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Sesquicentennial Interview: Gerald Hoag

When: 1974

This interview was conducted in 1974 as part of the I Remember When television series produced by the Ann Arbor Public Library.

Transcript

  • [00:00:11] TED TROST: When did you first come to Ann Arbor?
  • [00:00:12] GERALD HOAG: I came to Ann Arbor in 1919 to take over the Majestic Theater as manager. The Majestic was over on Maynard, right next door to where the television station used to be.
  • [00:00:24] TED TROST: How many theaters were there in Ann Arbor at that time?
  • [00:00:26] GERALD HOAG: There were five. There was, uptown there was the Arcade and the Majestic and then downtown is the Wuerth and the Orpheum and the Rae. Of course, there was also the Legit House, so called the Whitney.
  • [00:00:41] TED TROST: Had you been manager of a motion picture theater before?
  • [00:00:46] GERALD HOAG: No, this was my first job. I came as from an auditor for Butterfield Theaters in Saginaw, I had previously been a treasurer and then an auditor. Then this was my first management job in 1919.
  • [00:01:00] TED TROST: Well, now, were there crowds coming to the movies in those days when you first began?
  • [00:01:04] GERALD HOAG: No, they was very poor business, house was in the red, we couldn't get rid of it because we had a long lease with Mrs. Sauer, and we had to keep it.
  • [00:01:16] TED TROST: What kind of pictures were they showing in those days?
  • [00:01:19] GERALD HOAG: We had the very best pictures, by that, we had three changes a week. We're silent pictures, you understand and we'd have either Mary Pickford or Douglas Fairbanks on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. Then on Wednesday, Thursday, we'd have we'll say Enid Bennett or Charles Ray, and then on Friday and Saturday, we'd have a Western, William S. Hart or Tom Mix. Three changes a week.
  • [00:01:42] TED TROST: Well, I understand that in addition to the films, you also brought Vaudeville programs to Ann Arbor.
  • [00:01:48] GERALD HOAG: Later. I brought Vaudeville on about three years later, 1922.
  • [00:01:53] TED TROST: Who were some of the stars that came or some of the shows?
  • [00:01:57] GERALD HOAG: Well, we played about everyone. Of course, I started Waring's Pennsylvanians, their first theater engagement, I started at the Majestic and from the other side, we had everybody from Jimmy Savo, so on. Although the big stars, didn't come in there, we did play the Tennessee Ten and Mason Dixon Orchestra, and so on and so forth.
  • [00:02:22] TED TROST: Didn't I understand Fred Waring also got his start with the J they used to have the J Hop at the University?
  • [00:02:29] GERALD HOAG: I picked him up.
  • [00:02:29] TED TROST: You picked him up?
  • [00:02:30] GERALD HOAG: Picked him up, and we brought him off the stage, and rehearsed them to keep them from jumping up and down with their feet like this, they all did. It was very difficult for a dance band in those days to play a stage show. They were marvelous and were entertaining.
  • [00:02:46] TED TROST: Well, you must have met some of the stars personally who came?
  • [00:02:50] GERALD HOAG: Yes, lots.
  • [00:02:51] TED TROST: Are there any that make a particular impression upon you?
  • [00:02:54] GERALD HOAG: Besides Fred Waring? Oh yes, Jack Benny for one and, of course, many of the Legit people. Bing Crosby came, of course, with the Paul Whiteman Trio. He always said he with a man with a graveled voice. He had a little cymbal, and he kept time with it, he and Harry Barris the trip trio.
  • [00:03:19] TED TROST: Well, now, there was an organ installed here that had some fame?
  • [00:03:23] GERALD HOAG: At the Michigan
  • [00:03:24] TED TROST: At the Michigan.
  • [00:03:25] GERALD HOAG: At the Michigan. Yes, that's what made the theater different than any other because we had a big organ that was the biggest organ that Barton ever made. Then we had a marvelous piano player, marvelous organist, and he entertained the audience.
