Paul Cooper, of Alex Cooper Auctioneers, conducted the auction of the troubled Senator Theatre. The city's $810,000 bid prevailed.

Story and photos by FERN SHEN

Spectators who came to the auction of Baltimore’s Senator Theatre yesterday expecting melodrama were not disappointed. They found a plastic vulture waiting for them in the lobby of the financially-troubled movie house, a woman in a long red cape sobbing outside and another Senator supporter, a blogger known as “AstroGirl,” wryly knocking back a late-morning Natty Boh. “Louder!” “We can’t hear you!” “This is rigged!” people yelled, during the brief auction. Others yelled at them to be quiet.

Perhaps the most heart-stopping moment came just as auctioneer Paul Cooper was beginning his rapid-fire description of the building when a man in a wheelchair – artist Dan Keplinger, the subject of the Academy Award-winning documentary “King Gimp” – howled his outrage at the proceeding.

His wife, Dena Keplinger, then rebuked the auctioneers for the thing that, weirdly, seemed to bother theatre-owner Tom Kiefaber and his supporters the most: the fact that the auction was held out front on the sidewalk, instead of inside as they apparently had at some point discussed.

“If you want rightness, then give him his dignity, sir,” said Dena Keplinger, who got married at the theatre and who, with her husband, has been a Kiefaber partisan.

Dan Keplinger, the subject of Academy Award winning film "King Gimp" yelled his objections to the auction.

After it was all over and the crowd of about 150 was breaking up and the media throng had ironed out some mis-tweets and was tweeting the headline – ‘City retains Senator Theatre for $810,000’ – reporters asked owner Tom Kiefaber what he was going to do, now that city officials had made the final bid and taken over the theatre his family has owned for about 70 years.

“Is that what happened?” he asked. “Because, I wasn’t able to hear, where I was.” He didn’t seem to be coy or kidding, he really did not seem to know.

After some back-and-forth, in which he learned who entered the winning bid, Kiefaber said he still doesn’t think the city owns the Senator.

“I own it ‘til it’s ratified by the court,” he said, citing a ratification process to take place (according to Paul Cooper) in Baltimore City Circuit Court within about 45 days.

Gayle Grove, a longtime employee at the Senator, sobbed as the auction finally got under way.

Asked whether he had any grounds to argue against ratification, Kiefaber said “You need to talk to an attorney. I think I do too.”

The city, meanwhile, is moving quickly and plans within a week or two to issue a request for proposals for an operator to run the theatre as an educational, arts or entertainment entity. Don’t you prefer, since that’s where we’re heading, that it at least remain a theatre, Kiefaber was asked. “Ask me a real question,” he replied, reddening. “I’d like to see it remain a Temple of Cinema, okay?”

(l-r) Restaurateur Eddie Dopkin, who registered but did not bid, Kim Clark of the BDC, City Councilman Bill Henry, city attorney, Larry Jenkins and Joe Cooper, of Alex Cooper Auctioneers

Again and again he returned to the subject of the auction being moved outside.  Kiefaber had angrily grabbed a microphone, told the crowd there had been an agreement to have the auction conducted in the air-conditioned, 900-seat theatre and urged them to go inside. Few followed him in. “If you intend to bid, you better be outside,” Joe Cooper announced to the crowd and most remained on the sidewalk.

“We had had some discussion about doing it inside but then in talking it over with the trustees decided it was best to do it out here,” Paul Cooper said.

Tom Kiefaber objected to the handling of the auction and urged the crowd to go inside.

After all that chaos, the substantive part of the auction had been brief,  so Kiefaber’s confusion is not all that surprising. Shortly after 11 a.m. the auctioneer opened the bidding at $750,000. In less than a minute there was a proxy bid, announced by Joe Cooper, of $800,000. That bidder was never identified. The auction was then halted (“We’re taking a break!” Paul Cooper said.) while city officials and the auctioneers conferred. After 10 minutes, they announced that the city, which has owned the theatre’s mortgage since May, had bid $810,000 to retain it. There were no other bidders.

Paul Cooper had said several bidders registered. Loyola College officials had expressed some interest and attended the auction and another possible bidder, Charles Theatre owner James “Buzz” Cusack, was also there, but did not bid.

“It’s a difficult thing to open a single-screen theatre and make it work financially,” Cusack said.

Blogger Laura Serena (aka Astrogirl) the Senator's greatest groupie.

Tom Kiefaber, shortly before watching the Senator Theatre sold at auction.

The staff used this lobby vulture to set the tone for the day.