minutes. Finally, Tom brought him into the theatre and showed him a crowd of people in the auditorium, watching a movie.

"Friends of yours?" asked the passerby.

"You don't believe your own lying eyes, do you?" said Tom, and explained again that the people in the auditorium were paying customers, and that the theatre was in fact open.

Finally, the man had to admit that he had not been able to believe what his own eyes had shown him, because the TV news had told him something that wasn't true, but that he had believed. The man told Tom he would tell others the theatre was open, but the volunteers at the theatre doubted it would help. After all, a lot of other people had been told by the TV news that the theatre was closed, and even if they saw it open, they might not believe their own lying eyes.

When working hard to maintain cognitive dissonance, though, sometimes emotional arguments work best. When all else fails, true believers in the “Tom is the problem” meme simply state, “well, we don’t like him. He’s a jerk.” So, even if it's proven to them that the city never bailed Tom out, many will fall back on this argument.

Cognitive scientist George Lakoff knows all about how emotional arguments bypass the logical part of the brain and go straight to the emotional centers, often making arguments with facts ineffectual. He wrote about that in his eye-opening book “The Political Mind.”

So, why does all this neuroscience stuff matter in the case of The Senator Theatre? Why do I care that people have been fooled about what has happened in the past, leading to the transition of ownership of The Senator Theatre?

It matters because the best advocate The Senator has ever had in its history has been defamed, marginalized, and effectively silenced, and contrary to public belief, The Senator Theatre is now more endangered than ever before, because the current plan by the new operators is poorly thought out and is not based on real understanding of the issues involved.

Advocates for The Senator’s future need Tom’s voice back, not because he should be in charge again (he doesn’t want to be), but because of his years of experience and his visionary insight, which are very much missed by those in the know.

Truth in Reporting

Since the new operators chosen by the Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC) reopened The Senator Theatre in mid-October 2010, I notice there has not been one photo in the local news media of The Senator at night, unless it was a photo that was taken while former owner Tom Kiefaber owned or was still managing the theatre. Not one recent one taken in the past 3 months. Why is that?

Here's why...


Above: The Senator under Tom Kiefaber's ownership, March 2009

It continued to look pretty much like the above photo until after Baltimore City evicted Tom Kiefaber and the Friends of The Senator volunteers from the building in July, 2010. I can also show you numerous photos of it looking this good anytime during Kiefaber's ownership.


Above: The Senator under new management, December 2010, just 2 months after the new operators took over.

Go there and look. The new management has been neglecting the outside lights and the marquee, and there's graffitti all over the side of the building along Rosebank Avenue. This situation has been worsening for 3 months now.

To all the Baltimoreans who keep being angry at me for continuing to tell the truth about what's been happening with The Senator, please accept my apology. This card expresses my sentiments perfectly.

So, I challenge the local media once again. If you're going to report about the new operation of The Senator, go there and take a current picture of The Senator at night, will you? Stop showing beautiful photos of The Senator under Kiefaber's ownership and pretending that it looks like that now.

BDC detonates small nuclear device at Senator Theatre, blames Kiefaber

BALTIMORE, MD
July 31, 2010

Today the Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC) announced it had unavoidably detonated a small nuclear device, destroying the historic Senator Theatre, formerly located at 5904 York Road in North Baltimore. “This is all Tom Kiefaber’s fault,” noted BDC President M.J. Brodie. “Tom was a bad businessman, and besides, we didn’t like him. He hurt our feelings over a decade ago, and we haven’t forgiven him. We couldn’t allow any part of his legacy to remain and pollute the City of Baltimore. Also, he refused to get an accumulated 71 years worth of his and his family’s personal possessions out of The Senator in one day. We had no choice but to remove it by atomic blast.”

A spokewoman for one of the local neighborhood groups commented, on condition of anonymity. “Prior to the BDC’s decisive solution today, we were very concerned that a reopened Senator Theatre might bring people into the area from outside our neighborhood. We didn’t want those people taking our parking spaces, or driving up and down our streets. That was why we had backed the plan from Buzz Cusack of the Charles Theater, which offered little danger of that. But this new plan by the BDC is even better. Nobody is going to come from outside of the neighborhood just to visit a small radioactive pit.”

But a spokeswoman for the local chapter of People for A Not Entirely Poisonous Planet disagrees. “Nuclear bombs make an area uninhabitable for like, I don’t know, 3 million years, or something,” said Sage Greentree. “I might have come to a movie once or twice a year, if Mr. Cusack reopened the theatre, but I totally don’t want to go visit where The Senator Theatre was now.” Greentree lives outside of the immediate neighborhood, in a treehouse in far-away exotic Charles Village.