  • [00:03:43] TED TROST: Was the organ also used as background music for some of the silent pictures?
  • [00:03:46] GERALD HOAG: Yes, we had an orchestra. We had a 10 piece orchestra playing and then when the orchestra took their break, the organ played so that was the entire background of the shows.
  • [00:03:59] TED TROST: Well, now, you were at the Majestic, and then you came to the Michigan Theater here. This is a beautiful theater, still is.
  • [00:04:08] GERALD HOAG: It's a type that they don't build anymore.
  • [00:04:09] TED TROST: That's right. Now, what was, at least for its time so special about it?
  • [00:04:16] GERALD HOAG: Well.
  • [00:04:17] TED TROST: What made it unique?
  • [00:04:17] GERALD HOAG: The equipment of the theater was so much greater. We had one is the other machine, other theaters had two projection machines for continuous showing. We had spotlights and what we call E7s or effect machines so we could do all things on it, and, of course, the organ for the organ logs, or, as I call them now singalong. That was the student body loved to sing and they would sing. The organist was capable of getting them to compete. He'd have the balcony sing one song. For instance Small Fry was a number, and the organ the main floor would sing Small Fry and then the echo would be upstairs, Small Fry. They'd compete.
  • [00:05:05] TED TROST: Now, the stage is you can have vaudeville productions, obviously, did you have other production?
  • [00:05:12] GERALD HOAG: We had all legit you used to play seven, at least six, usually seven legit shows, New York shows on the order one a month. We brought all of them year after year.
  • [00:05:28] TED TROST: You had an opportunity to meet some of the big stars there, too?
  • [00:05:31] GERALD HOAG: Yes, indeed.
  • [00:05:32] TED TROST: Who stands out in your memory of quite outstanding?
  • [00:05:36] GERALD HOAG: Well, Clifton Webb, I suppose, Helen Hayes, Ethel Barrymore. She was here in The Corn Is Green, Helen Hayes was in Victoria Regina. ZaSu Pitts was in Ramshackle Inn. Life with Father was Percy Waram, Margalo Gillmore. These were the same casts they have in New York. The main stars were the same as they had in New York. And of course, the Othello, when we brought Paul Robeson and Jose Ferrer and Uta Hagen as three people in that show.
  • [00:06:05] TED TROST: Now when they would come to Ann Arbor how long would they play? More than just one?
  • [00:06:10] GERALD HOAG: We were buying him for two weeks on the circuit.
  • [00:06:13] TED TROST: I see.
  • [00:06:14] GERALD HOAG: Life with Father was here two days, and the others usually one day. Grand Rapids would be two days, it'd be three shows, one matinee and two nights, but by very small jumps. Buying them for two weeks, we could bring a New York show in. Which is impossible today, of course.
  • [00:06:32] TED TROST: Well, now, in the 30s, The Talkies were pretty big about after 1933, was it?
  • [00:06:39] GERALD HOAG: After '33.
  • [00:06:40] TED TROST: Now, what movies were shown in those days in the theater?
  • [00:06:44] GERALD HOAG: Before or after The Talkies?
  • [00:06:45] TED TROST: Well, after Talkies. Tell us about both before and after, so that we can determine what the difference is sure?
  • [00:06:51] GERALD HOAG: After the Talkies come in, you didn't advertise only one thing. Vitaphone.
  • [00:07:01] GERALD HOAG: As long as you had to sign out in front, said Vitaphone, you packed the house.
  • [00:07:04] TED TROST: What is Vitaphone?
  • [00:07:06] GERALD HOAG: Vitaphone was the first type of talking picture, which was merely a synchronized disc. It was a synchronized with the showing before Movietone, of course, was photograph sound. Movietone had not been invented. Vitaphone, of course, for this other thing, you had operator had to have it and perfect thing, and if you happen to step on the floor real hard, near that disc, it would jump out of sync. You'd see somebody going like that. Three seconds later, you'd hear the knock or somebody would talk. They didn't come out, and the students loved that, [LAUGHTER] because they got a big kick out of it.
