Event Reponse 4

This Monday I went to The Senator Theater on York Road. Even though I have passed this theater a countless number of times, this was my first experience ever actually going inside. I was considerably surprised to see how nice the interior was. Though it has clearly undergone renovations since it was first opened in 1939, the theater still retains its old fashioned appeal. Walking into the foyer, with its mosaic floor and frescoed walls, I felt like I was going back in time. The vibrant paintings hung on the wall, by Robert McCormick, captured my attention immediately. As if I wasn’t already experiencing a blast from the past, these paintings depicted lively scenes of Baltimore, as I had never seen it before. The scenes included The Belvedere Hotel, Hampden, The Senator Theater, and North Charles Street depicted in an upbeat, animated environment. This struck me because normally when I think of these areas, though they are not derelict by any means, I think of run down, dangerous areas. For example, even though The Senator Theater is very close to our school I would never be willing to walk there simply out of fear. I think my vision of Baltimore as a crime stricken city has overcome even the areas that were once nice to walk through. Perhaps I just figured that The Senator Theater would be run down and forgotten, since that is what I think of the rest of Baltimore. This would help to explain my surprise when I was fascinated with the grandeur of the theater.
Inside the actual theater itself, everything seemed over the top and excessive. There were approximately nine hundred seats, and the ceiling was so high I felt like we were in an open-air theater. It really made me wonder what the place must have been like when it first opened, and how the public must have been shocked at its grandiose scale. It really made me think about the connection between the past and the future, much like Alice Walker’s short story, Everyday Use, deals with the old and the new.
Alice Walker sets the scene where a family is divided; a mother and daughter (Maggie) live in the country, while the other daughter (Dee) has moved away and found a life in the “new world” full of technological advancements. Sadly, Dee values her new life more than her heritage and feels no remorse for leaving her family behind. In a way, this is similar to the way people flock to multiplex cinemas, and leave these historic landmarks behind such as The Senator Theater. Technology is a sign of the changing times, and this is clearly shown in Everyday Use. Dee shows her alliance with technology when she pulls the Polaroid camera out of her car and snaps photos of her family’s rural farmhouse. She has no desire to return to her family’s shack and live the life of a farm girl, milking cows every morning. Instead, she would prefer to drive her car, wear fancy dresses and high heels, and take pictures with a Polaroid camera. Similarly, people have no desire to see movies in old style theaters, either because “the seats won’t be too comfortable, or the screen won’t be big enough.” It is sad to see such a large theater, which probably would have held a packed house when it was in its prime, hardly fill a fraction of their seats. When I saw 300 there on Monday, there were probably only twenty people in the theater, which made the place seem empty. It was a depressing reminder of the way things have a tendency to change.
Not only has the theater changed, but the area around it has changed drastically as well. I have never seen the Belvedere Hotel even though I pass Belvedere Square frequently, so I assume that it must have closed when The Senator started attracting less people. It was obvious that The Senator is having trouble attracting a large crowd because before the movie even began, there was a voice recording that practically begged the people in the audience to recommend The Senator Theater to friends and family. Also, despite the shopping center at Belvedere Square and the amount of houses in the surrounding area, I never see a lot of people walking along the sidewalks. People prefer to take cars, either out of laziness or out of fear of the crime in the area. But this really made me wonder what happened to Baltimore. It obviously was not always a frightening city, since people were once willing to walk the streets and there were attractions in the area. I have to wonder, “What made the crime start?”