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

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Looking Back

January 1933/1958/1983

Step back in time to see what our movie palaces were presenting in January 1933, 1958, and 1983. Also included is some interesting history about other area movie theaters. Film titles are linked mostly to the Internet Movie Database.

* 1933 * 1958 * 1983 *

1933

"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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1958

"Look to The Giant Screen For The Finest Entertainment You'll See in 1958!" read the Butterfield theaters ad in the Jan. 3, 1958 Ann Arbor News. The Butterfield chain included the Michigan, whose top attraction in January was Pal Joey, starring Rita Hayworth, Frank Sinatra, and Kim Novak (This musical was also part of the Michigan's 2007 Summer Classic Movie Series.).

Also popular at the Michigan was Don't Go Near the Water, with Glenn Ford. The month began with Legend of the Lost (John Wayne, Sophia Loren, and Rossano Brazzi). It ended with the Walt Disney movie Old Yeller (Dorothy McGuire, Fess Parker), which enjoyed critical and financial success and was "the first of innumerable Disney projects about a boy and his dog." (The Disney Films, Leonard Maltin). On Jan. 13, the Michigan hosted José Greco and his company of Spanish dancers.

At the Redford, the first week of 1958 brought the final days of a three-week run of the 1956 blockbuster The Ten Commandments. Patrons then enjoyed a midwinter taste of April Love (Pat Boone, Shirley Jones). Two future television stars (Robert Wagner and Joan Collins) headlined Stopover Tokyo, on a double bill with Joanne Woodward's Oscar-winning lead performance in The Three Faces of Eve.

Other attractions at the Redford were Operation Mad Ball (Jack Lemmon, Mickey Rooney, Ernie Kovacs); The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Gina Lollobrigida, Anthony Quinn); The Tin Star (Henry Fonda, Anthony Perkins); The Sad Sack (Jerry Lewis, Phyllis Kirk); and a star-studded double feature of My Man Godfrey (June Allyson, David Niven) and Man of a Thousand Faces (James Cagney, Dorothy Malone). The Saturday children's matinee included an afternoon of the science fiction movie Conquest of Space (1955) and three cartoons each starring Popeye, Bugs Bunny, and Tom & Jerry.

"Don't look for Gallic subtlety here," wrote Detroit News movie reviewer Al Weitschat on Jan. 19 about ...And God Created Woman, starring Brigitte Bardot. "The idea is to exploit sex and it's done relentlessly and obviously." This film was the first feature at the re-named Trans-Lux Krim, which had been purchased by Trans-Lux Theaters (Detroit News, Jan. 12, 1958).

In Detroit theaters, Peyton Place (Fox) and Sayonara (Michigan) continued strong runs after opening at the end of 1957. And ads announced that very long runs would soon end for the 1956 movies Around the World in 80 Days (United Artists) and the Cinerama feature Seven Wonders of the World (Music Hall).

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1983

Redford Theatre moviegoers celebrated the New Year on Jan. 1 and 2 with A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966), starring Zero Mostel and Phil Silvers. Organist John Lauter provided musical entertainment. On Jan. 14 and 15, organist Don Haller warmed the audience up for the words and music of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe in the 1967 musical Camelot (Richard Harris, Vanessa Redgrave). On Jan. 28 and 29, James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart starred in the Warner Brothers crime classic Angels with Dirty Faces (1938). At the Barton organ was Newton Bates.

The Detroit Film Theatre began its newest season on Jan. 14-16 with French director Jean-Pierre Melville's thrilling Bob le Flambeur (1956), which returned to the DFT in Feb. 2002. On Jan. 21-23, Fitzcarraldo tried to build an opera house in the middle of a Peruvian jungle in Werner Herzog's tale of ego and obsession.

The DFT ended its month with Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski's Moonlighting, "one of the most elegant and convincing—and bitterly funny—movies ever made about the eternal lure of fascism and the universal specter of the bully." (VideoHound's World Cinema, Elliot Wilhelm). The Afternoon Film Theatre continued its tribute to director Tod Browning, with Iron Man (1931), Dracula (1931), Freaks (1932), and Mark of the Vampire (1935).

The Michigan Theatre celebrated its 55th anniversary on Jan. 5 with 50-cent admission for "a rousing theater organ overture" followed by the 1927 Oscar-winning silent film Wings. Audiences enjoyed a double bill of Casablanca (1943) and a movie that it inspired—Woody Allen's comedy Play It Again, Sam (1972).

Other multiple features at the Michigan were French director François Truffaut's Stolen Kisses (1968) and Small Change (1976); and Clint Eastwood in A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), and The Good, Bad, and the Ugly (1966). Live entertainment included the Sixth Ann Arbor Folk Festival and an Up with People benefit concert for the Michigan Theatre. The Michigan Community Theatre Foundation also raised money with a Las Vegas-style Millionaire's Party at the Ann Arbor Inn.

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