  • [00:07:49] TED TROST: Well, then the early talkies, were they melodramas or mysteries or Westerns?
  • [00:07:56] GERALD HOAG: Well, I see mostly melodramas for instance, Richard Barthelmess and Weary River. About the only talking that was in it was singing, "I'm just like a weary river that flows down to the sea" and rest was silent, because they added, they had these silent pictures all made, and they just merely added parts of sequences. Which made it very difficult for us to run them both, but we did.
  • [00:08:24] TED TROST: Well, now I understand one of those years, there was an interest in newsreels, and you advertised them too. Was that about?
  • [00:08:34] GERALD HOAG: Yes, we had newsreels, and because of the fact of our location in a university town and certain things going on. We were able to get Pathé news to come out and take pictures often times of events. But the newsreel was quite a big thing in those days, even though some of the things that students made their own entertainment. For instance, we had after World War I was over, they came up the Hudson River with a Navy, and they all lined up on the deck. Somebody would holler "short arm inspection". Of course, you couldn't hear anything from that time on because everybody howled. That was the type of thing that they had. But we had newsreels all that time. Then we used to go over and take pictures of Barbour Gym of the J Hop. We'd take that on Friday night and show it Sunday afternoon. That packed the house with all [OVERLAPPING] .
  • [00:09:30] TED TROST: I was sure people would have an opportunity to come in and see themselves. When did the double feature come in?
  • [00:09:40] GERALD HOAG: Double feature came in, usually in the second run, third run type of house. It was never in the first run house.
  • [00:09:53] TED TROST: You didn't usually carry double feature here.
  • [00:09:55] GERALD HOAG: We never carry double feature. We stayed away from it.
  • [00:09:56] TED TROST: I see.
  • [00:09:57] GERALD HOAG: Usually, everybody. The only exception would be when you'd want two Marx Brothers pictures on the same show. We say because you didn't have a new picture that was worthy of filling the house or breaking even, [LAUGHTER] whatever you want to call it. Results you would sometimes do, but very seldom.
  • [00:10:15] TED TROST: Was the Michigan Union opera presented here?
  • [00:10:18] GERALD HOAG: Yes. We played the opera several years. I've forgotten just what, I think about three different years.
  • [00:10:27] TED TROST: Well, now, let's see, you've got movies here. You've had vaudeville plays. You've had stage plays. Now you've got cinemascope, obviously.
  • [00:10:36] GERALD HOAG: That's right.
  • [00:10:37] TED TROST: What do you think was the most, I hate to say it, now maybe I better put it this way. The picture that seemed to attract the most interest or the pictures over the years.
  • [00:10:50] GERALD HOAG: Over the years? Well, of course, the record, I think, of pictures is still held by Bridge on the River Kwai. But long before that came out, we had such a thing as Going My Way with Bing Crosby, which most people have never seen. They've seen about two thirds of it on TV, but the horrible part is the way that they present it on TV. I'm not trying to knock TV, but Life with Father was a beautiful picture. When you leave out certain parts, for the sake of commercials, you've never seen Life with Father.
  • [00:11:29] TED TROST: Did Gone With The Wind play here?
  • [00:11:30] GERALD HOAG: Yes. Gone With The Wind played, oh I would say, seven or eight times. First time was, I think, home was it 1939?
  • [00:11:38] TED TROST: I think so. Let me ask you this. Did you ever show, one of the horror shows that really frightened the people so that you had to watch it with people passing out or at least running out?
