Last Updated: 3/2/25

ALL SECRET CINEMA PRESENTATIONS ARE SHOWN IN 16mm (or larger!) FILM ON A GIANT SCREEN (NOT VIDEO...NOT EVER!)

Since 1992, the Secret Cinema has been the Philadelphia area’s premiere floating repertory cinema series, bringing hundreds of unique programs to nightclubs, bars, coffee houses, museums, open fields, colleges, art galleries, bookstores, and sometimes even theaters and film festivals. Drawing on its own large private film archive (as well as other collections), the Secret Cinema attempts to explore the uncharted territory and the genres that fall between the cracks, with programs devoted to educational and industrial films, cult and exploitation features, cartoons, rare television, local history, home movies, erotic films, politically incorrect material, and the odd Hollywood classic. As long as it exists on real celluloid, that is—Secret Cinema screenings never use video/digital projection. While mainly based in Philadelphia, the Secret Cinema has also brought programming to other cities and countries.

Thursday, March 6, 2025
9:00 pm until Midnight (and possibly longer)
Admission: FREE

The Trestle Inn
339 N. 11th Street, Philadelphia
(267) 239-0290

The Secret Cinema’s Jay Schwartz will be doing his first guest D.J. set in almost two years -- this time at the Trestle Inn. The record boxes are still being filled, but expect a mix of styles that will include '60s mod/soul/psych, punk, power pop, and glam. And bubblegum! Plus...there will be a go go dancer!

Admission is free.

Bizarre Lon Chaney silent with live music

at historic Glen Foerd mansion

Glen Foerd on the Delaware
Grant Avenue & Milnor Street, Philadelphia
215-632-5330

Friday, March 7, 2025
7:30 pm (doors open 7:00 pm)
Admission: $25, $20 students and seniors

On Friday, March 7, the Secret Cinema will again be hosted by one of the most impressive venues in our long history -- Glen Foerd on the Delaware, a historic 1850 mansion and estate located in the Torresdale neighborhood of Northeast Philadelphia. Glen Foerd is Philadelphia's last remaining Delaware River estate open to the public.

This silent film presentation will not be silent, as expert keyboardist Don Kinnier (veteran collaborator for several past Secret Cinema programs) will bring the movie alive with his accompaniment on the mansion's recently restored 1902 Haskell pipe organ.

We'll be showing one of our favorite Lon Chaney features, the first film released by the MGM studio, and an unlikely commercial hit in 1924: He Who Gets Slapped. With its twisted themes of madness, masochism, and dangerous clowns, this is as odd a film as Secret Cinema has ever screened.

The screening will also include surprise silent short subjects.

There will be one complete show at 7:30 pm. Doors will open at 7:00 pm to allow touring of the mansion and grounds.

The film will be shown in the gilded-age mansion's beautiful second floor art gallery (stair access only).

Admission is $25, $20 students and seniors. Seating is limited.

Buy tickets here.

Glen Foerd on the Delaware is a 5-minute walk from the Torresdale station of SEPTA's Trenton Regional Rail Line or the 19 & 84 bus routes. There is ample free parking within the estate.

He Who Gets Slapped (1924, Dir: Victor Seastom)
Lon Chaney (Sr.), increasingly the silent era star with perhaps the most appeal to modern audiences, played a variety of unusual roles throughout the 1920s -- but none were more bizarre than in Chaney stars as a scientist driven mad when both his thesis and wife are stolen by his mentor. Leaving the academic world behind, the beaten man transforms himself into the ultimate masochist, and reemerges as HE, a famous circus clown whose celebrated routine consists of being humiliated by other clowns that line up to repeatedly slap his face, tear out his heart and tread it into the dirt! The crowds laugh at HE without knowing the torture in his psyche, but when HE crosses paths with his unwitting enemy, the lonely clown plots a devious and sweet revenge…in hopes of triumphing as "the one who laughs last."

He Who Gets Slapped was the most famous play by the Russian writer Leonid Andreyev. As a young law student Andreyev suffered extreme depression and made several suicide attempts. Upon graduation he turned to writing, under the tutelage of Maxim Gorky. In addition to many successes with novels and plays, Andreyev was also an accomplished photographer.

The first production of the newly formed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, was the second American film by Swedish director Victor Seastom (born Sjöström). The dark, symbolism-filled work was considered a risky venture, but proved quite popular and prompted Chaplin to label Seastom "the greatest director in the world." Seastom was raised in America but returned to Sweden after his mother's death, finding work as an actor in the theater. His first film role was in 1912, under Sweden's other great silent era director, Mauritz Stiller. Seastom began directing the following year, and after much acclaim was brought back to the U.S. in 1923. He directed his last film in 1938 but continued acting, until his final role as Professor Berg in Bergman's (1957).