Not to worry, says BDC spokeswoman Kim Clark. “The cleansing device we used was much, much smaller than even the tiny nuclear bomb used at Hiroshima. It will only make the Govanstowne and Belvedere Square areas uninhabitable for a few thousand years, and they were pretty much that way already, due to Tom Kiefaber’s mismanagement of The Senator.” Clark added “Nuclear devices aren’t cheap. Tom owes us a lot of money for this.”

In spite of the warnings that their neighborhood would now be uninhabitable, local residents refused to evacuate. “We’ll just go ahead and mutate,” said one. “We’re already good at that.”

BDC President Brodie said he will continue to frequent the area. “Radioactive pits are what urban renewal is all about. Besides, genetic mutation holds no mystery for me. I’m well acquainted with it.”

“Tom Kiefaber’s family owned and operated The Senator Theatre in an award-winning manner for 71 years. The Senator would not still be here without Tom’s heroic efforts over the years,” screamed dangerous deranged psychopath and Friends of The Senator Managing Director Laura Perkins in barely intelligible expletives, before she was dragged away in handcuffs for approaching within a mile of the shiny new radioactive pit.

“The Senator Theatre is not still here,” noted Brodie, “and that’s Tom’s fault.”

Master criminal Kiefaber was unavailable for comment, but a neighbor in Baltimore County said he was busy digging a fallout shelter at his home.

A Welcome Resignation

I learned last night that Deputy Mayor Andrew Frank has "resigned." If you read to the bottom of today's Baltimore Sun story on his resignation, it sounds like a possible forced resignation, but that's speculation on my part.

Quote from the Sun article:

Privately, many city officials had speculated that Frank was considered too close to Dixon, whose legal troubles stemmed, in part, from her relationships with developers.

Rawlings-Blake has publicly declared that the Baltimore Development Corp. should be more open and transparent. She made several changes to Frank's staff, dismissing one assistant deputy mayor and demoting another. Kaliope Parthemos, Rawlings-Blake's former assistant chief of staff and a childhood friend, became Frank's sole assistant deputy mayor.

If this was a forced resignation, thank you, Mayor Rawlings-Blake! This is excellent news.

Why am I so jubilant about this resignation?

Andy Frank has been one of the real villains downtown in The Senator saga. After Tom Kiefaber stood up to the BDC, where Mr. Frank used to work, on the Belvedere Square redevelopment a decade ago and stood up around the same time for saving historic buildings on Baltimore's West Side in the area known as the Superblock, Andy Frank developed a real personal vendetta against Tom Kiefaber - a grudge that has apparently persisted to this day.

This personal grudge has manifested in Frank's lies to the press about Tom Kiefaber, mischaracterizing by exaggeration the city's investment in The Senator. Frank's lies were reported by local media as fact, which has resulted in widespread popular confusion about the situation with The Senator, and has also resulted in a violent hatred being directed against Tom Kiefaber by some members of the public who have been mislead into believing that Tom has wasted public funds.

Nothing could be further from the truth. The city's investment in The Senator, prior to acquiring it at auction last summer, has been minimal. Meanwhile, Tom, his family, and their associates, have personally invested over a million dollars of their own money into The Senator and the Belvedere Square commercial district - money that has saved The Senator up to this point, and which kept the Belvedere Square area limping along while the city neglected it for a dozen years, but that is money they will never get back. Tom is a hero who has saved an important landmark theatre for all the citizens of Baltimore, but you'd never know it from Frank's distortions to the press.

Frank has been a major contributor to the smear campaign against Kiefaber, which has resulted in the public's topsy-turvy, through the looking glass perception of the situation. It's one major reason everything much of the public believes about The Senator and Kiefaber is exactly the opposite of the truth.

As someone who has come to know Mr. Kiefaber, it's astonishing, for example, how the people who know him mostly think he's a great guy, but the people who don't really know him tend to give him dirty looks in public. OK, "great guy" is vague. What I mean by that is not just that Tom is a nice guy or a real mensch, which he is, but also one of the most brilliant minds I've met in a very long time --- extremely knowledgeable about the film industry and historic theatres, sharp, quick, conversant on a wide range of subjects, and irreverently funny too.

