When
the votes were counted on November 8 in the historic U.S. presidential election
between incumbent Herbert Hoover and challenger Franklin Roosevelt, area
moviegoers didn't have to sit at home by their radio to find out what
was going on.
"The
Michigan will run a special midnight show on election night, Tuesday,
Nov. 8," read an ad in November 7, 1932 The Ann Arbor Daily News.
"At the conclusion of the show, and at times during its running,
election returns that are available will be given." To mark the occasion,
the Michigan re-ran its Monday Guest Night double bill of the main attraction
Movie Crazy
(Harold Lloyd) and second feature The
Miracle Man.
In
Detroit, "three downtown motion picture theaters, the Michigan, RKO
Downtown and Fox, will cater to presidential election celebrants tonight
by offering special shows," read an article in the November 8, 1932 Detroit
News. "Vote returns will be announced on national, state and
county tickets at intervals during the entertainment."
Also
at the Michigan in Ann Arbor, moviegoers on November 19 got a free turkey,
duck or chicken for their "Thanksgiving feast" after enjoying
Loretta Young and George Brent in They
Call It Sin. Opening on Thanksgiving at the Michigan was A
Bill of Divorcement, starring John Barrymore and (in her first
film) Katharine Hepburn. Other popular movies were Red
Dust (Clark Gable, Jean Harlow), Rain
(Joan Crawford, Walter Huston), and Too
Busy to Work (Will Rogers, Marian Nixon).
At
the Redford, the highlight of the month was Grand
Hotel, which had been playing downtown since May. That film opened
on November 27 after it was named the "most outstanding picture"
in the Academy Awards ceremony for the 1931/32 movie year (The Detroit
News, November 19, 1932).