  • [00:11:50] GERALD HOAG: Well, I don't know how to explain this to you without having people take offense, but they actually the things that were most frightening, were the pictures that all the people say take your children to see. For instance, The Wizard of Oz. Everyone says how wonderful it was. Well, I happened to know that I had to go on the stage and look at the little kids all down there and say, "Now remember, Judy Garland's in this picture, and don't be frightened when this house goes tumbling around, because you know she's alive. She isn't hurt. It's all just make believe. Then when this witch comes up and all green out of the cauldron, remember, that's just a part of it. I bet you're going to be scared, aren't you?" I pointed to a little boy. He'd say no, "Yes, you are."
  • [00:12:48] TED TROST: You anticipated this beforehand? You knew this was going to happen?
  • [00:12:52] GERALD HOAG: We had panic in the theater.
  • [00:12:53] TED TROST: You did?
  • [00:12:54] GERALD HOAG: Oh, yes. When we showed Wizard of Oz first, the children ran out crying.
  • [00:13:00] TED TROST: How about Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs?
  • [00:13:01] GERALD HOAG: That was a no, not that. Pinocchio was another one that frightened the children. [OVERLAPPING] Yes. But everybody said, this is wonderful for children. Well, it is, if the children understand it. But before that, there was a complete frightening experience.
  • [00:13:20] TED TROST: When was the last stage show held here? Approximate.
  • [00:13:27] GERALD HOAG: Probably in the 60s. We played the Canadian National ballet, I guess, was about the last ones we played, and we played those right up until the time that Hill Auditorium started showing ballet.
  • [00:13:39] TED TROST: I see. Well, then after the talkies came in, and we then moved into the 40s and the 50s, I just noticed the other day or heard that MGM Studios is being sold or closing down or something. How does the future look for the motion picture industry? How do you see it?
  • [00:14:03] GERALD HOAG: I see a very difficult time coming up, not because of the fact that they don't have big studios or facilities for making motion pictures, because actually all the thing that the big studios meant was that each picture cost $500,000 before you even bought a story. The reason for that, of course, is overhead of the thing and all of the nepotism that went on and all the relatives they brought over from Germany to have $10,000 year jobs. That the closing of those studios does not mean that there wouldn't be pictures made. The difficulty is the dearth of writers. In other words, well, there's two reasons. If no one to write a picture, to write a scenario, then you're not going to have a motion picture. Then the sad part is when that they do have an idea of remaking a motion picture. After they can clear the legal rights of copyrights and things of that sort, then they for some reason or other have to improve on it like they do on the Great Gatsby, or many others that they have remade. The horrible part, is it that invariably, they improve on it and make a horrible mess out of the whole doggone thing.
  • [00:15:29] TED TROST: You don't think necessarily that the Great Gatsby that's just been made is not doing enough previews?
  • [00:15:32] GERALD HOAG: I don't think I haven't seen a single good remake of a motion picture, that was anywhere near as good as the first one. See back in the old days when a show in the public domain, so called, for instance, I bought Sir J. M. Barrie's, the Little Minister. It was a nice picture. I advertise it coming. But my competitor downtown bought the Little Minister made by a fly-by-night outfit and brought it in a day ahead [LAUGHTER] of mine. We had the Little Minister playing in town. I had the good one. Of course, that would probably be a matter of opinion. But that's one of those things that happen.
  • [00:16:22] TED TROST: Well, now, would you say you've seen a lot of developments again in your expand. But would you say that, the pictures that are being made are better, or is that not the way to phrase this question? What they used to be.
  • [00:16:37] GERALD HOAG: [LAUGHTER] I find myself a very difficult position of trying to find the words I'd like to use. They have bent over backwards to have freedom of speech, and result, they use filth for shock value.
  • [00:17:03] GERALD HOAG: Every once in a while, I cringe when I see one of those because it's so unnecessary. Motion pictures were made as a family trade. They weren't made to put forward a position or anything of that sort. They were made just for entertainment. That was what they were for. For instance, a student, if he goes to class day after day and day after day, he gets all the education he wants over there. When he comes to, he wants to clear his mind. That's all I would rather play a good comedy so that they roar, laugh, and go out and be able to study for an hour, two after he got home. Now well, I'm disgusted with certain pictures. I want to say that I have never seen any of these hard core pictures myself. I've never gone to one, and they've never been shown in the Butterfield circuit. Not only in Ann Arbor, but anywhere we've never shown certain pictures.
