35 lines
2.6 KiB
Markdown
35 lines
2.6 KiB
Markdown
---
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aliases:
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- Cinema 16 (Philadelphia)
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- The Roxy (Sansom Street)
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category: "Private Organization"
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tags:
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- Organization
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- Philadelphia
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- UndergroundFilm
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- RCHorsch
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summary: "Sixteen-millimeter underground film theater on Sansom Street in Philadelphia, opened by R.C. Horsch in 1969 and closed within weeks by the city for lack of licenses."
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start: 1969
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location: "2021 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania"
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relations:
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- type: investigated
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with: "[[Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections]]"
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reverse: true
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start: 1969
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fn: 1
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created: 2026-09-23
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updated: 2026-09-23
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---
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Underground Cinema 16 was a 16-millimeter film theater at 2021 [[Sansom Street]] in [[Center City, Philadelphia|Center City]], [[Philadelphia]], opened in mid-October 1969 by [[R.C. Horsch]], then known as Raymond Hoersch, a 26-year-old filmmaker. The *[[The Philadelphia Inquirer|Philadelphia Inquirer]]* called it "Philadelphia's first commercial venture into noncommercial underground theater."[^1]
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### 1969
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The theater occupied premises where the Pocket Playhouse had once "packed them in." Horsch tore out the stage, installed plush blue seats taken from a small preview theater in the city, remodeled the lobby, hung white-framed photographs of his own, and built a projection booth. It opened with an underground double bill, *Lenny Bruce* and *Relativity*, and Horsch said he would draw its films from the [[Film-Makers' Cooperative|Filmmakers Cooperative]] in [[New York City]] and had started the theater in part to finance an 80,000-dollar feature of his own.[^1]
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On Wednesday, October 29, 1969, [[Leo Goldstein]], deputy commissioner of the [[Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections]], posted the theater as closed for lack of the required licenses, and police were instructed to keep it empty. Horsch described his failure to obtain the papers as a "simple confusion" over the city's requirements and said the officials at City Hall were "bureaucratic, but helpful." A preview of the [[Vietnam War]] documentary *[[In the Year of the Pig]]* had been scheduled for that night. Horsch said the city would inspect the building the next day; Goldstein said the process could take two weeks.[^1] Horsch later said that he ran the theater on Sansom Street as the Roxy.[^2]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: "Police to Inspect Building: Cinema 16 Shut Down In License Dispute; Owner Is 'Confused'," *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* October 30, 1969, p. 19. https://www.newspapers.com/image/169186622/
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[^2]: West, Ashley. "Unknowing Ray Horsch, Episode 2: Performance," *The Rialto Report,* Podcast 172, September 20, 2026, audio. https://www.therialtoreport.com/2026/09/20/ray-horsch-3/
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