The_Info_Web/90 - MISC/Black Mass (1975 film).md

aliases	category	tags	summary	date	location	relations	created	updated
Black Mass (Hoersch film) Black Mass (1975)	Crime & Abuse Networks	Film RCHorsch Philadelphia Satanism Censorship Blasphemy	Philadelphia film of a satanic mass by Ray Hoersch, later known as R.C. Horsch, withdrawn from the Arcadia Theatre in 1975 after protests led by Cardinal John Krol.	1975-03-01	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	type with reverse role fn participant_in R.C. Horsch true producer and director 1 type with reverse start role fn participant_in Arcadia Theatre (Philadelphia) true 1975-02 booked the midnight run that was cancelled 1 type with reverse start role fn participant_in Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia true 1975-02 reported pressure on the Arcadia booking, according to Art Carduner 1 type with reverse start role fn participant_in Art Carduner true 1975-03-01 exhibitor who booked the substitute midnight screening 1 type with reverse start role fn participant_in Bandbox Theater true 1975-03-01 venue of the substitute midnight screening 1 type with reverse start role fn participant_in John Krol true 1975-02-27 led the interfaith statement against the film 2 type with reverse start role fn participant_in Greater Philadelphia Board of Rabbis true 1975-02-27 signed the interfaith statement against the film through Rabbis Charles Lacks and Harold Goldfarb 2	2026-09-23	2026-10-15

Black Mass was a film of a satanic mass produced and directed by the Philadelphia filmmaker R.C. Horsch, later known as R.C. Horsch. A midnight run at the Arcadia Theatre (Philadelphia) on Chestnut Street was cancelled in February 1975 after what the The Philadelphia Inquirer reported as pressure from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia, and the film was screened instead at midnight at the Bandbox Theater in Germantown, Philadelphia on Saturday, March 1, 1975.¹ The Inquirer of February 28, 1975 announced the midnight showing at the Bandbox for that Saturday.¹ On February 27, 1975, sixteen Christian and Jewish leaders of Greater Philadelphia, among them Cardinal John Krol, issued a joint statement against its showing.²

Production

Ray Hoersch's earlier screenplays include Resolved: There Is No Such Thing as Gravity (The Earth Sucks), registered for copyright in his own name on April 1, 1970.³ In Hoersch v. Froehlke, decided by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on October 11, 1974, Hoersch challenged orders to involuntary active duty issued after unexcused absences from his unit of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard. The opinion records that he alleged the unit failed to consider his request to wear long hair "as required for his employment as a motion picture producer." The court found that he had been properly ordered to active duty and denied his petition.⁴

The Religious News Service described the film as "reputed to be the only literal representation ever made of an authentic satanic rite," based on transcripts of the rite "obtained by producer-director Ray Hoersch, reportedly a former producer of pornographic films." The service reported that Hoersch "reportedly attempted to film the actual ceremony" and, failing that, obtained transcripts "including the mystical incantations." It called the film "more of a documentary than a 'scary story.'"⁵ Hoersch's own description, as the service printed it: "The Satanic Mass is the exact inverse of the Catholic ceremony. Every part of it is reversed in blasphemy, for its intention is a deliberate corruption, a parody of the Mass. Starting with the processional, the ritual uses a nude as the altar piece. The second section is a baptism, in which a girl dressed in white renounces her Christianity and seals her pact with the devil. And the third part is the Invocation to lust, you'll have to see that."⁵ The Inquirer printed the opening lines of the same description on February 28, calling the rite "the exact inverse of the Catholic ceremony" with "every part of it reversed in blasphemy."²

In a 2026 broadcast of interviews recorded in 2013, Horsch called it "a literal Catholic black mass in Latin" that "kind of bombed," because "not many of the film-going audience at the time spoke fluid Latin." Asked why he chose to film a black mass, he said: "Something to do that was contrary to the law. I mean, something to get me into trouble."⁶ In the 2013 interview he said that he made the film from money earned on The Erotic Memoirs of a Male Chauvinist Pig and other films: "I took the money I made from Erotic Memoirs and a couple of the other films, and I made this unfortunate Black Mass film." He said that the film lost its money and left him in a deep depression.⁷

Horsch said he still held the film rights to Anton LaVey's The Satanic Bible, which he had bought for about 150 dollars.⁶⁷

The Arcadia Cancellation

On February 28, 1975, the society column of The Philadelphia Inquirer printed a notice that "'Black Mass,' the controversial film by Chestnut Hill filmmaker Ray Hoersch, will be shown at the Germantown Bandbox Theater this Saturday at midnight." The notice said that the film was "originally scheduled for a midnight showing at the Arcadia," and that it "was cancelled after reported pressure by the Philadelphia Archdiocese, according to the Bandbox's Art Carduner, who gave the film a new home."¹ The showing was to benefit the Friends of the Bandbox, and the column reported that Hoersch would attend the opening.¹

