File Photo: Michael T. Regan

City Paper: In Hollywood blockbuster parlance, did you sell out your first weekend?

Sam Katz: Financially, the event was a huge success. Attendance-wise it was an even bigger success, about 300-325 attendees. The theatre was definitely packed and the turnout exceeded my hopes an expectations. We sent out invitations that provided for tickets for $100 and $250 and "packages" of $1,000 and $2,500. I called some of the people who were major donors to the 2003 campaign and they contributed at the $1,000 or $2,500 level but many did not or could not come to the screening. We used those tickets to invite volunteers and others who had been involved in the campaign.

CP: I know packages went from $100 to $500. Did you consider dinner and tour programs like Barbra Streisand's top ticket does? Did you come close to ridding yourself of debt?

SK: The campaign has a $500,000 bank loan which Connie and I guaranteed, owes us $225,000 and still owes some vendors. The event raised over $150,000. I expect to keep soliciting funds through Labor Day. After that the Governor's race, Senate race and local races will make it very difficult for us to raise money. After November, all the attention will turn to the 2007 Mayor's race. So once this summer is over I don't expect to be able to accomplish too much more in debt reduction.

CP: It's been reported you own nearly half that of your debt to the bank and nearly half to yourself, the latter of which you won't bother trying to repay to yourself .. why not?

SK: It is impractical to think that I can raise enough money to pay off the bank debt and any vendors. That is probably over $650,000. I loaned the campaign money expecting to win and once in office to repay my loans. That didn't work out so if I pay myself back I would just have to use the money to pay the bank which we guaranteed. C'est la vie.

CP: Is there a better way in which to blow $500,000 on yourself that you can think of off hand?

SK: I could have bought an island and anointed myself as its Mayor.

CP: Politically and cinematically, what does Shame of a City stand for??

SK: The "Shame" is that we as a city are both "corrupt and contented" as Lincoln Steffens observed in The Shame of the Cities" published in 1904. Corruption in Philadelphia is rampant. John Street helped raise it to new levels allowing drug dealers into city government and enabling a racketeering system through which campaign donations and God knows what else to thrive in exchange for city contracts and jobs. Someone found out that the FBI had planted a listening device and broke the law by leaking it to the Street Administration. Told by the FBI the day the bug was found, as he testified before the Grand Jury, exactly why the bug was planted, Street spent the rest of the campaign lying to the city that he had no idea what any of this was about. His spokesman, Frank Keel, a man who wouldn't know the truth if it crawled up his trousers and bit him in the balls, concocted the great conspiracy theory, that this was part of a Republican plot hatched by George W and Ashcroft. This tale of lies was adopted as gospel by Clinton, Gore, McAuliffe, Saidel, Hoeffel, Brady, Fattah and "packaged and sold" to the City's overwhelmingly Democratic electorate which bought it hook, line and sinker. The willingness to accept corruption by municipal officials was okay since the perpetrators of the real evil were the Republicans in DC who tried to smear the Street Administration. Think about how differently all of this might have turned out had Ron White not passed away. People who went to very good schools and who read the City Paper were convinced that the bug was a dirty political trick planted by those dirty political tricksters. Corruption? It's okay as long as the really bad guys don't get in. So the "shame" isn't just that politically our government is so corrupt, it is that our people our so content to live with it.

CP: Do you like the you that is portrayed in Shame? Can you at least come to terms with it?

SK: I don't have to come to terms with how I am portrayed in the film, in the press, on TV or in the minds of anyone other than the people I love and who love me as well as myself. I think Tigre Hill and Diane Thompson's collaboration was their view of what took place and I think they did a very good job. I have a sense of humor that I wish had been given more time [in the film] and I fought very hard to win by outlining major changes to the way the city could be run that I wish was given more time. During the last three weeks, once the BIG LIE had become the centerpiece of the Street campaign, we got blown out. I never gave up. I was convinced that the public would come to their senses. That's why I borrowed the $500,000. I didn't want to wake up on Wednesday morning and find I had lost by a point, like in 1999, because I didn't fund Election Day. Originally, I was told the film was going to be called "Now or Never" because politically for me it was now or never. I ran hard even after everyone else had written me off. I kept my cool through some vicious and nasty moments. I wish I had won. I would have done a much better job capitalizing on the opportunity for turning the city around than Street has done. It wasn't to be. I fought clean, hard and with dignity. I think the film portrays that.

CP: It's been said that attorney Carl Singley comes out of Shame looking and sounding like the next candidate for mayor. Do you think he comes off that way? Should he run? Would you support him and back him?

SK: At the end of the film after that unbelievably dishonest and absurd performance by Chaka Fattah warning about Republican tactics to disenfranchise black voters, Carl stood up to the microphone and made a truly remarkable statement about what was going on and about the hypocrisy of the McAuliffe-Brady-Fattah press conference. It was a defining moment for Carl Singley and showed his intellect, articulateness and courage. When he walks by Keel and says, "Get this asshole out of my face", it also shows the occasionally brutally candid side of Carl. If he decides to run for Mayor, something I strongly doubt he will do, I would absolutely support him.

CP: I know you've said that you won't run again… but would you think of starring in another film? And if so, what sort?

SK: I'd like to star in Pride of a City, the sequel to "Shame". I'd play the part of the candidate who pledges to end the corruption and pay to play, hires on merit, treats City workers with respect and dignity, emphasizes restoring good paying jobs to the city, creates a global economic powerhouse, builds on the greatness of the universities and medical institutions to create the Smart City, runs a great campaign, dazzles people with his sense of humor and fun loving side and overcomes great obstacles and odds to win and leads the city to greatness. If I can't do it as a reality show, maybe my only remaining chance is to do it in a movie.

CP: Sam. Thanks. I still wish you'd won.

SK: Thanks for the kind words of encouragement. I wish I had won too but life goes on and all we can do is try to savor the good memories and learn from our mistakes. Fortunately for me, not a day goes by when someone who voted for John Street and bought the BS served up by the other side comes up to say that they wish they could roll back the clock and vote again.