Home

DFT

Michigan

Redford

Lobby

Detroit Movie Palaces

The Film Programs of the Detroit Film Theatre, Michigan Theater and Redford Theatre

Your Guide to Classic Movie Theater Fun!

	Add a comment to a blog entry!
	Explore theater history!

Home

Upcoming Films

Detroit Film Theatre

Michigan Theater

Redford Theatre

Lobby

Looking Back

December 1931/1956/1981

Step back in time to see what our movie palaces were presenting in December 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

Two-for-one tickets were part of Joy Month, which was celebrated in Ann Arbor at the Michigan and the other Butterfield theaters (Majestic and Wuerth). The Ann Arbor Daily News and other local businesses helped sponsor this promotion, which included merchant booths in the Michigan lobby. "A normal Christmas will hasten the return of normal times and stimulate manufacturing all along the line," read a News ad.

The Michigan lineup included Possessed (Joan Crawford and Clark Gable), Private Lives (Norma Shearer and Robert Montgomery) and His Woman (Gary Cooper and Claudette Colbert). Lead acting Oscars for 1931-32 were earned by Helen Hayes in The Sin of Madelon Claudet and Wallace Beery in The Champ. A New Year's Eve Midnight Frolic featured The Guardsman (Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne) and Helpmates (Laurel and Hardy), along with novelties, hats, favors and noisemakers.

Laurel and Hardy also helped usher in 1932 at the Redford, appearing in Beau Hunks on a Dec. 31 midnight double bill with A Dangerous Affair (Jack Holt). The two comics also opened for Warner Baxter in The Cisco Kid. Other film favorites were Susan Lenox (Her Fall and Rise), with Greta Garbo and Clark Gable; The Yellow Ticket (Lionel Barrymore); and Palmy Days (Eddie Cantor). Double bills included the pairing of The Big Gamble (Bill Boyd) and Alexander Hamilton (George Arliss).

A SWAP advertisement in the Detroit Free Press (in which goods were offered for other goods) earned two free tickets to a Publix Show theater (Fisher, Michigan, Paramount, State or United Artists). Christmas Day entertainment at the Fisher included live music by Duke Ellington, the feature film Under Eighteen (Marian Marsh), a Mickey Mouse Christmas cartoon, juvenile star Bob Nolan's Miniature Revue, and Eduard Werner guest directing the Fisher Orchestra.

At the Little Cinema Theatre in Detroit (56 E. Columbia near Woodward), the German language Zwei Menschen (Two People) was followed by Die Vom Rummelplatz (People of the Side Show). Exhibitions at the Detroit Institute of Arts included Cranbrook rugs and textiles, Swedish architecture and new Chinese textiles.

Back to Top

1956

"The waning days of 1956 witness the greatest array of first-run attractions ever presented to Detroit movie goers in a holiday season," wrote Al Weitschat in the Dec. 23 Detroit News. Christmas Day openings included The Teahouse of the August Moon, with Marlon Brando (at the Adams); Elia Kazan's controversial Baby Doll (Palms); and the last Dean Martin/Jerry Lewis movie, Hollywood or Bust (Michigan). On Dec. 27, the United Artists Theatre hosted the Detroit premiere of Michael Todd's Around the World in 80 Days.

The Redford joined in the fun with a rare first run showing of a major film—Friendly Persuasion, with Gary Cooper, which also opened on Dec. 25. "Certainly this is the most appropriate picture for the Christmas season, because it deals with kind hearts and gentle people and strong faith and abiding love," wrote Weitschat in the Dec. 25 News. "It is a far cry from the spectacular stuff filling the large screens."

Judy Holliday rode in The Solid Gold Cadillac to Detroit area neighborhood theaters, where it enjoyed a week-long run at the Redford on double bills with Raw Edge (Rory Calhoun) and Run for the Sun (Richard Widmark). Also popular at the Redford was the musical The Best Things in Life are Free, which continued the success Gordon MacRae had with his last two movies (Oklahoma! and Carousel). Jack Palance (who died Nov. 10, 2006) starred in the war movie Attack, on a twin bill with Dana Andrews in Fritz Lang's Beyond a Reasonable Doubt.

Friendly Persuasion also brightened Christmas in Ann Arbor, where it played for eight days at the Michigan. Earlier in the month, the 1940 Alfred Hitchcock film Rebecca played for six days. Hitchock's latest, The Wrong Man (with Henry Fonda), helped Michigan visitors "Celebrate the Big Nite at Our Gay...Happy New Year's Eve Midnite Show". Ann Arbor businesses sold tickets to the Merchants Christmas Show at the Michigan, which on Friday, Dec. 21 featured John Wayne in the 1949 John Ford western She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.

The Motion Picture Association of America loosened the movie morals code. "The major changes lift completely the code's prohibition against subjects having to do with illicit narcotics practices, illegal operation, kidnaping and prostitution," wrote Al Weitschat in the Dec. 12 Detroit News. Weitschat noted that "this is the first liberalization of the code since it was adopted in 1930."

Back to Top

1981

The Detroit Film Theatre closed out its fall season on Dec. 18-20 with the 1981 documentary From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China. Also this month at the DFT was the French language Messidor (1979), the first film by director Alain Tanner since his acclaimed 1976 film Jonah Who Will be 25 in the Year 2000. The DFT also presented the Fifteenth International Tournee of Animation.

Older films at the DFT included Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in Top Hat (1935), and a W. C. Fields double feature of Tillie and Gus (1933) and It's a Gift (1934). The Sunday night tribute to Alfred Hitchcock moved into the 1940s with Rebecca (1940). The Afternoon Film Theatre of the Detroit Institute of Arts paid tribute to Mary Pickford with Little Annie Rooney (1925) and Sparrows (1926).

"As usual, the Classic Film Theatre at the Michigan Theatre has stacked Christmas week with as winning a movie schedule as you're likely to find anywhere," wrote Ann Arbor News Art Editor Rich Quackenbush on Dec. 20, 1981.

Just before Christmas, the Michigan screened a double bill of The Grapes of Wrath (1940) and East of Eden (1955); a twin bill of Gigi (1958) and Meet Me in St. Louis (1944); and the Christmas classic It's a Wonderful Life (1946). Right after Christmas, the Michigan presented Gone With the Wind (1939) and The Wizard of Oz (1939). On New Year's Eve, Humphrey Bogart appeared in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) and The Maltese Falcon (1941).

The Redford held its annual Christmas show on Dec. 5. Organist Tom Gnaster appeared, along with the Fairlane Ballet Company, which performed excerpts from the Nutcracker Ballet. On the big screen, the Redford closed out 1981 with laughter. On Dec. 11-12, Spencer Tracy and Elizabeth Taylor starred in the 1950 comedy Father of the Bride. Two weeks later (on Dec. 26-27) Rosalind Russell gave an energetic performance as Auntie Mame (1958).

First-run Christmas films included Reds (Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton); Absence of Malice (Sally Field and Paul Newman); Sharkey's Machine (Burt Reynolds); Neighbors (John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd); and Buddy Buddy (Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon). Popular movies at the Maple included Gallipoli, Heartland, and The Stunt Man.

Back to Top

Archive

Home

Site Map

Disclaimer