Apex Theater
Baltimore, MD
Learned a valuable lesson with this photo. I was driving down the road and saw the old marque and sign on top of the the marque. I was driving, so I handed the camera to my friend who rolled down the window to grab some pictures while I stopped the car. It wasn't until the camera started to click with the first picture that we noticed that it was an adult theater and that theater attendees were outside waiting to go in....and they were all looking at us as we snapped pictures of 'them'. Yeah, I stepped on the gas!
History of Apex
Inside, the Apex retains its allure as a historic, single-screen theater. Four fleur-de-lis shaped sconces on the walls shed red light upward, and though a bit rag-tag in places--the ceiling is showing its age, and the bathroom has some plumbing issues--its homely grandeur is generally well-preserved. Upstairs, the projection room serves now as storage (the DVD projector used today is housed behind the last row of seats), but still boasts two vintage Motiograph projectors and some 35mm prints of old porn films, such as Deep Throat, The Devil in Miss Jones III, Education of the Baroness, and Freedom to Love. The marquee, according to erstwhile Senator Theatre proprietor Tom Kiefaber, is "the second best marquee in Baltimore [after the Senator's] in terms of its look, its maintenance, proper spacing, and matched letters."
Isa and Maurice Mufareh, along with a third partner--Khalid Darraj, Isa's nephew, whose one-third share in the business, Isa explains, was purchased by Maurice two years ago--have been running the Apex since 2003. Back when it was first converted from a bowling alley in 1942, it screened major Hollywood releases, but it has been an adult theater exclusively since the mid-1960s.
http://www2.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19677
Apparently the owners saw that x-rated movie theaters are soon going to be a thing of th past and tried to turn this theater into a strip club. The law said yes, the neighbors balked and id didn't pass zoning.
Isa and Maurice Mufareh, along with a third partner--Khalid Darraj, Isa's nephew, whose one-third share in the business, Isa explains, was purchased by Maurice two years ago--have been running the Apex since 2003. Back when it was first converted from a bowling alley in 1942, it screened major Hollywood releases, but it has been an adult theater exclusively since the mid-1960s.
http://www2.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19677
Apparently the owners saw that x-rated movie theaters are soon going to be a thing of th past and tried to turn this theater into a strip club. The law said yes, the neighbors balked and id didn't pass zoning.