  • [00:18:05] TED TROST: Now, what were some of the criteria or standards that you used in deciding which pictures would be shown?
  • [00:18:13] GERALD HOAG: Well, if possible, we tried to pick a motion picture that was plausible, wouldn't be an insult to the intelligence of an audience, and would leave them refreshed. It was the main thing. We did not want to offend people. We wanted people to come to matinees and go out and go home and be happy and night the same way, whether it was the widows or who in other words, never wanted to offend anybody and probably even worse was insulting the intelligence by some silly thing.
  • [00:18:57] TED TROST: You must have had some great personal satisfactions in this work. What were some of them? The pluses if you remember.
  • [00:19:08] GERALD HOAG: I don't know. I can't recall any.
  • [00:19:10] TED TROST: Well, can you? You have the satisfaction of at least of having brought good entertainment to Ann Arbor, but did people ever come and say, I'm so glad your theater showed this?
  • [00:19:21] GERALD HOAG: Well, that was what made the life worthwhile. I'm a ham actor, by that, I mean, the nicest thing in the world is to stand and watch the people come out and they say a nice show and all up of okay and everything, and you bow and say, thank you glad you liked it. But, of course, there were other times when they go out and go like that. Well, those times, I ducked if possible. I kept out of sight because actually the fun is in pleasing the people. It made it worthwhile working every Sunday and every holiday and every Christmas, New Years, and so forth, and so on. Without that, running a theater would be horrible.
  • [00:20:02] TED TROST: Well, now, how many seats are there in the theater?
  • [00:20:06] GERALD HOAG: This one has 1,813.
  • [00:20:08] TED TROST: Including the balcony.
  • [00:20:09] GERALD HOAG: Yes.
  • [00:20:10] TED TROST: Have you had to enlarge it at various times or is this always has been the seating.
  • [00:20:15] GERALD HOAG: We've taken some seats out. We had a few 18 inch seats. We had fourteen 18 inch seats. We took those all out. Now there's no seat that's small. Nowadays, you don't need as many seats because there's not as many people going. Actually, the theater is able to handle all the public. Very seldom they have to wait. The only times you ever see people waiting is when they're waiting for a change of program. In other words, at the end of one feature start of another one.
  • [00:20:53] TED TROST: Well, now, having been in the motion picture business in Ann Arbor and having observed people as they come out watching some of these shows. We're having our sesquicentennial this year. How has Ann Arbor changed during this period when you were actively serving as manager here?
  • [00:21:13] GERALD HOAG: Well, when I came, you must understand it was only 15,000 people, and we had street cars running around on the streets, and State Street wasn't paved. Of course, there was no way to go to Detroit without getting stuck in the mud some way. You had to follow the interurbans to get to Ypsilanti. Packard Street was the only way to go. Washtenaw was not opened up like it is today. It's a small town area but you knew everybody. You had, for instance, Sunday night you knew exactly who was coming at that 7:00 show and they never missed. The same people came. That was the one time or other things the same way. Now, of course, no one knows anyone else. There isn't that spirit. Before, when you went downtown, you said, Hi, so and so, Hi, hello and smiled. Today, there's none of that.
  • [00:22:22] TED TROST: That's missing. We're sort of a lonely crowd.
  • [00:22:24] GERALD HOAG: I punted myself out two weeks ago to walk down the street. I think everybody thought I was nuts. I said Good morning. How are you? Hello? I did to everybody. I didn't have to know him. I just spoke to him, and I got the funniest looks you ever saw in your life. They thought I was nuts. I guess maybe it was, but I was trying.
  • [00:22:43] TED TROST: During those years, you've had close relations with the university and with the students.
