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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Four submit bids to take over the Senator
Charles Theatre owner James "Buzz" Cusack, Towson University's WTMD-FM radio station and developer David Cordish are among the four parties who answered the city's call for proposals to lease or own the Senator Theatre. This action is the latest...Tags: Tapas, Dining and Drinking, Station North, Foods and Beverages, Charles Theatre
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Nostalgia has its limits
Baltimore's a-rabs, men who sell fruit from horse-drawn carts, are a charming tradition. But the city's health department was right that it could not ignore the poor conditions in which horses were being kept in the city's largest a-rab stable, which...Tags: Charlie Hayes, Horse (animal), Museum Dioramas, Animals
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Re-edited 'Touch of Evil' due at Charles
"Touch of Evil" opens with a mind-blowing traveling shot that starts at the level of a belt buckle and then swings left and right and up as a quicksilver figure sets a time bomb and places the device in the trunk of a car. Continuing in one unbroken...Tags: Film Festivals, Dancing, Economic Policy, DVDs and Movies, Festive Event
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City seeks proposals for using Senator Theatre
City officials are moving ahead with plans to sell or lease the historic Senator Theatre to an operator who would keep it running as a movie theater or convert the 70-year-old landmark to a performing arts venue. In a request for proposals issued Monday,...Tags: Charles Theatre, Auction Service, Belvedere Square, Culture
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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: Roland Park, Restaurants, Dining and Drinking, Govans
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Loyola might bid on Senator when theater goes to auction
Loyola College may bid to take control of the Senator Theatre when the historic single-screen movie house is auctioned Wednesday, a college spokeswoman said Monday evening. Courtney Jolley, the spokeswoman, would not give details about what the college...Tags: Colleges and Universities, Auction Service
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Senator's date with auctioneer
The 70-year-old Senator Theatre, the last holdout from the golden age of Baltimore movie houses, is scheduled to go on the auction block Wednesday. Owner Tom Kiefaber, while insisting he accepts that his days of running the theater are numbered, is...Tags: Auction Service, David Arquette, Public Officials, Madison Square Garden, Government
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Senator on auction block today
The Senator Theatre will go to public auction today with "moderate" interest from potential bidders, according to a spokesman for the auction house Alex Cooper.
"A lot of the interest is under the radar screen," said Paul Cooper, a vice president at...Tags: Colleges and Universities, Auction Service, Sheila Dixon
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Sragow: Here's hoping a cultural crusade will preserve the Senator
Baltimore Sun reporterViewers coming together in an adrenaline rush or an aesthetic high as they soak in pristine images from a beautiful big screen. That's been the promise of American moviegoing as a major piece of our culture -- a promise that the Senator Theatre has...Tags: Harbor East, Jennifer Hudson, Indiana Jones (fictional character), Culture
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City takes over ownership of Senator
Baltimore Sun reportersBaltimore City took ownership of the Senator Theatre after a brief and raucous auction Wednesday, and officials say they want to move forward quickly to develop a permanent plan for the 70-year-old landmark. "The bottom line is, now it is in our hands,"...Tags: Film Festivals, Roland Park, Mortgages, Public Officials, Dining and Drinking
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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, Financial and Business Services, Auction Service, Culture
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Exploding food
Dining@LargeI was going to do a post on popcorn this week. I just hadn't gotten around to it. Sunday night I popped my own popcorn for the first time in, I don't know, years. My recipe is simple: You take......Tags: Popcorn, Dining and Drinking, Electrical Appliance, Salt, Charles Theatre
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