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Looking Back

December 1932

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

The Redford screen shone with some of Hollywood's brightest stars before temporarily closing for the second time in 1932. The month started with George Arliss in A Successful Calamity. Then came The Phantom President, with Jimmy "Schnozzle" Durante and George M. Cohan, along with an Andy Clyde comedy and a Betty Boop cartoon.

Redford audiences then enjoyed The Cabin in the Cotton (Richard Barthelmess, Bette Davis), followed by Back Street (Irene Dunne, John Boles). Norma Shearer and Fredric March starred in Smilin' Through, which ran from Friday, Dec. 9 to Sunday, Dec. 11. After that, the theater (which had been shuttered for three months in the summer and fall) was closed for the rest of December.

"University Hospital children who are able to get out of bed will be transported to the Michigan in automobiles" for a special Christmas children's show at the Michigan Theater on Saturday, Dec. 24 (The Ann Arbor News). On Christmas Day, soloist Charles Ruegoitz led a carol sing with accompaniment by organist Paul Tompkins, while Wallace Beery and Ricardo Cortez starred in the movie Flesh.

Other holiday highlights at the Michigan included free Christmas dinners of turkeys, ducks and geese on Dec. 22 for patrons coming to see Joe E. Brown in You Said a Mouthful, and New Year's Eve party that included vaudeville acts and the movie Big City Blues (Joan Blondell). On Dec. 15, textbook-weary University of Michigan students were treated to a special double feature of Evenings for Sale (Herbert Marshall and Sari Maritza) and Follow the Leader (Ed Wynn). Also on screen this month was the drama I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (Paul Muni).

"We wish you happiness on this Yuletide—and may the New Year bring you all those joys nearest your heart," read a Dec. 25 Detroit News ad for Publix Theatres, whose entertainment included The Son-Daughter (Helen Hayes and Ramon Novarro) at the Michigan and Lawyer Man (William Powell and Joan Blondell) at the Fisher.

The big movie event of the month in Detroit was the Dec. 25 opening at the Wilson (all seats reserved) of Cecil B. DeMille's The Sign of the Cross (Fredric March, Elissa Landi, Claudette Colbert, Charles Laughton). Other holiday openings in Detroit included Me and My Gal (Spencer Tracy and Joan Bennett) on Dec. 23 at the Fox, and No Man of Her Own (Clark Gable and Carole Lombard) on Dec. 30 at the Michigan.

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