Who will save the Charles?

BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Now that Tom Kiefaber has been untied from the railroad tracks just before the final credits, those who enjoy movies for grown-ups can start wondering about James “Buzz” Cusack.

Kiefaber’s Senator Theatre remains to live another day, and hallelujah for that. But Cusack’s Charles Theatre’s about to face a threat of its own. And it deserves to be preserved for the same reason as the Senator. There’s more at stake here than a happy movie ending.

Just as the Senator’s the spiritual heart of the rejuvenation around York Road and Belvedere Avenue, the Charles is an integral part of the great revival around Penn Station that includes continuing expansion of the University of Baltimore and the Maryland Institute College of Art, the Everyman Theater, the Club Charles and Zodiac Restaurant and Sofi’s Crepes, and the Tapas Teatro with its summertime crowds spilling onto the busy Charles Street sidewalk.

And that’s just the commercial stuff. Take a short walk over to the 1700 block of North Calvert Street. For years, the area made your eyeballs hurt: boarded-up row houses, trash everywhere, an area whose bones had been picked clean by the drug traffickers.

Now there’s construction equipment and big signs on the block: “Station North Townhouses. Sophisticated urban living in the heart of the Station North Arts and Entertainment District. Starting from the high $300s.”

There are two key phrases there: “the high $300s,” and “arts and entertainment district.” Where’s the entertainment district when the entertainment goes? The Everyman Theatre, swelled with the success that comes with putting on provocative, well-acted drama, will be moving to the old Town Theatre in a couple of years as part of downtown’s west-side redevelopment. Hopefully, some other entertainment venue will move in.

But the Charles wants to stay — and now it’s about to face some new competition. This summer, Landmark Theaters will open a seven-screen theater at Inner Harbor East. That’s great news for everybody interested in independent and foreign films — everybody, that is, except the Charles, which shows the same kind of movies for grown-ups, but might find itself blocked by Landmark from showing many of the best independent films.

“Yeah, it’s a problem, but what are we gonna do?” Cusack was wondering the other day. “I don’t like it. I’m worried. But what should I do?”

Cusack bought the Charles in 1993 and in 1999 redesigned the place for five theaters where there had once been only one. He’s had a chance to study his audience. These are people who come to the movies not for car chases or the latest in movie pyrotechnics but for adult stories that touch on the human experience.

“The audience for art movies,” he says, “is very broad — and very shallow. It’s an older audience, and more educated. Average age, maybe 45 or 50. And they come from all around. We get people who come here all the way from Pennsylvania. If you want to see a specific movie, and we’re the only ones showing it, you’ll make the trip.

“That’s why, when Landmark opens, it’s unlikely a film distributor would give a print to the Charles and the Landmark. Because we’re so close, and basically it’s the same audience. And Landmark has a lot of influence with distributors.”

The Landmark chain has 56 theaters with 208 screens across the country. Their addition to Harborplace East is one more sign that the spectacular downtown development continues. But the rebirth of the city has to involve more than its waterfront.

The area around the Charles Theater has begun blossoming. As the University of Baltimore expands to a four-year program, more of its students will be living in the area. Swing slightly west on Mount Royal, and there’s the great creative energy coming out of the Maryland Institute College of Art. Then swing back to Calvert, where the Station North town houses hint at further promise.

All of these are signs of a healthy city beyond the harbor. The Charles is a vital part of it. It’s nice news that grown-up movies are coming downtown. The question is: Can Baltimore support more than one such theater? And if we can’t, what will that say about the rejuvenation of that whole midtown area surrounding the Charles?

Michael Olesker is an award-winning newspaper columnist, author of three books and former commentator on local radio and television. A resident of Baltimore since the age of 4, he is a graduate of Baltimore City College and the University of Maryland at College Park, where he majored in journalism and was sports editor of The Diamondback.

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