Highlights
If you want to feel the enormity of a film on a gigantic screen or be transported back to Hollywood's golden age, catch a movie at Baltimore's treasured Senator Theatre. The 900-seat, single-screen theater plays 1940s jazz tunes before screenings of first-run and classic movies. The 1939 art deco movie house is an architectural gem with a two-story lobby adorned with murals and black and white photographs. A "walk of fame" on 70 sidewalk blocks in front of the theater has celebrity signatures, including Charles Dutton and Barry Levinson, and logos from movies such as "Liberty Heights," "Hairspray" and "Gone With The Wind." It is on the National Register of Historic Places. The Senator has be...
If you want to feel the enormity of a film on a gigantic screen or be transported back to Hollywood's golden age, catch a movie at Baltimore's treasured Senator Theatre. The 900-seat, single-screen theater plays 1940s jazz tunes before screenings of first-run and classic movies. The 1939 art deco movie house is an architectural gem with a two-story lobby adorned with murals and black and white photographs. A "walk of fame" on 70 sidewalk blocks in front of the theater has celebrity signatures, including Charles Dutton and Barry Levinson, and logos from movies such as "Liberty Heights," "Hairspray" and "Gone With The Wind." It is on the National Register of Historic Places. The Senator has been the site of local and national film premieres such as "Seabiscuit," John Waters' "Hairspray," "Diner" and "Primal Fear." Despite the local history, the theater is struggling to survive amid competition from larger multiplexes, financial troubles and limitations on screenings. It has escaped foreclosure several times. In 2001, the theater was part of a History Channel documentary about the preservation of historic sites. Waters and Tom Clancy shared their memories of the movie house. It was cited by the National Trust for Historic Preservation as a prime example of the endangered "historic theaters of America." Tom Kiefaber, whose family opened the Senator, owns the theater on York Road across from Belvedere Square. Kiefaber also owns the Rotunda Cinematheque, a movie theater on 40th Street.
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Ambassador Theater fails to sell at auction
Baltimore's historic Ambassador Theater at 4604 Liberty Heights Ave., a "sister theater" to The Senator Theatre at 5904-06 York Road, failed to draw a buyer after owner Larry Gaston Enterprises put it up for auction Thursday. The sale by Auction...Tags: Diplomacy, Marketing, Auction Service
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Ambassador Theater to be auctioned Thursday
Two weeks before Baltimore's Senator Theatre goes on the auction block, a "sister theater" is being offered for sale the same way. The Ambassador Theater, an Art Deco-style building at 4604 Liberty Heights Ave. in West Baltimore, will be offered in a sale...Tags: Diplomacy, Auction Service
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The Ambassador, sister theater to Senator, on the auction block
Two weeks before Baltimore's Senator Theatre goes on the auction block, a "sister theater" is being offered for sale the same way. The Ambassador Theater, an Art Deco-style building at 4604 Liberty Heights Avenue in West Baltimore, will be offered in a...Tags: Diplomacy, Auction Service
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They stoop to conquer
There's no need to scoot over. Baltimore's favorite stoop is about to get a lot more wiggle room.
Stoop Storytelling, the series in which local residents tell unscripted anecdotes about their lives, has been a hit since its debut performance in...Tags: David Simon, I Love You, Beth Cooper (movie), Family, Garrison Keillor, Judy Garland
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Sidewalk painting party planned at Senator
The historic Senator Theatre isn't just steeped in cinema history - it's surrounded by it. About 100 commemorative sidewalk blocks bearing the autographs of film stars such as John Travolta and director Barry Levinson sit outside the city's last single-...Tags: Barry Levinson, Road Transportation, John Travolta, Transportation
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'The Third Man' screens at the Senator Theatre
Classic film screenings continue at the Senator Theatre this weekend with Carol Reed's magnificent The Third Man, starring Joseph Cotten as a pulp novelist visiting postwar Vienna, where he learns that his good friend, Harry Lime ( Orson Welles), has...Tags: Bolt (movie), Orson Welles, Academy Awards, Charles Theatre, Joseph Cotten
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City to move ahead with Senator Theatre auction in July
The Senator Theatre will go on the auction block July 21. The date was set at Thursday's monthly meeting of the Baltimore Development Corporation (BDC), which will be overseeing the sale that will have a minimum bid of $1 million. No location or starting...Tags: Mortgages, Culture, Auction Service, Financial and Business Services
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Changes we can believe in
Four months into Barack Obama's presidency, and he's brought the kind of change to City Hall that it's hardly seen since it was built in 1875: renovations. Mr. Obama's visit in January, in which it became apparent the portico was unsafe for him to...Tags: National Government, Government, Chesapeake Bay, Major League Baseball, Barack Obama
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Vietnamese restaurant news
Dining@LargeConsumer blogger Liz Kay tells me Saigon Remembered across from the Senator Theatre in Govans has reopened after being closed for a couple of weeks. Banh mi (Vietnamese sandwiches on a baguette) are now available at lunchtime, and the restaurant......Tags: Restaurants, Roland Park, Govans, Dining and Drinking
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What they say about the Senator Theatre
"It's a whole family thing. Tom was a nice guy to work for, he never hassled you or anything. We were just a big family, and we just looked out for each other as best we could. It was a pleasure to work there, and I am going to miss it. I hope whoever...Tags: John Waters
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Senator still a link to cinemas past
Thanks for your editorial "City to the rescue" (April 3). There can be no doubt: The Senator Theatre must be saved. In historic preservation, you must pick your battles, and this is a battle that must be joined and won. Baltimore has lost too many of... -
Rotunda reopening
Hampden's twin-screen Rotunda theater will reopen May 15. The theaters will be operated by New Jersey-based Horizon Group and will concentrate on first-run films, says Ira Miller, who will serve as managing director of the newly re-christened Rotunda...
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