‘Hollywood Rides a Bike’ features photos of stars and their two wheels

Whether screeching tires in high-speed chases or simply cruising around looking cool, cars have always seemed the default mode of transportation in Hollywood. For the past year and a half, however, “Inquirer” film critic Steven Rea has highlighted the love affair between silver screen celebs and vehicles of the two-wheeled variety on his Tumblr blog and now in a spin-off book, “Hollywood Rides a Bike.”

“Movies and bikes are two of my big passions in life,” Rea says. Growing up in Manhattan, he says, “I learned to ride when my father pushed me down a hill in Central Park.”

“Hollywood Rides a Bike” features images of everyone from Audrey Hepburn to Elvis to W.C. Fields to Tom Hanks pedaling or posing next to some variety of bike. Rea began collecting the pics casually, deciding to take his collection online on Thanksgiving Day 2010. By the end of the weekend he’d attracted attention from scores of fellow bike and film buffs.

“There are some very cool and rare bikes in some of these photos,” he explains. “And then there’s people like me who have Turner Classics as the default channel on their TV, who like the opportunity to see photographs of Robert Mitchum, Lana Turner, or Humphrey Bogart in a somewhat unusual setting.”

If you go

Tomorrow evening, Rea will offer a slide show of images based on the book, followed by a Secret Cinema presentation of rare films about bikes, from vintage educational shorts to French auteur Francois Truffaut’s oldest surviving film.

Hollywood Rides a Bike

Tomorrow, 8 p.m.

Broad Street Ministry

315 S. Broad St.

$8, 215-735-4847

www.thesecretcinema.com