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Looking Back

July 1962

Step back in time to see what area movie theaters were presenting in July 1962. Film titles are linked to the Internet Movie Database.

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

The movie version of the famous stage play The Music Man opened in Detroit on Friday, July 20, 1962, at the Michigan. It later opened in New York City on August 23, 1962.

"Make way for 'The Music Man,' that grand and glorious entertainment, now bigger and better and more beautiful than ever on the wide screen in color at the Michigan," wrote Al Weitschat in the "Picture Parade" section of The Detroit News on July 20, 1962. "Meredith Willson's melodious salute to the good, old days (1912), when gals never showed their legs and a feller was a devil when he dared to say, 'So's your old man,' is one of the most enjoyable musicals ever to come out of Hollywood."

"If you want to see Meredith's Willson's 'The Music Man' at its finest, go see the movie version which opened Friday at the Michigan Theater," wrote Ron Martin in the July 21, 1962 edition of the Detroit Free Press. "It has all the best moments of the show captured permanently on film. It has all the kinks which show up from one stage performance to the next ironed out. And it has even made something of the lesser moments."

Also opening in Detroit on July 20 was Lolita (James Mason, Shelley Winters, Peter Sellers) at the Adams. Ongoing downtown Detroit movies on July 20 included West Side Story at the Madison; Advise & Consent (Henry Fonda, Charles Laughton) at the United Artists; Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man (Richard Beymer, Diane Baker, Paul Newman) at the Fox; The Notorious Landlady (Kim Novak, Jack Lemmon, Fred Astaire) at the Grand Circus; Hell is for Heroes (Steve McQueen, Fess Parker) at the Palms; and, in Cinerama, Holiday in Spain at the Music Hall.

The Redford was showing a double bill of Lonely are the Brave (Kirk Douglas, Gena Rowlands) and The Counterfeit Traitor (William Holden, Lilli Palmer). In the art film theaters, the Studio-North at Woodward and Nine Mile was screening Ingmar Bergman's Through a Glass Darkly, while the Coronet was showing the Polish Ashes and Diamonds.

The Music Man played for about two months at the Michigan, until September 19. It started its neighborhood and suburban run on September 20 at the Warren, Woods, Wyandotte, Jewel, Mercury, and Royal Oak theaters. On that same day, it also helped open the Terrace theater in Livonia.

Ann Arbor audiences were treated to the opening of The Music Man at their Michigan theater on Friday, July 27, 1962. It played until August 16 before being replaced by Lolita (James Mason, Shelley Winters, Peter Sellers). It later played at the Martha Washington in Ypsilanti.

Also playing in Ann Arbor on July 27, 1962 was The Notorious Landlady (Kim Novak, Jack Lemmon, Fred Astaire) at the State. The Campus launched an Ingmar Bergman Film Festival that included Through a Glass Darkly and The Virgin Spring on July 27-29, and Wild Strawberries and The Seventh Seal on July 30-August 1.

Ann Arbor drive-in entertainment on July 27, 1962 included Tomboy and the Champ (Candy Moore, Ben Johnson) and Satan Never Sleeps (William Holden, Clifton Webb) at the Ypsi-Ann, and The Three Stooges Meet Hercules and Picnic (William Holden, Kim Novak) at the Scio.

Click here to see a PDF of newspaper images relating to the opening of The Music Man.

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