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M.
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(Video courtesy of YouTube)
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Step back in time to see what our movie palaces were presenting in December 1931. Also included is interesting history about other area movie theaters. Film titles are linked to the Internet Movie Database.
Two-for-one
tickets were part of Joy Month, which was celebrated in Ann Arbor at the
Michigan and the other Butterfield theaters (Majestic and Wuerth). The
Ann Arbor Daily News and other local businesses helped sponsor this
promotion, which included merchant booths in the Michigan lobby. "A
normal Christmas will hasten the return of normal times and stimulate
manufacturing all along the line," read a News ad.
The
Michigan lineup included Possessed
(Joan Crawford and Clark Gable), Private
Lives (Norma Shearer and Robert Montgomery) and His
Woman (Gary Cooper and Claudette Colbert). Lead acting Oscars
for 1931-32 were earned by Helen Hayes in The
Sin of Madelon Claudet and Wallace Beery in The
Champ. A New Year's Eve Midnight Frolic featured The
Guardsman (Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne) and Helpmates
(Laurel and Hardy), along with novelties, hats, favors and noisemakers.
Laurel
and Hardy also helped usher in 1932 at the Redford, appearing in Beau
Hunks on a Dec. 31 midnight double bill with A
Dangerous Affair (Jack Holt). The two comics also opened for Warner
Baxter in The
Cisco Kid. Other film favorites were Susan
Lenox (Her Fall and Rise), with Greta Garbo and Clark Gable; The
Yellow Ticket (Lionel Barrymore); and Palmy
Days (Eddie Cantor). Double bills included the pairing of The
Big Gamble (Bill Boyd) and Alexander
Hamilton (George Arliss).
A
SWAP advertisement in the Detroit Free Press (in which goods were
offered for other goods) earned two free tickets to a Publix Show theater
(Fisher, Michigan, Paramount, State or United Artists). Christmas Day
entertainment at the Fisher included live music by Duke Ellington, the
feature film Under
Eighteen (Marian Marsh), a Mickey Mouse Christmas cartoon, juvenile
star Bob Nolan's Miniature Revue, and Eduard Werner guest directing the
Fisher Orchestra.
At
the Little Cinema Theatre in Detroit (56 E. Columbia near Woodward), the
German language Zwei
Menschen (Two People)
was followed by Die
Vom Rummelplatz (People
of the Side Show).