Detroit
Movie Palaces
The
Film Programs of the Detroit Film Theatre, Michigan Theater, and
Redford Theatre
The Film Programs of the Detroit Film Theatre, Michigan Theater, and Redford Theatre
Your Guide to Classic Movie Theater Filmgoing!
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Read
about recent events
in the Detroit Movie Palaces blog! |
Explore
theater history Gaylord Carter Plays at Redford (May 1981) |
Look What's Coming!
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Get
a world of laughs at the Alliance
Francaise Comedy Film Shorts Series at the DFT
May 31.
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Learn more about the grieving process in the documentary Transforming
Loss at the Michigan
May 30.
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The renovated Redford re-opens with Julie Andrews flying high as Mary Poppins July 12-13. |
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Books By Web Site Author
Looking Back
December 1932
Step back in time to see what area movie theaters were presenting in December 1932. Film titles are linked to the Internet Movie Database.
For more information about these theaters, see Cinema Treasures or Water Winter Wonderland.
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.
