My first visit to the Art Cinema was in May, 1966. The feature presentation was “To Die in Madrid,” a documentary about the Spanish Civil War. The co-feature was a British comedy with Peter Sellers, “Two Way Stretch,” made early in his career. However, I was too young at the time, in my early teens, to appreciate either film. What I especially remember is the number of patrons in the theater that evening that I could count on one hand. Even then, I wondered how the theater would stay in business with such low attendance. The answer, of course, came the following year. By fall of 1967, the Art Cinema was regularly showing exploitation films, a precursor to the soft core variety which played a couple of years later.
Memories of the Art Cinema. Growing up in the 1960s, I just loved to read the movie page. But what fascinated me most were the ads for the Art Cinema (and, after that, those of the Avon). It showed the most unusual movies, usually foreign, but also unconventional American films as well. In fact, in those days, any motion picture that was on the “C-Condemned” list of the Catholic Church was eventually booked at the Art Cinema. The newspaper ads for these films were quite intriguing to me, even though I was too young for admission.
My first visit to the Art Cinema was in May, 1966. The feature presentation was “To Die in Madrid,” a documentary about the Spanish Civil War. The co-feature was a British comedy with Peter Sellers, “Two Way Stretch,” made early in his career. However, I was too young at the time, in my early teens, to appreciate either film. What I especially remember is the number of patrons in the theater that evening that I could count on one hand. Even then, I wondered how the theater would stay in business with such low attendance. The answer, of course, came the following year. By fall of 1967, the Art Cinema was regularly showing exploitation films, a precursor to the soft core variety which played a couple of years later.
Memories of the Art Cinema. Growing up in the 1960s, I just loved to read the movie page. But what fascinated me most were the ads for the Art Cinema (and, after that, those of the Avon). It showed the most unusual movies, usually foreign, but also unconventional American films as well. In fact, in those days, any motion picture that was on the “C-Condemned” list of the Catholic Church was eventually booked at the Art Cinema. The newspaper ads for these films were quite intriguing to me, even though I was too young for admission.