This is an amazing story about a family which has lasted for four generations in the movie distribution business. It is very much a business biography, and a great book to read for any aspiring entrepreneur. B.S. Moss, a Jewish immigrant from Europe saw the available opportunities in America, and seized them, running movie theatres in the very early days of movie production. He not only ran a successful business. He also took care of his ailing father and became involved in New York's Jewish community.

Through the advent of 'talkies', the Great Depression and Two World Wars, the family continued to oversee their business, with each generation bringing fresh insights and new ideas, while retaining traditional family values and building on lessons from the past. The part that I especially liked was when Charley Moss refused an offer of $92 million to build an office building above the family's retail space and their beloved Criterion Theatre in Times Square, because new columns would affect his real estate space. Although heavily criticised, Charley won in the end by leasing valuable commercial signage.

I enjoyed this, although it isn't really a glamorous Hollywood biography,

I received this free ebook from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I pride myself in knowing a lot about the history of cinema production and distribution but did not know about the Moss family and their important role in the evolution of movie theaters. In the appendix there is a listing of all the theaters this family built (many have been knocked down or replaced by retail stores) but some are still in existence and thriving (such as the newer one in downtown New Haven, Connecticut). This book is co-written by Charley Moss -- the third generation Moss who runs Bow Tie Partners. His grandfather was involved in vaudeville and his father owned theaters in Times Square when it was an area that became blighted and crime-ridden as more and more families moved to the suburbs. Due to the savvy business-sense, his father held on to many of the properties and rode out the turn-around and even was able to lease billboard space at a very good profit. This book made me very nostalgic for going to the cinema pre-pandemic and when movie houses were glamorous palaces. This book is a love story to the Moss Family as well as other immigrants who started successful businesses.

I recommend this book.

This is the story of the Moss family - four generations of movie theater owners in the USA. The book covers the time from silent movies to Covid and all the ups and down in between.
It´s a rather short book considering it deals with four generations (founder Benjamin S. Moss, Charles, Charley and Ben). The problem is that writer Jonathan Kay jumps around quite bit - sometimes the book is a straightforward memoir, then it goes into detail about one of the few producing forays by Charley, then it lets you sit in in a meeting about which movies get sceened and why, then it gives you a rundown about all the Bow-Tie theaters of the last years.
Lots of interesting stuff in between, but some things go unanswered - how did they deal with the switch from silents to sound movies? How can a theater keep people interested in a movie like "The Ten Commandments" so that it ran for 17 months? And I understand that Charles was a co-writer (or inspiration) for the book but I don`t remember anything about the family members except that they were all upstanding citizens...
It´s a fascinating subject - not too many books I can remember about theater owners that did not go into production - but I wish Kay would have dug deeper...
Netgalley provided me with a copy of this book for which I am very grateful.

Magic in the Dark, as the title suggests, focuses on the Moss family-specifically BS Moss who started the family’s theater exhibitor business. We get an inside peek at film history and how movie theaters have evolved through the past century. I learned a lot about how films and theaters/movie industry evolved; for example I had no idea silent films had a live orchestra or single instruments to play music and sound effects to go with the film!

I enjoyed the background of how films got started after vaudeville and progressed through the decades. It was also interesting to see the movie industry from a different perspective. Most books focus on the celebrities or Hollywood, so I liked the introduction to how movie theaters were run by people known as “film exhibitors.”

The book also had some interesting discussions on censorship and the morality laws for entertainment, as well as the changes of NYC Times Square. Honestly I enjoyed the first half of the book more than the second half. The first half had so much information on film and theater/entertainment history itself which I personally found more intriguing. The second half dives into the more business venture/technical side of the Moss’ film exhibitor company. From the buildings they acquired and their tenants to how they negotiated with unions, it was just a bit dry compared to earlier chapters.

Overall an interesting read on one family’s success in film! I’d recommend if you enjoy film/entertainment history and a book on this topic that doesn’t just focus on Hollywood and film making itself.

This was a thoroughly interesting book, rich with information and evocative of the time.
It covers a time in the movie industry which some consider the hey day.
I enjoyed this and highly recommend it.
I voluntarily reviewed an advance reader copy of this book.

This book is more of a film history through the lens of the Moss family. Although it's presented as a memoir, I would say it's more than that in terms of context. Oftentimes the author will discuss various eras of film history, cinematic popularity etc... It's a good read if you are interested in cinema and want to know about an influential family in the industry