  • [00:22:47] GERALD HOAG: Yes, well, Doctor Burton was splendid friend of mine personally, and I've known them all, although, Doctor Little and I have one little disagreement, but most of all the way all the way down, Joe Bursley, all the way down through the years. We could cooperate and if they wanted something done, we had enough pull to bring a cameraman in here to take us through. Raising the Burton. I'll get it right, bell and the tower. We had all that taken. All the pictures, things of that sort.
  • [00:23:28] TED TROST: You didn't necessarily sense any rift between town and gown.
  • [00:23:33] GERALD HOAG: No. That was over. The bitterness of town and gown was over before that year.
  • [00:23:42] TED TROST: I see.
  • [00:23:43] GERALD HOAG: You didn't have any of that. The students sometimes would make a disturbance and would offend the town trade in the theater, and they'd say, I'll never go when those pinheads come up again, but they did.
  • [00:23:58] TED TROST: Listen, it's been delightful talking with you and thank you very much.
  • [00:24:01] GERALD HOAG: You're entirely welcome. [BACKGROUND] That was just fine. A number of people played in this theater in any one day 7,800 admissions in one day and the theater was never filled.
  • [00:24:31] TED TROST: What was the film?
  • [00:24:32] GERALD HOAG: Harmon of Michigan. Reason was never filled is because of the fact that that was as watch the show before we could get the house filmed, that was so bad. The show was so bad they get up and walked out.
  • [00:24:51] TED TROST: I remember that.
  • [00:24:54] GERALD HOAG: A line of people up there, and I never had to turn anybody away because they got up and walked out.
  • [00:25:01] TED TROST: You tell us about that. Are you going to, are you filming now? [NOISE]
  • [00:25:14] TED TROST: Now, I just like to have you help refresh my memory. When you came, I think you said there were five theaters in Ann Arbor. Now, what were they, and where were they located?
  • [00:25:25] GERALD HOAG: Well, The Majestic, where I was was over where the carport is now on Maynard Street.
  • [00:25:31] TED TROST: On Maynard Street.
  • [00:25:32] GERALD HOAG: In fact, it's built in the same place. Then there was the Arcade which is on North University, just back of where Kresge's is now. They were the two campus theaters. Then downtown, there was the Wuerth and the Orpheum. The Wuerth is where the Fiegel clothing store is now, and the Orpheum was just next to it, and then of course, there was the Rae, the small theater, Stanchfield's house. It's on Huron Street, just opposite where the bus station is now. Then of course, there was the Whitney, which was down on Main Street further down, further north.
  • [00:26:09] TED TROST: Now, the Fifth Forum. What we call the Fifth Forum today, was that?
  • [00:26:13] GERALD HOAG: That's only a recent house.
  • [00:26:14] TED TROST: That is a recent house, that wasn't.
  • [00:26:16] GERALD HOAG: Maybe four or five years. I don't know how long. Maybe five years, maybe more. I don't know. My memory isn't so good in modern things.
  • [00:26:23] TED TROST: Now, when the depression came, how did that affect your business here?
  • [00:26:31] GERALD HOAG: Well, we would have gone bankrupt had our creditors wanted to ask us to go in bankruptcy. But owing to the fact they couldn't rent the theater to anyone else, that's where we got a few thousand dollars back in our rent. With the newspaper, the advertising, we were two or three months more back in payment on those things. We went through all of that, but I was proud to say we never went. Although the big paramount and everybody else went bankrupt, we did not and we ended up by paying everyone off. We did it by just trying to get people come in. For instance, we have Saturday morning pictures for children. We charged five cents for each child. But then there would be a little 10 year old girl come in with her nickel, and she'd have about three or four, five year olds. They're too small to pay. We'd have five or six going in for a nickel. Now, the purpose of bringing them in, although we lost money all the time. My boss thought at that time that the best thing to do was to try to get them interested in movies so that when they did get some money that they would come. An example of what we gave to the motion, to the people, we brought Louis Armstrong & His All-Stars. Now, back in those days the all stars meant Earl 'Fatha' Hines, Jack Teagarden, Barney Bigard, Velma Middleton, all of the all stars on the stage with the stage show. Now with that, we gave them a motion picture. We had a complete stage show, a complete motion picture, and we robbed them. We charged them fifty cents a seat. That gives you an idea of what the depression was like.