The fact that Tom has kept The Senator going as a first-run single-screen for-profit theatre for the past 20 years and made it nationally famous with his incredible marketing skills, when it is acknowledged as a nearly impossible task by anyone who knows anything about film exhibition, should tell you something right there. And he did this while having to fight city hall every step of the way. Ever see someone who makes something that defies the laws of physics look easy? Like the gymnasts in the Olympics who make exacting and strenuous physical exertion look like a beautiful dance? That's Tom, folks, and that's why everyone around here thinks another operator is going to be able to come in and operate The Senator as a first-run single-screen for-profit theatre and do it better than Tom. Yeah. Good luck with that. It's like me trying to win a gold medal doing a gymnastic floor routine at the Summer Olypics. Seriously.

Although, I will qualify that by saying that city hall is going to help the next guy instead of fighting him, if that RFP wins, and, subsidize him to a degree that Tom never got, so the feat won't be quite as death-defying, not for a while at least.

When I first met Tom, it was very quickly apparent to me that he was not the same guy the press talks about in a negative light. Tom's relentless hard work and high level of competence, which have been rewarded by many awards and much positive national press over the years, also directly contradict what the local public has been led to believe by people like Andy Frank.

All of this defamation of Tom had a purpose, of course. Over the course of time, it turned the public against Tom, which last summer culminated in the city's hostile takeover of The Senator, right under the nose of a public that claims to care about the theatre.

Because Tom has been unjustly sidelined by all this bad press based on the lies of Frank and a few others, his considerable expertise in the realm of historic theatres and film exhibition has also been largely ignored in the RFP process that will determine The Senator's future. This disregard for someone with so much useful information could prove to be a costly mistake that will negatively affect both the future of The Senator and the entire Belvedere Square commercial district.

Yes, I believe all of us who love The Senator have good reason to be happy that Andy Frank has resigned. It's important now that Frank, with his poor judgement tainted by his personal grudge against Kiefaber, not be allowed to make any further decisions that affect the future of The Senator Theatre.

NOTE: I wrote this the other day with emotion, as a first reaction. It's all true as far as I'm aware, but it could be made more specific and expanded upon. I could talk about the grant for fixing the air conditioning the city gave The Senator over ten years ago, that Mr. Frank repeatedly mischaracterized to the press as a loan that Tom didn't pay back. I could talk about the city's loan guarantee, which was only ever a phantom number on paper, not actual money, but it allowed them to get their hooks into The Senator. Mr. Frank kept talking about that as if it were actual money Tom received into his bank account.

If you wonder why Tom never said much about this, it's simple, really. When the bad guys are figuratively holding your family hostage, you tend to do what they say. What would you do if someone was threatening to turn your family out on the street?

The truth is, Tom never got anything from Baltimore City that he hasn't repaid many times over in taxes and economic vitality for this area generated by his hard work. And now he is losing everything. Everything. Without going into the horror of what that means, this is something nobody should ever have to watch a friend endure. People who know Tom often remark that it's a wonder he can still stand up, with all that he's gone through. And that's why I wrote this piece.

Kiefaber: WTMD good fit for Senator Theatre

The Baltimore Sun has a Letter to the Editor from Tom Kiefaber today. Click here to read it, and also my response.

The Senator: Architect John J. Zink's best known theatre

I had a realization today that when I or other Senator supporters speak of The Senator being architecturally significant or a work of art, many people do not understand this. This could be through no fault of their own, but only because they don't know the history. Perhaps it's time to educate the public a bit about why The Senator is a significant piece of architectural art, listed on the National Register of Historic Places for a reason.

The Senator was designed by famous theatre architect John J. Zink. If you do a Google search on "John J. Zink architect," you'll find that The Senator is repeatedly referred to as the best known of his theatres. Zink was known for designing in the art moderne or art deco style, which is sublimely embodied in The Senator Theatre.

The historic theatre reference web site Cinema Treasures lists 30 theatres that were designed by Zink, all of them in Maryland, DC, or Virginia. He was a native of Baltimore and his designs were concentrated in the Mid-Atlantic region. Zink was a protege of another famous theatre architect, Thomas W. Lamb. John J. Zink designed more theatres than just the 30 listed on Cinema Treasures. One web site I saw claimed the number was around 200, but most are long since gone.

