Most books about B-movies are straight-forward genre guides, biographies, or encyclopedias. Not this one. In addition to film showmen, gimmicks, cult, camp, and trash movies, Land of a Thousand Balconies documents Jack Stevenson"s first-hand exploration of movie theatres, lamenting the disappearing sense-of-place that is such an integral part of the movie-going experience-from the notorious grindhouses of San Francisco, to the store-front cinemas of Seattle and New York, to the underground film clubs of Europe.