The_Info_Web/20 - ORGANIZATIONS/PRIVATE/Bandbox Theater.md

aliases	category	tags	summary	location	created	updated
Band Box Theater Bandbox Theatre	Media & Entertainment	Organization Cinema Philadelphia Germantown RCHorsch	Art-house cinema at 20-22 East Armat Street in Germantown, owned by Art Carduner from 1966 to 1975, which screened R.C. Horsch's condemned film Black Mass in 1975.	Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	2026-09-23	2026-10-15

The Bandbox Theater, also written Band Box, was a cinema at 20-22 East Armat Street in the Germantown, Philadelphia section of Philadelphia, recorded with a seating capacity of 499. Art Carduner bought it, then shuttered, in 1966 and ran it as a house for foreign and art films until 1975. It screened films of Ray Hoersch, later R.C. Horsch, in 1969 and 1975.¹²

Hoersch

In late 1969, when the city's Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections closed Hoersch's Underground Cinema 16 on Sansom Street, the Bandbox ran the Vietnam documentary In the Year of the Pig, which Cinema 16 had under contract.³ In February 1975 the Arcadia Theatre (Philadelphia) on Chestnut Street cancelled a midnight booking of Hoersch's Black Mass (1975 film) after what the Inquirer called reported pressure from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia, and a joint statement of sixteen religious leaders led by Cardinal John Krol condemned the film. Carduner gave it a midnight screening at the Bandbox on Saturday, March 1, 1975, as a benefit for the Friends of the Bandbox, with Hoersch attending.⁴⁵ The Inquirer column of February 28, 1975 announced the midnight showing at the Bandbox and reported that Hoersch would attend the opening.⁴ The Inquirer's news story of the same date reported the film as scheduled at a center-city theater and one in Germantown; the center-city house called the report "a mistake," and the Germantown theater said it was not yet known whether the film would be shown there.⁶

Footnotes

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

2. Morrison, John F. "Art Carduner, a pioneer in exhibiting foreign films in Phila.," The Philadelphia Inquirer, December 9, 2009. https://www.inquirer.com/philly/obituaries/20091209_Art_Carduner__a_pioneer_in_exhibiting_foreign_films_in_Phila_.html ↩︎

3. The Distant Drummer, no. 65, December 25, 1969, p. 8, Temple University Libraries, Special Collections Research Center. https://digital.library.temple.edu/digital/collection/p16002coll34/id/473 ↩︎

4. [Society and nightlife column], The Philadelphia Inquirer, February 28, 1975, p. 21. https://www.newspapers.com/image/173366667/ ↩︎

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