About Glen Foerd on the Delaware: The Glen Foerd mansion was built in 1850 by businessman Charles Macalester, Jr. The estate was later purchased by leather manufacturer Robert Foerderer, who enlarged and added extensive enhancements to the property, including a formal dining room, an impressive art gallery, a pipe organ, parquet floors, a grand staircase and elaborate leaded glass skylights. The Foerderers' daughter Florence lived in the estate until her death in 1971. In 1985 the property was taken over by the Glen Foerd Conservation Corporation and the Fairmount Park Commission, and is today operated as a historic house museum and public park.

About Don Kinnier: The silent film era, from its tentative first steps to its final artistic masterpieces, lasted for about 35 years. Musician Don Kinnier has been accompanying silent film screenings for over 55 years! Pennsylvania's foremost exponent of this very specialized art form, he has studied the techniques and repertoires of the original theater musicians of the silent era. A Philadelphia native (now based in Lititz), Don has toured internationally, and has maintained a long and fruitful relationship with Longwood Gardens, playing recently at the Fanfare Weekend rededication of the large Aeolian organ there. He also plays at The Strand Capitol Performing Arts Center and the Allen Theatre, and provided the soundtrack for many past Secret Cinema events.

Fantastic TV: 1956-1976 at the Rotunda

Thursday, March 13, 2024
8:00 pm
Admission: FREE

The Rotunda
4014 Walnut Street
Philadelphia

The Secret Cinema will return to the Rotunda in University City on Thursday, March 13, to present a unique program called Fantastic TV: 1956-1976. The screening will include complete episodes of little-seen shows from the past, featuring science fiction, speculative fiction and even speculative non-fiction. All will be shown bigger and bolder than they were ever meant to be seen, using rare 16mm film prints.

There will be one complete show at 8:00 pm. Admission is free.

This screening is part of the Rotunda's ongoing "Bright Bulb Screening Series," which offers free movies on the second Thursday of every month, throughout the year.

Fantastic TV: 1956-1976 will include:

Science Fiction Theatre: "Gravity Zero" (1956, Dir: Paul Guilfoyle) - Beloved mild-mannered character actor Percy Helton stars as an absent-minded science professor who struggles with administrators to keep his research going, while obsessively working on an anti-gravity machine. ZIV Television Programs, perhaps best remembered for Highway Patrol (with Broderick Crawford) syndicated this forgotten anthology drama series. Science Fiction Theatre was introduced each week by host Truman Bradley, a former news commentator turned prolific narrator of films and television shows.

One Step Beyond: "The Room Upstairs" (1961, Dir: John Newland) - This series, which lasted on the ABC network for three full seasons, attracted a cult audience for its weekly stories of psychic and supernatural phenomena -- all of which were purported to be based on true cases. This episode stars Lois Maxwell (best known for her role as "Miss Moneypenny" in James Bond films) as a wife who appears to be going mad, as she repeatedly hears the voice of a child in her rented home. Series host John Newland directed this final season episode.

The Twilight Zone: "Where is Everybody?" (1959, Dir: Robert Stevens) - Rod Serling's hugely-popular creation The Twilight Zone was a sensation when first aired, and continues to attract fans 66 years later. Thus, it is easier to watch than most of our offerings. Nonetheless, the film we shall project is one of the rarest titles in the whole Secret Cinema archive: An uncut, network print of the pilot episode that launched this renowned series, complete with the original sponsors' commercials, network tags, Serling sign-off, and Bernard Herrmann's original theme music (the latter was replaced at the end of the first season with Marius Constant's more familiar theme).

In Search of a Call From Space (1976, Dir: uncredited) - Alan Landsburg's In Search of... documentary series explored such often unexplainable 1970s obsessions as E.S.P., the Bermuda Triangle and the Loch Ness monster. This segment, hosted by Leonard Nimoy, takes a deep look into NASA and other researchers' quest to detect radio signals beamed by intelligent life outside of Earth.

USA Writers: "Science Fiction" (1966, Dir: Jack Sameth) - This is a kinescope record of a panel talk show produced by KCET, the Los Angeles outlet for National Educational Television (predecessor to today's PBS). It presents an interesting discussion (in an incredible spaceship-like stage set!) about the state of science fiction writing in the 1960s. Biochemistry scientist Paul Saltman moderates conversation between sci-fi authors Theodore Sturgeon, A.E. Vogt and Anthony Boucher, as well as Stanford English professor Dr. H. Bruce Franklin.

FUTURE SECRET CINEMA EVENTS (more info soon):