The Inquirer's news story of the same date, headed "Protest Raised Here On 'Black Mass' Film," reported that the film "reportedly was scheduled to open here this weekend" and that "it was doubtful Thursday night that the film would open." It had reportedly been scheduled in a center-city theater and one in Germantown. The center-city house said the report "was a mistake," and the Germantown theater said it was not yet known whether the movie would be shown there.² The society column of the same date named the Arcadia as the original booking and the Archdiocese as the cause, in Carduner's account.¹

The Arcadia was a 500-seat house at 1529-1531 Chestnut Street in Center City, Philadelphia, recorded by the Athenaeum of Philadelphia with the Sablosky Corporation and Frank DeLong among its clients.⁸

In 2026 Horsch described the same events from his side: "It had one screening and then the Catholic Archdiocese in Philadelphia actually had the whole run of the film cancelled. They had quite a bit of clout back then."⁶

The Protest

The joint statement was issued on Thursday, February 27, 1975, and the Inquirer reported it the next morning as an effort by "Christian and Jewish leaders of Greater Philadelphia" to discourage the showing. The statement called the film "a frontal attack on the Sacred itself" that was "offensive to persons of all religious faiths."²

Sixteen Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox and Jewish leaders of Philadelphia, led by Krol, signed the statement, which the Religious News Service printed in March 1975. It said that the film's content, "depicting an authentic satanic rite," was "a blasphemous attack on the religious rites held in sacred reverence by millions of Christian believers," and it urged "believers of every religious conviction to use every moral force to discourage the showing of this film in the Philadelphia area." The signers said the film was "obviously intended not to be viewed as a film, but as a blasphemous ritualistic observance," noted that plans called for it to be shown in one theater every Saturday at midnight, and asked everyone in the local film industry "to recognize the outrage being voiced by religious people of all faiths and to resist and reject every attempt to market or portray this film."²⁵

The signers included Rabbi Charles Lacks, president of the Greater Philadelphia Board of Rabbis, and its executive director, Rabbi Harold Goldfarb; Francis G. Brown, general secretary of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends; the Rev. William J. Brown of the Donegal Presbytery of the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America; and Bishop E. L. Hickman of the First Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Representatives of the Greek Orthodox community, the United Church of Christ, the Pennsylvania Baptist Association, the Byzantine Ukrainian Rite, the United Methodists and the Metropolitan Christian Council of Philadelphia also signed. In an addendum the Board of Rabbis wrote that the film "not only constitutes an obscene travesty of Catholic sancta, but deeply outrages the religious sensitivities of all God fearing people," and that it saw "no redeeming social or aesthetic value whatever in 'Black Mass.'"⁵ The Inquirer attributed the "obscene travesty of Catholic sancta" sentence to Lacks and Goldfarb.²

The Religious News Service dispatch named United Methodist Bishop James M. Ault of the Philadelphia Area among those opposing the film, and The United Methodist Reporter ran it on March 14, 1975, under the headline "U.M. bishop joins those against satanist movie."⁹

The Archdiocese had used a movie boycott before. On May 23, 1934, Dennis Dougherty called on the area's 800,000 Catholics to stay out of motion picture theaters and declared it sinful to enter one. Over 300,000 Catholics signed pledges to avoid the movies, and ticket sales fell about 20 percent. Dougherty did not release anyone from the pledge and never officially ended the boycott. In June 1934 the Motion Picture Association of America agreed to stronger self-censorship and set up the Production Code Administration, headed by the Catholic layman Joseph Breen, and the Catholic Legion of Decency grew in influence.¹⁰

The Bandbox

The Bandbox Theatre stood at 20-22 East Armat Street in Germantown and held 499 seats.¹¹ In late 1969 the Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections closed Hoersch's Underground Cinema 16 at 2021 Sansom Street. The Bandbox then ran the Vietnam documentary In the Year of the Pig, which Cinema 16 had under contract.¹² The alternative weekly The Distant Drummer quoted the department's deputy commissioner, Leo Goldstein, as saying: "I first heard about the theatre (Cinema 16) when I read in the BULLETIN that they were going to play that Vietnam film."¹²

Art Carduner of the Bandbox, who gave the film its new home, booked the screening as a benefit for the Friends of the Bandbox, and Hoersch attended.¹ The Inquirer column of February 28, 1975 announced the midnight showing and reported that Hoersch would attend the opening.¹ Horsch's account is that the film "had one screening" before the run was cancelled.⁶ The column places the pressure on the Arcadia booking. Horsch places it on the whole run.

