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Looking Back

January 1933

Step back in time to see what area movie theaters were presenting in January 1933. Film titles are linked mostly to the Internet Movie Database.

For more information about these theaters, see Cinema Treasures or Water Winter Wonderland.

"HAPPY NEW YEAR!" read the Publix Theatres ad in the Jan. 1, 1933 Detroit News. The Michigan was showing No Man of Her Own (Clark Gable, Carole Lombard), while Edmund Lowe starred in The Devil is Driving at the Fisher, and Ronald Colman and Kay Francis headlined Cynara at the United Artists. "These special holiday shows are the brightest message of cheer we can bring you. Treat the whole family today!"

At the Michigan in Ann Arbor, the year got off to a quick start with Fast Life (William Haines) and the short Their First Mistake (Laurel and Hardy). Other attractions at the Michigan included a live appearance by the hypnotist Chicula and Saturday night vaudeville. Short movies at the Michigan included the Walt Disney Silly Symphony Babes in the Woods, the Little Rascals in Hook and Ladder, and Flip the Frog in Phoney Express.

Star pairings at the Michigan included Helen Hayes and Ramon Novarro (The Son-Daughter), Spencer Tracy and Joan Bennett (Me and My Gal), Clark Gable and Carole Lombard (No Man of Her Own), William Powell and Joan Blondell (Lawyer Man), Ann Harding and Leslie Howard (The Animal Kingdom), and Fredric March and Claudette Colbert (Tonight is Ours).

The Redford screen was dark for all of Jan. 1933, but big new movies still provided lots of entertainment. On Jan. 6, The Mummy (with "Karloff (The Uncanny)") opened at the Fox, while Madame Butterfly (Sylvia Sidney, Cary Grant) came to the Fisher. The next day, A Farewell to Arms (Helen Hayes, Gary Cooper, Adophe Menjou) opened at the United Artists. Other big openings this month were Frank Capra's The Bitter Tea of General Yen (Barbara Stanwyck) at the RKO Downtown, and Silver Dollar (Edward G. Robinson) at the Fisher (which stopped presenting live shows before movies).

The Lafayette (at Lafayette and Shelby) advertised itself as "Detroit's New Home of Foreign and Unusual Pictures" and debuted its new programming with the German Maedchen in Uniform (1931). The Little Cinema in Detroit continued to show foreign language movies, including the German operetta The Puppet (1930). In Ann Arbor, the Art Cinema League presented The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) at the Lydia Mendelssohn Theater.

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