Baltimore native Ira Miller, 62, said he feels like a "kid in a candy store" as the managing director of the newly reopened theater in The Rotunda mall -- the theater he first opened 35 years ago as its operator.

But at an invitation-only party in the lobby of what is now called Rotunda Cinemas on May 14, Miller's partner, Bob Wienholt, 56, was even more like a kid in a candy store. Wienholt, who managed the theater for Miller in its early days, saw that the young woman at the concession stand needed some help. He jumped behind the counter and began serving soft drinks and popcorn like an eager teenager with a summer job.

Miller, of Pikesville, and Weinholt, of Boynton Beach, Fla., are leasing the theater from Rotunda mall owner Hekemian & Co., which plans to redevelop the small mall when the economy improves.

Both men have come full circle in movie industry careers that span four to five decades. Miller, who grew up in the Pimlico neighborhood and vividly recalls watching movies at the Crest, Hippodrome and Uptown, originally opened the twin-screen Rotunda theater -- one of Baltimore's first multiplexes -- on Sept. 13, 1974, when he and it were a part of the old JF Theaters chain.

Wienholt managed the theater for Miller several days a week. The first movies shown there were "King of Hearts" and a re-release of "Gone With the Wind."

Last week, they invited friends, family and, as Miller put it, "people who have been good to us," to eat finger sandwiches and pizza in the lobby and then stay for free screenings of the movies "Angels and Demons" and "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past."

The theater with 300 combined seats reopened to the public the next day. Movies cost $6 for adults until 6 p.m., and $8 at night. They're $6 at all times for children and seniors, Miller said.

Last called Rotunda Cinematheque, the theater closed under the radar in March, as its former owner, Tom Kiefaber waged a public battle to save his better-known theater, the landmark Senator, from foreclosure.

The Senator, now city-owned, remains closed. The city last week received the approval of its Board of Estimates to assume the Senator's $950,000 mortgage and then sell it at auction for at least that much or lease it to an operator as Hekemian did at the Rotunda.

But the Rotunda theater, now renamed Rotunda Cinemas, is back in business showing first-run films. Now it's the only first-run theater in north Baltimore and Miller likes it that way.

Even if the Senator bounces back, "the Rotunda is the jewel," he said boldly.

Miller and Wienholt are making plans to replace the aging seats, possibly with more modern stadium seating.

"I'm seriously considering it," said Wienholt, who owns a business in Boynton Beach that specializes in theater renovations.

And Miller is talking grandly of expanding the number of screens in conjunction with the mall's redevelopment.

"If I could have three more screens in here, I'd be very happy," he said.

But he also said he wants to "give back to the community" and plans to show free family films on Wednesday mornings.

He said he's also working with the Maryland Film Festival to show its winning films.

Good sign for mall

The reopening of the theater augurs well for the redevelopment of the mall, which is on hold until the economy improves. Groundbreaking is at least a year off, said Chris Bell, senior vice president of development for New Jersey-based Hekemian.

But Bell isn't sitting idle during the down time. He said he is negotiating with at least four restaurateurs and numerous retailers, who are willing to discuss coming to the Rotunda, as long as they can wait out the current economic climate.

Redevelopment plans also include building a larger, state of the art Giant Foods store on the site, opening a mid-sized hotel and luxury housing, and reconfiguring stores so that they would overlook a courtyard.

The mall, which Bell calls "a neighborhood property," has a reputation as treading water. Many retailers have left in recent years, including Gordon's Booksellers and The Bead, a women's fashion store that moved to Kenilworth Mall.

Ritz Camera, now in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, closed its store in the Rotunda last month, and Gallery G and the coffee shop Ground Control left in the past year. Recordmasters is long gone, and that space is being used for storage.

But new tenants have moved in, including a Christian Science Reading Room and the book and comics store Amazing Spiral in the old Gordon's space.

Bell said he is in negotiations with a local restaurateur to open in the old Ground Control space, and that Miller has been talking about a "branding" partnership between Rotunda Cinemas and the new eatery.

Some longtime tenants are hanging on, including Bank of America, Giant, Rite-Aid, Hair Cuttery and Radio Shack.

Bell also said that occupancy of 140,000 square feet of office space is at 94 percent and only small spaces remain.

Office tenants range from doctors and lawyers to Clear Channel, which has three radio stations there, including WPOC.

Ups and downs

But the reopening of the theater is the most tangible sign that Hekemian is still actively involved in the mall. Bell turned to two of the most veteran theater operators to bring it back to life -- and the two most passionate about a theater they remember well.

"It was an easy deal to get done," Bell said. And he is supportive of Miller's expansion ideas.

"Six to eight screens here would be perfect," he said.

Although Miller, a former MGM vice president based in New York, has moved back to the Baltimore area, he is still vice president of the Motion Picture Club of New York.

"I have very strong relationships," Miller said.

And he said that, at The Rotunda, he will have an advantage over Kiefaber, who he said often brought films to The Rotunda after they'd run their course at the Senator and faded in popularity.

"I'm an optimist," Miller said. "We're going to do everything we can to make it work."

Miller and Wienholt have had recent setbacks. The Baltimore Sun reported that Miller was one of the partners in a venture to reopen the cinemas in Westview Mall, which closed last fall after six months. And Wienholt owned a discount theater in Hanover, Pa., which closed last year, according to the Hanover (Pa.) Evening Sun.

"The theater business isn't the greatest business right now," Wienholt told the Evening Sun. "Everyone is struggling."

In their blood

It's a refrain he repeated at the party last week. He bemoaned that great films such as 2007's "The Final Season," about a championship high school baseball team in Iowa, bombed at the box office because it had "no sex, no violence and no tattoos."

But Wienholt is still passionate about the industry, four decades after he got his first job in a theater at age 15.

"I've done everything in this business but make movies," he said.

His daughter is a doctor and his son is in the computer business, "but there's no better business than the movie business."

He's particularly enamored of the Rotunda, where he was manager when it ran first-run films that became classics, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," "Raging Bull" and "Dog Day Afternoon."

"I have a soft spot for this theater," he told the crowd in a short speech before "Angels and Demons" started. "A lot of good things happened for me in this theater."

And he told the crowd that he and Miller would bring "the best products that we can put in here at any given time."

At the end of the night, Miller stood in the lobby in his jacket, open shirt and slacks and handed out fliers inviting the guests to a free screening of "The Proposal," a new Sandra Bullock movie.

"He's so excited about opening this particular theater," said one of the guests, his cousin, Carol Allen, 70, of Owings Mills.

"He's just thrilled that he has a chance to do it again."

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