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Looking Back

November 1932

Step back in time to see what our movie palaces were presenting in November 1932. Also included is interesting history about other area movie theaters. Film titles are linked mostly to the Internet Movie Database.

When the votes were counted on Nov. 8 in the historic U.S. presidential election between incumbent Herbert Hoover and challenger Franklin Roosevelt, area moviegoers didn't have to sit at home by their radio to find out what was going on.

"The Michigan will run a special midnight show on election night, Tuesday, Nov. 8," read an ad in Nov. 7, 1932 The Ann Arbor Daily News. "At the conclusion of the show, and at times during its running, election returns that are available will be given." To mark the occasion, the Michigan re-ran its Monday Guest Night double bill of the main attraction Movie Crazy (Harold Lloyd) and second feature The Miracle Man.

In Detroit, "three downtown motion picture theaters, the Michigan, RKO Downtown and Fox, will cater to presidential election celebrants tonight by offering special shows," read an article in the Nov. 8, 1932 Detroit News. "Vote returns will be announced on national, state and county tickets at intervals during the entertainment."

Also at the Michigan in Ann Arbor, moviegoers on Nov. 19 got a free turkey, duck or chicken for their "Thanksgiving feast" after enjoying Loretta Young and George Brent in They Call It Sin. Opening on Thanksgiving at the Michigan was A Bill of Divorcement, starring John Barrymore and (in her first film) Katharine Hepburn. Other popular movies were Red Dust (Clark Gable, Jean Harlow), Rain (Joan Crawford, Walter Huston), and Too Busy to Work (Will Rogers, Marian Nixon).

At the Redford, the highlight of the month was Grand Hotel, which had been playing downtown since May. That film opened on Nov. 27, after it was named the "most outstanding picture" in the Academy Awards ceremony for the 1931/32 movie year (The Detroit News, Nov. 19, 1932).

Other top films at the Redford included Pack Up Your Troubles (Laurel and Hardy), Blonde Venus (Marlene Dietrich), Bird of Paradise (Dolores del Rio), Love Me Tonight (Maurice Chevalier), and Devil and the Deep (Gary Cooper). Nov. 19 visitors to the Redford enjoyed a double bill of This Sporting Age (Jack Holt) and Blonde Captive, along with a "Big Vaudeville Show" at 9 p.m.

Prominent openings in Detroit included Rain (Joan Crawford) and I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (Paul Muni) at the United Artists (video courtesy of TCM); A Bill of Divorcement and The Old Dark House at the RKO Downtown; and If I Had a Million at the Michigan.

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