Of the 30 Zink theatres listed on Cinema Treasures, just 6 are listed as open. These are The Senator Theatre and the Patterson Theatre in Baltimore (but it should be noted that the Patterson has been significantly altered from its original design), the Atlas Performing Arts Center and the Uptown Theatre in Washington, DC, the Commodore Theatre in Portsmouth, Virginia, and the Weinberg Center for the Arts in Frederick, Maryland. The other 24 Zink theatres listed on Cinema Treasures have all been closed or demolished.

The Senator is repeatedly noted as Zink's best known achievement. It would be a tragedy if a rushed RFP process with a lack of input from historic theatre and preservation professionals caused irreparable harm to this significant and rare architectural treasure.

I would also like to add that The Senator did not become one of the few surviving John J. Zink theatres or the best known or listed on the National Register of Historic Places on its own. Those preservation wins and the theatre's well-deserved national reputation were all the work of Tom Kiefaber, his family, and his loyal staff over the years.

John J. Zink made The Senator a beautiful work of art. Tom Kiefaber and his associates made The Senator famous, nationally recognized, and a place where so many wonderful events have happened over the years that people all over Baltimore and elsewhere have their own delightful memories of The Senator. It would be well to remember that as we anticipate the next phase in The Senator's history.

Hey, City Paper! I'm sick of this issue too!

City Paper notes that The Senator is the "Best Local Issue We're Sick Of." Well, heck! So am I! I would dearly love to be able to go back to my life, knowing that The Senator is in the safe hands of a viable community-based non-profit and that Tom Kiefaber and his staff have finally been recognized and rewarded for all their wonderful work over the years, and that all is right with this corner of the world.

But, guess what? I can't, because I care about The Senator and the people involved, and all is not right in this corner of the world.

Can't we all just get along? Can't Baltimore City do the right thing here?

Well, if I'm not mistaken, this is at least the second time in the past two and a half years or so that City Paper has written about The Senator. So, no wonder they're sick of it, with all that intensive coverage. Take a break from all that hard work, guys!

Baltimore’s Last Chance for Film As It Should Be Seen?

I haven’t had time to sit down and watch all of Tyler Perry’s “I Can Do Bad All By Myself” at The Senator yet. I plan to do that during the week, when our all-volunteer staff at The Senator is less busy. After seeing some moments of the film, however, I feel compelled to urge everyone to please give themselves the pleasure of what may be their last chance to see film presentation as it should be.

The craft of fine film presentation is dying. Multiplexes using average equipment hire teenagers to run projectors they barely understand and throw an image up on a relatively small screen with the edges not masked properly. Maybe the image is out of focus. Maybe the sound isn’t right, or isn’t high quality surround sound.

People wait to see movies on DVD and then even the best home theatres can barely match the reduced-quality multiplex experience.

You just don’t see the technical excellence of The Senator’s film presentation anywhere, anymore. For those who appreciate the luminosity of light cast through film and have eyes to see the quality of a sharp, focused, colorful image and hear the richness of awesome sound, this is indeed a painful loss.

Many of The Senator’s patrons realize that there’s something different about seeing a film presented on The Senator’s giant 40 foot screen. But few truly understand that it isn’t just the size and proportions of the auditorium or the screen, but an expert staff that has always striven for excellence. It’s why Michael Sragow, film critic at the Baltimore Sun, wrote:

But the Senator, under Tom Kiefaber, has carried on the tradition of movie theaters as places where audiences of many kinds can view the best movies of any type - action blockbusters like the "Indiana Jones" series, art classics like "The Rules of the Game" and "Rashomon" - with a presentation equal to the craft of the world's best filmmakers.

It’s also why film restoration expert Robert A. Harris was quoted by Sragow as calling The Senator “a beacon of professionalism, showmanship and the love of cinema."

Few realize that Lucasfilm’s Theatre Alignment Project measured various aspects of the film presentation at The Senator and when pressed by Tom Kiefaber for a rating compared to other theatres, acknowledged that The Senator ranks 2nd in the nation for technical excellence.

One of the unsung heroes of The Senator’s history is theatre manager and projectionist Bill Hewitt, who is an expert in all aspects of film presentation, of a caliber almost impossible to find elsewhere anymore. Mr. Hewitt visually inspects each frame of a film print before it is shown at The Senator. He is an expert in the care and preservation of film and the technical aspects of top quality presentation. Mr. Hewitt does not cut corners. He strives to make each show perfect and show the film to its full potential each time.

