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Looking Back

August 1931/1956/1981

Step back in time to see what our movie palaces were presenting in August 1931, 1956, and 1981. Also included is some interesting history about other area movie theaters and the Detroit Institute of Arts. Film titles are linked to the Internet Movie Database.

* 1931 * 1956 * 1981 *

1931

"Hey Kids," announced a movie page ad in the Aug. 1, 1931 Ann Arbor News, "Take your parents to the movies. Every night during the Greater Movie Season, August second to twenty ninth, the Michigan, Majestic and Wuerth Theatres will admit free, all children under twelve years of age when accompanied by their parents." Group ads for these three Ann Arbor movie houses announced upcoming films.

The pressures of the Great Depression also led to special promotions in Detroit. "Shows are better than ever before!" shouted an ad for Publix Theatres. "The 1931-32 picture hits are here!" In the Aug. 2, 1931 Detroit News, movie columnist Harold Heffernan wrote about the summer slump at the box office: "There has been the depresh for one thing, causing the money lenders who pull the strings over Hollywood's product expenditures to tighten up."

At the Michigan, two dynamic Warner Brothers stars appeared in Smart Money, a followup to their breakout performances in Little Caesar (Edward G. Robinson) and The Public Enemy (James Cagney). E. C. Beatty, the General Manager of the W.S. Butterfield Theatres chain, personally touted the Michigan Theatre appearance of Ernst Lubitsch's The Smiling Lieutenant (starring Maurice Chevalier): "This has class, novelty, beautiful women, suspense and above all, clever dialogue."

The Redford fought the hard times with star-studded second runs: Daddy Long Legs (Janet Gaynor and Warner Baxter); The Vice Squad (Paul Lukas and Kay Francis); I Take This Woman (Gary Cooper and Carole Lombard); and A Free Soul, with Norma Shearer, Leslie Howard, Lionel Barrymoore, and new star Clark Gable. The Black Camel and A Holy Terror featured Sally Eilers, a "quiet-spoken America leading lady of the 30s." (Halliwell's Filmgoer's & Video Viewer's Companion)

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1956

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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1981

Francois Truffaut's World War II drama The Last Metro opened the ninth season of the Detroit Film Theatre on Friday, Aug. 7, 1981. This French film ran for two weekends before giving way to two other movies in the DFT's season-opening Festival of New Masterworks—Federico Fellini's City of Women and Alain Resnais' Mon Oncle D'Amerique. This series overlapped with the ongoing film noir series of the Afternoon Film Theatre that was running in the Detroit Institute of Arts.

"The Masterworks Festival is a bell-ringing send-off to one of the DFT's best series," wrote Detroit Free Press movie writer Jack Mathews on Aug. 2. "In addition to a high-protein blend of Friday night specials and Saturday night classics, DFT launches the first part of a three-season Alfred Hitchcock retrospective on Sundays." The series ended on Dec. 18-20 with the 1980 documentary, From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China. For more about the fall 1981 DFT schedule, see the blog entry, "25 Years Ago at the DFT".

The Classic Film Theatre of the Michigan continued to crank out creative double features, including an evening of Woody Allen's Bananas (1971) and Mel Brooks' The Twelve Chairs (1970). Paul Newman and Robert Redford starred in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and The Sting (1973). Akiro Kurosawa fans enjoyed Yojimbo (1961) and Rashomon (1950). Sci-fi buffs flocked to a double bill of THX 1138 (1971) and Dark Star (1974). On Sunday, Aug. 9, the Motor City Theatre Organ Society gave a 10 a.m. concert at the Michigan.

The dog days of summer brought two famous musicals to the Redford. On Aug. 7 and 8, the Oscar-winning best picture of 1968, Oliver!, was presented in 70 mm with 6-channel stereo sound. Two weeks later, James Cagney sang and danced his way to the Best Actor Oscar of 1942 in Yankee Doodle Dandy.

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