I loved going to the Bandbox when I was a teen in Philly in the late 1960s. Art Carduner was a culture hero of mine for his programming and the great program notes he wrote. Much of my early movie education took place in this theater – from “Citizen Kane” to “Morgan!” to “Pierrot le Fou.” It was an adventure to get to from the Northeast (via public transportation) but you knew you were going to see something very special!
When I went to Penn State in the late 1960s and early 70s the tiny theater was called Twelvetrees and offered fantastic repertory programming. It’s where I saw lots of Truffaut flicks and other foreign gems. They also revived fairly recent films that had been commercial flops. The lobby was a hotbed of good movie chat. The screen was small but the films made up for it!
The World on Market St. was one of my favorite theaters when I was a Philly teen in the 1960s. It most definitely was open through the end of that decade because that’s where I saw “If…” and “Last Summer” in 1969.
The theater stood out from the other downtown movie houses because it was smaller and had a distinct “arty” vibe – the small lobby was painted white (with only a few posters and paintings as decoration). It was the place where I saw my first subtitled movie – the Swedish hit “Elvira Madigan” in 1967.
I also remember going downtown to see “A Man for All Seasons” there when it opened for its exclusive first-run engagement in 1966.
Thanks for triggering some nice memories!
I loved going to the Bandbox when I was a teen in Philly in the late 1960s. Art Carduner was a culture hero of mine for his programming and the great program notes he wrote. Much of my early movie education took place in this theater – from “Citizen Kane” to “Morgan!” to “Pierrot le Fou.” It was an adventure to get to from the Northeast (via public transportation) but you knew you were going to see something very special!
When I went to Penn State in the late 1960s and early 70s the tiny theater was called Twelvetrees and offered fantastic repertory programming. It’s where I saw lots of Truffaut flicks and other foreign gems. They also revived fairly recent films that had been commercial flops. The lobby was a hotbed of good movie chat. The screen was small but the films made up for it!
The World on Market St. was one of my favorite theaters when I was a Philly teen in the 1960s. It most definitely was open through the end of that decade because that’s where I saw “If…” and “Last Summer” in 1969.
The theater stood out from the other downtown movie houses because it was smaller and had a distinct “arty” vibe – the small lobby was painted white (with only a few posters and paintings as decoration). It was the place where I saw my first subtitled movie – the Swedish hit “Elvira Madigan” in 1967.
I also remember going downtown to see “A Man for All Seasons” there when it opened for its exclusive first-run engagement in 1966.
Thanks for triggering some nice memories!