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Looking Back

August 1956

Step back in time to see what our movie palaces were presenting in August 1956. Also included is interesting history about other area movie theaters. Film titles are linked to the Internet Movie Database.

John Wayne filled the Redford screen for much of August 1956. The month started with The Conqueror, co-starring Susan Hayward. Later, Wayne appeared in The Searchers ("The biggest, roughest, toughest...and most beautiful western to date!"). Other westerns at the Redford this month included Red Sundown (Rory Calhoun), Mohawk (Scott Brady), and The Rawhide Years (Tony Curtis).

The other big movie this month at the Redford was That Certain Feeling, with Bob Hope and Eva Marie Saint. Female stars appeared in The Revolt of Mamie Stover (Jane Russell) and Meet Me in Las Vegas (Cyd Charisse). World War II lit up the screen in D-Day the Sixth of June and The Bold and the Brave. Kids lined up to see Goodbye, My Lady, starring young Brandon De Wilde and his dog Lady, along with Walter Brennan.

An ad for the State and Michigan theaters in Ann Arbor proclaimed, "Exclusive first-run shows! July-August hit wave at Butterfield air-conditioned theatres." The highlight of the month at the Michigan was Grace Kelly in her final film, High Society. Also showing at the Michigan was a double bill of dramatically advertised science fiction films that do indeed sound straight out the 1950s—Satellite in the Sky and Indestructible Man.

Detroit also moved in High Society, at the Adams (Adams at Grand Circus Park). An ad for the Detroit opening of the movie Bus Stop read, "Marilyn Monroe is waiting for you at the D.S.R. bus stop in front of the Fox Theatre!"

On Aug. 14, the Music Hall hosted the midwest premiere of the third Cinerama feature, Seven Wonders of the World. "Cinerama is still the next best thing to being there," wrote Al Weitschat in the Aug. 15 Detroit News. "But the third production does not match its predecessors in imaginative conception." This widescreen feature succeeded Cinerama Holiday, which had screened at the Music Hall since early 1955.

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