---
category: Media & Entertainment
created: 2026-09-23
died: 2009-12-04
location: Germantown, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
relations:
- end: 1975
  fn: 1
  start: 1966
  type: owned
  with: '[[Bandbox Theater]]'
summary: Germantown bookseller and art-house exhibitor who ran the Bandbox Theater
  from 1966 to 1975 and gave R.C. Horsch's condemned film Black Mass a midnight screening
  in 1975.
tags:
- Person
- Cinema
- Philadelphia
- Germantown
- RCHorsch
updated: 2026-09-23
---

Art Carduner (about 1919 to December 4, 2009) was a Philadelphia bookseller, book reviewer and exhibitor of foreign and art films who owned the [Bandbox Theater](/organizations/bandbox-theater/) in Germantown from 1966 to 1975. In February 1975, after the [Arcadia](/organizations/arcadia-theatre-philadelphia/) cancelled a midnight showing of *[Black Mass](/misc/black-mass-1975-film/)* by Ray Hoersch, later [R.C. Horsch](/people/rc-horsch/), following what the *Inquirer* called reported pressure from the [Philadelphia Archdiocese](/organizations/roman-catholic-archdiocese-of-philadelphia/), Carduner gave the film a midnight screening at the Bandbox.[^1][^2]

### Theaters and Books

Carduner grew up in [New York City](/places/new-york-city/) and came to Philadelphia in 1941. Before the Second World War he worked as a civilian cryptographer at the Signal Corps depot on Wissahickon Avenue, and then served in the Signal Corps; he claimed to have deciphered, three days before the attack on Pearl Harbor, a message from Clark Field in the [Philippines](/places/philippines/) ending "Attack imminent, please rush," and said that his superiors ignored it. After the war he bought a bookstore in New York for 2,000 dollars, moved to New Hope, started a mail-order book business in Lambertville, and bought and restored the New Strand Theater there. He also ran the Hill in Chestnut Hill, a book-search business, and a shop on Germantown Avenue, Germantown Bikes & Books, and reviewed books for *[The Philadelphia Inquirer](/organizations/the-philadelphia-inquirer/)*, *The Distant Drummer* and the *Chestnut Hill Local*. His programs favored esoteric foreign films and often played to nearly empty houses; he kept no popcorn machine and would run after patrons who walked out to refund their money. His political hero was Al Smith. A friend, Dave Miller, said: "He was phenomenally bighearted. He looked like Orson Welles, and had a nasal way of speaking." He died at 90 and was survived by two daughters, a son, a brother and three grandchildren.[^1]

### Hoersch

The Bandbox's connection with Hoersch predates *Black Mass*. When the city's [Department of Licenses and Inspections](/organizations/philadelphia-department-of-licenses-and-inspections/) closed Hoersch's [Underground Cinema 16](/organizations/underground-cinema-16/) in late 1969, the Bandbox ran the Vietnam documentary *[In the Year of the Pig](/misc/in-the-year-of-the-pig/)*, which Cinema 16 had under contract.[^3] On February 28, 1975, the *Inquirer* reported that *Black Mass* "will be shown at the Germantown Bandbox Theater this Saturday at midnight," according to "the Bandbox's Art Carduner, who gave the film a new home," as a benefit for the Friends of the Bandbox, with Hoersch attending.[^2]

[^1]: 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
[^2]: [Society and nightlife column], *The Philadelphia Inquirer,* February 28, 1975, p. 21. https://www.newspapers.com/image/173366667/
[^3]: "Mayor Tate's War On [title cut off in the scan]," *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