The lens being used for “I Can Do Bad All By Myself” is the best German lens made. The sound quality on The Senator’s amazing sound system is always excellent. When I looked at a few moments of the film over the weekend, the picture was in perfect focus, the colors were vibrant and rich, the images on the screen of breathtaking quality. I was stunned as I realized that this is how a film should be seen and that, depending on what happens over the next few weeks, this may be the last chance we’ll get to see a film this way.

Baltimore City is taking over The Senator on September 19th, barring some unforeseen reversal of the auction. The auction will be ratified unless there is a legally credible objection presented to the circuit court by September 18th. (Though there are many reasons the auction should be invalidated, that is unlikely to happen.) Once Baltimore City owns The Senator, they will put it through their RFP process to find a new owner and/or operator.

It is hard to imagine that any new operator of The Senator is going to strive for technical excellence, refuse to cut corners, and achieve the high standard of operation that Tom Kiefaber, Bill Hewitt, and the rest of The Senator’s staff continue to achieve up to this moment. Almost nobody else achieves this level of film presentation anymore. Almost nobody tries, and audiences don’t demand it.

Furthermore, the film business is struggling all over the country. Drastically reduced attendance means that the days when The Senator could operate profitably as a first run movie theatre are long over. We’re not talking about a case where another operator with a reduced debt load could cut a few corners and eke out a profit. We’re talking about something that is over and done with, kaput, and totally dead. If this were a Norwegian Blue parrot, it would be pushing up daisies and joining the choir eternal.

That’s why Tom Kiefaber has long been advocating a future for The Senator that involves non-profit ownership of the building and multi-purposes use for the theatre. That’s the way to guarantee The Senator’s survival for the next 70 years. Kiefaber should know. Contrary to the flawed perceptions of certain city and BDC officials, he is a nationally renowned expert in the field.

But meanwhile, top notch film presentation at The Senator may soon be over. Come see something you may not get a chance to see again.

In Case You Missed It: Grauman's Chinese Theatre For Sale

As "AstroGirl," I would like to particularly note the following quote in this Hollywood Reporter article about the most famous historic theatre in the nation, Grauman's Chinese in Hollywood, being up for sale:

"You can't make a profit on a single-screen theater," a top industryite mused. "It's just not possible."

But the BDC and various Baltimore City officials have consistently blamed The Senator's debts on Tom Kiefaber. People more familiar with the movie industry are simply astounded that he's made it work to such a high degree for so long with debts that are so comparatively LOW.

It simply goes to show you that Baltimore City and the BDC know NOTHING about the movie industry and should NOT be trying to decide the fate of an iconic historic theatre like The Senator without expert advice from people in the industry...such as Tom Kiefaber.

Really...the mind boggles at why Baltimore City is trying to make such an important decision about such a wonderful Baltimore landmark while figuratively driving the bus with a blindfold on and earplugs in.

What REALLY Happened at The Senator Theatre Auction?

Well, if you live in Baltimore, you've seen the heavily edited news coverage, where in most cases, any hint of controversy was taken out. You've been told by the media that the city now owns The Senator. That's all wrong.

UPDATE: The auctioneer changed the venue from inside the theatre to outside with less than 5 minutes notice. Weeks ago, they had called Tom Kiefaber to request permission to have the auction inside the theatre. The auctioneer, the city, and Tom had all agreed upon the location inside the theatre, the auction had been promoted as being inside the theatre, and it had been reported as being expected to take place inside by the news media. Why the last minute change of venue?



By the way, Tom Kiefaber still owns the theatre until this farce is ratified in court.

Auction Over: Baltimore City Cuts Itself a Deal

Baltimore City's auction of The Senator Theatre is over, and the way I see it, they cut themselves an unauthorized deal on Tom Kiefaber's property. Nobody I talked to foresaw that the City could set the minimum bid at less than the amount owed on the note on The Senator, or bid less than that approximately $950K themselves. I didn't know either of those things were even legal, especially given their fiduciary responsibility as trustee to try to maximize the auction sale price, and the fact that they claimed they were holding the auction to clear the debt on the theatre. Yet they did set the minimum bid lower and bid less, walking away with The Senator for a literal steal of $810K.

I assume they will now try to collect the rest from Tom Kiefaber, unless perhaps there was a higher reserve price that was not met and which the city will now consider paid off. It was not clear in the chaos that was this auction. If anyone knows, please enlighten me.

The auction was fishy from the beginning, with auctioneers from Alex Cooper auctions showing up early and immediately causing concern, but probably through no fault of their own. At least one person associated with the auction company appeared in my opinion to be clearly uncomfortable with their company being associated with such a tainted auction, and I heard when he assured Tom Kiefaber that they are a reputable company. No one was doubting that. They were just doing their job, however, when they were hired by the city to handle this property, they likely had no way of knowing what a corrupt process it was going to turn out to be.

