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The Film Programs of the Detroit Film Theatre, Michigan Theater and Redford Theatre

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Looking Back

June 1931

Step back in time to see what our movie palaces were presenting in June 1931. Also included is interesting history about other area movie theaters. Film titles are linked to the Internet Movie Database.

"The feature play of a motion picture theater is no more the place for advertising than are the pages of a novel," wrote Ann Arbor Daily News movie columnist Allison Ind on June 3, 1931. Ind was applauding the decisions by the Paramount and Warner Brothers movie studios to stop "sponsored screen advertising" (product placement), because of its possible negative effect on attendance.

In June 1931, Ann Arbor movie fans flocked to the Michigan Theater to see The Front Page, along with early films of Barbara Stanwyck (Ten Cents a Dance) and Spencer Tracy (Six Cylinder Love). Michigan audiences also enjoyed guest organist Don Miller, whose performances included original and classical compositions.

Both the Michigan and Redford showed City Streets, a crime drama starring Gary Cooper and Sylvia Sidney that was one of the most popular films of the year. The Redford lineup for Sunday, June 28 included two movies whose titles and stars haved faded into the ancient, obscure past: Young Sinners (with silent film star Thomas Meighan and Hardie Albright) and Sky Raiders (Lloyd Hughes and Marceline Day).

Also playing at the Redford was Norma Shearer in Strangers May Kiss, which appeared the same week that Shearer's widely publicized new film, A Free Soul, opened at the Paramount in downtown Detroit (Broadway and Grand Circus Park).

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