Counterfeiting Arrest

On December 10, 1974, about eleven weeks before the Bandbox booking, Hatboro, Pennsylvania police apprehended Hoersch, then 31, after the Hatboro Card Shop on Old York Road reported a suspicious ten-dollar bill. The The Morning Call of Allentown, Pennsylvania reported the next day that United States Secret Service agents under James D'Amelio, searching his car under a warrant, had found $630 in counterfeit ten-dollar bills there, and that his driver's license and registration were also counterfeit. The paper reported that the printing equipment was in a small building on Taylor Street in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, where Charles Griffith of Wallingford, Pennsylvania was arrested. Both men were committed to the Philadelphia Detention Center in default of bail. Authorities described Hoersch as unemployed, "who said he hadn't worked for 11 years."¹³

The Associated Press carried the same arrests under the headline "Phony Bill Suspects Held": "Federal agents have arrested two men on counterfeiting charges and have seized $180,000 in phony $10 bills."¹⁴ The Morning Call headline gave the same $180,000 figure.¹³

When Hoersch was sentenced on federal drug charges in 1985, the Philadelphia Daily News reported that his record included a 1974 counterfeiting conviction "which drew a two-year sentence" and a 1972 check-forging conviction in North Carolina.¹⁵

Horsch later said that after the film he "totally lost interest in the porn business" and became a fashion photographer.⁶

Footnotes

---

1. [Society and nightlife column], The Philadelphia Inquirer, February 28, 1975, p. 21 ("'Black Mass,' the controversial film by Chestnut Hill filmmaker Ray Hoersch, will be shown at the Germantown Bandbox Theater this Saturday at midnight. Originally scheduled for a midnight showing at the Arcadia, the film was cancelled after reported pressure by the Philadelphia Archdiocese, according to the Bandbox's Art Carduner, who gave the film a new home."). https://www.newspapers.com/image/173366667/ ↩︎

2. "Protest Raised Here On 'Black Mass' Film," The Philadelphia Inquirer, February 28, 1975, p. 11. https://www.newspapers.com/image/173364962/ ↩︎

3. Catalog of Copyright Entries, Third Series, Parts 3-4: Dramas and Works Prepared for Oral Delivery, January-December 1970, vol. 24, nos. 1-2 ("RESOLVED: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS GRAVITY (The earth sucks). An original screenplay by Ray Hoersch. 94 l. (c) Ray Hoersch; 1Apr70; DU76768."). https://archive.org/details/catalogofcop197032434libr ↩︎

4. Hoersch v. Froehlke, 382 F. Supp. 1235 (E.D. Pa. October 11, 1974), Civ. A. No. 72-1759 (Hannum, J.). https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/2596970/hoersch-v-froehlke/ ↩︎

5. "Offensive Material: Leaders Condemn Black Mass Film," Religious News Service, Lake Shore Visitor (Erie), March 7, 1975, p. 3. https://www.newspapers.com/image/951794835/ ↩︎

6. West, Ashley. "Unknowing Ray Horsch, Episode 2: Performance," The Rialto Report, Podcast 172, September 20, 2026, audio at 30:51 to 32:06, republishing interviews recorded in 2013. https://www.therialtoreport.com/2026/09/20/ray-horsch-3/ ↩︎

7. West, Ashley. "Ray Horsch: Sociopathic Villain," The Rialto Report, Podcast 27, December 15, 2013, audio at 46:22 to 47:45 (the film's financing, its lack of success, and the Satanic Bible rights). Audio preserved in a Wayback Machine capture of March 31, 2019: https://web.archive.org/web/20190331064614/http://traffic.libsyn.com/therialtoreport/27_Rialto_Report_027_-_Ray_Horsch__Sociopathic_Villain.mp3 ↩︎

8. Athenaeum of Philadelphia, Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, "Arcadia Theatre," 1529-1531 Chestnut St. https://www.philadelphiabuildings.org/pab/app/pj_display.cfm/8403 ↩︎

9. "U.M. bishop joins those against satanist movie," Religious News Service, The United Methodist Reporter (Louisiana edition), March 14, 1975, p. 3. https://archive.org/details/louisianaunitedm1975unit ↩︎

10. "Dougherty's Movie Boycott," Catholic Historical Research Center, Philadelphia, February 6, 2019, citing Cardinal Dougherty, "Letter to Priests of the Archdiocese," May 25, 1934, and Frederick Lane, The Decency Wars (2006), p. 90. https://chrc-phila.org/doughertys-movie-boycott/ ↩︎

11. Athenaeum of Philadelphia, Philadelphia Architects and Buildings, "Bandbox Theatre," 20-22 E. Armat St. ("Seating capacity: 499"). https://www.philadelphiabuildings.org/pab/app/pj_display.cfm/8266 ↩︎

12. Article on Cinema 16 and city licensing under Mayor James H. J. Tate's administration, The Distant Drummer, no. 65, December 25, 1969 to January 1, 1970, p. 8, Temple University Libraries, Special Collections Research Center. https://digital.library.temple.edu/digital/collection/p16002coll34/id/473 ↩︎

13. "[...] bogus $180,000 in Bucks raid," The Morning Call (Allentown), December 11, 1974, p. 5. https://www.newspapers.com/image/275702319/ ↩︎

14. "Phony Bill Suspects Held," Associated Press, Gloucester County Times (Woodbury, N.J.), December 11, 1974, p. 2. https://www.newspapers.com/image/1105967385/ ↩︎

15. Smith, Jim. "Fugitive's Luck Runs Out With 4-Year Jail Sentence," Philadelphia Daily News, April 27, 1985, p. 8. https://www.newspapers.com/image/185948055/ ↩︎