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Looking Back

November 1956

Step back in time to see what area movie theaters were presenting in November 1956. Film titles are linked to the Internet Movie Database.

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

The Redford's Thanksgiving weekend included the end of one long run by a recent popular movie (High Society, with Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly and Frank Sinatra), and the start of another (Bus Stop, with Marilyn Monroe). Second features for these films included Walk the Proud Land (Audie Murphy), and The Burning Hills, with Tab Hunter and Natalie Wood ("Young America's Favorites").

Another crowd pleaser at the Redford was The Eddie Duchin Story, with Kim Novak and Tyrone Power. Walt Disney's The Great Locomotive Chase appeared on a double bill with Gary Cooper in the 1949 movie Task Force. Popular westerns included The Fastest Gun Alive (Glenn Ford) and Seven Men From Now (Randolph Scott). Famous stars appeared in lesser known films like Lisbon (Ray Milland) and Gaby (Leslie Caron).

"Hey, Mom!" shouted an Ann Arbor News ad for the Michigan Theater. "Thanksgiving Morning Cartoon and Comedy Festival". Kids got in for 25 cents to see the Three Stooges, Tom & Jerry, Popeye, the Little Rascals, Commander Cody and Rin Tin Tin. Later, the Michigan presented "A Wonderful...Happy Thanksgiving Show for the Whole Family"—a double bill of Showdown at Abilene (with Jock Mahoney) and Fighting Trouble (Huntz Hall and the Bowery Boys).

Two days after Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected to his second term as president of the United States, an Ann Arbor News ad for the Michigan's screening of The Solid Gold Cadillac (with Judy Holliday) read, "You Voted a Landslide for this great comedy...so we're holding it over through Friday!"

Thanksgiving Eve (Nov. 21) brought the Detroit premieres of The Ten Commandments at the Madison Theatre (Woodward at Grand Circus Park), and Love Me Tender, with Elvis Presley, at the Fox. Moviegoers also could enjoy Giant (which opened at the Michigan in Detroit on Nov. 7) or Oklahoma!, showing at the United Artists Theatre "At Popular Prices" with no reserved seating.

Art film in Detroit included Maurice Chevalier in My Seven Little Sins (1954) at the Coronet and Surf, Rififi (1955) at the Studio and World, and Umberto D. (1952) at the Krim. In Ann Arbor, the Orpheum presented the 1956 documentary Secrets of the Reef, Riviera (1954) and The Ladykillers (1955).

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