First the auction company told us that the city might change the minimum bid after the beginning of the auction. Given that Kim Clark had said on record in public that bidders would have to bid $1 million dollars to outbid the city and buy the theatre, this came as quite a shock. Even then, I was thinking they would raise the maximum bid to prevent anyone from buying it, not lower it to cut themselves a deal.

Next, we learned that although there had been an agreement between the city, the auctioneers, and theatre management weeks ago to have the auction inside the theatre, they were going to move the auction outside at the last minute.

There was quite a commotion as the city tried to move the auction outside and Tom Kiefaber tried to get them to stick to their original agreement and hold the theatre in the air-conditioned theatre with a sound system, rather than outside in the heat on the sidewalk where there was no sound system and nobody could hear. Eventually, the auction started outside.

The city started the bidding at $750K, well below the published minimum bid that came out of the mouths of city officials, and well below the amount of approximately $950K owed on the note. There was a large crowd and no loudspeaker system. There were multiple shouts from the crowd of "I can't hear you," directed at the auctioneer. At least two people who said they planned to bid were so confused that they were still standing inside when the bidding started, and were brought outside by Tom Kiefaber. One or two other bidders bid it up to $800K, before being outbid by the city at $810K. The auctioneer seemed to rush through the process.

At the end, there were multiple shouts of "it was rigged," as well as tears and anger from members of the public who showed up to witness the auction.

The city does not yet officially own the theatre, as the auction still has to be ratified, which I hear will take approximately 45 to 60 days. Meanwhile, Tom Kiefaber is still the owner.

More later when I have a chance to process all this, upload some video, and find out more about what this all means.

Please note that this blog noted months ago, before the city's steering committee made their apparently pre-determined decision that The Senator could not be a non-profit, that it seemed that the city was trying to take The Senator from Tom Kiefaber and hand it over to some crony, in what seemed very likely to be a rigged process. That appears to be exactly how it's playing out. I'm not a psychic. I'm just doing my own investigation here. The dots are not that hard to connect.

Our Visit with David Arquette in a Plexiglas Box in NYC!

On Tuesday, Tom Kiefaber and Gayle Grove from The Senator took me with them up to New York City to visit their friend, actor David Arquette. David was sitting in a plexiglas box on top of the marquee of Madison Square Garden, to raise awareness about hunger for Feeding America, as part of the Snickers Bar Hunger campaign.



Tom and Gayle had known David for a while. He visited The Senator when he was promoting his film "The Tripper," and they've been in touch with him since then. When we found out he would be sitting in the box to raise awareness about hunger, we initially thought maybe he could bring the box on the road and sit on top of The Senator's marquee. We all liked his cause, because The Senator has collected tons of food over the years for a local food pantry.

I knew that Gayle had been in touch with David about this, so I was sitting in The Senator's lobby one day and I happened to be thinking about how cool it would be if we could go visit David Arquette in the box. In a weird kind of synchronicity, just as I was thinking that, Tom walked into the lobby and almost immediately got a call from David, who then invited us up to visit.

We took the MegaBus from White Marsh to NYC. A double-decker bus with wireless that costs less than $20 to take you into Manhattan! I'll be doing that again!

We took The Senator's mascot, Squid on the Go, with us. Squid was discovered by a volunteer, Colin Harris, who noticed that if you put your hand between the knobs on the popcorn bins just right, it looks like a squid with two eyes. Several of us had said that when The Senator is closed (as is likely after the auction), we'll miss squid. Another volunteer, Marty Kahl, invented Squid on the Go, so we'll always be able to take a piece of The Senator with us. Strange things happen at night when you're sitting behind the concession stand at a historic theatre. Anyway, David Arquette met Squid and became the first Celebrity Squid!

It was a bit noisy in the box, so much of the video I recorded was not very audible. I did manage to get a few of the fun clips into the video above, though.

David asked us about the upcoming auction of The Senator, and later spoke on the phone to Laura Vozzella at the Sun, to whom he noted "Just the fact that it's going to auction is really sad, that they weren't allowed to turn it into a nonprofit."

Later, I asked David about his work with Feeding America, which he's been supporting for a few years now. He said 36 million people in this country are considered "food insecure." They don't know where their next meal is coming from.