  • [00:28:23] TED TROST: Did people even though they were short on money, want to come to the movies during the depression?
  • [00:28:29] GERALD HOAG: We took IOU's.
  • [00:28:31] TED TROST: Really?
  • [00:28:32] GERALD HOAG: Yes.
  • [00:28:32] TED TROST: To see a movie?
  • [00:28:37] GERALD HOAG: [LAUGHTER] Fact, I still have some bum checks.
  • [00:28:40] TED TROST: Well, you don't want to cash those. I understand in 1936 we were talking about newsreels earlier. A newsreel was made here. Tell us about that, what happened.
  • [00:28:51] GERALD HOAG: Well, that again was desperation. The reason for that was that this company come in with equipment to take motion pictures. Their purpose was to go out to go to various organizations, for instance, big dairy would be in it and a big mercantile store, anyone like that. They would take a motion picture and charge for that. Then they would take pictures of people on the streets. For instance, they would go out in front of the high school and take pictures of everyone coming out of the high school. That would be a good many hundred people. The purpose of taking that and also coming out of the theater. The purpose of that was that we hope that people who knew they were in the movie would come next week and buy a ticket.
  • [00:29:47] TED TROST: That's crazy.
  • [00:29:47] GERALD HOAG: That was the purpose. It was strictly commercial. The fact remains that there are thousands of people in that picture. Well, for instance, those were in the Shirley Temple contests at Klines. Those little girls we all dressed up like it. They were now what? Fifty-years-old.
  • [00:30:05] TED TROST: I saw that film.
  • [00:30:06] GERALD HOAG: Did you? Any of the people who remember that would go to see it now. But that's the whole purpose, was strictly to get them to come to the movie. [LAUGHTER]
  • [00:30:16] TED TROST: That's good.
  • [00:30:17] GERALD HOAG: It worked.
  • [00:30:18] TED TROST: Good. Thanks a lot.
  • [00:30:19] GERALD HOAG: Entirely well.
  • [00:30:22] TED TROST: Yes, sir [OVERLAPPING]
  • [00:30:32] GERALD HOAG: We never had it here, but the student body of the game, we went to a theater. We went there, performed the show and a fire occurred on the stage. The students all hollered stick. Stick but wouldn't get out of a fireman come out, run a hose down, and put the fire out with the students all hollered stick. Nobody panicked. That's an example. I want to say they do the same thing here. The things that the student body wouldn't give up. For instance, we brought a radio, that was the biggest thing in Ann Arbor. We advertised that Yost would speak from Detroit and his voice would be heard from the Majestic stage. Nobody believed it, but we packed the house. We moved out the set and finally got his voice coming over from Detroit.
  • [00:31:35] TED TROST: WJR or WWJ?
  • [00:31:37] GERALD HOAG: Detroit Free Press. That was the first thing that came out. But when you told them that the wire that were coming from the back of the balcony cleared on the stage was the aerial inside aerial. The student hooted and howled and they got out, went up to a skylight on Majestic Roof. Went out, came down, and said, "There wasn't any aerial", because nobody believed that the radio signal could go to the wall. Nobody believed that. They went up to prove it themselves.
  • [00:32:10] TED TROST: What was the longest running film that you had here? Not the most people that saw, the longest. What do you call it, run stay?
  • [00:32:25] GERALD HOAG: Of course, one picture. We pulled seven weeks before our contract was up and they can still sue us.
  • [00:32:36] TED TROST: How long was it supposed to run for? Let's put it that way.
  • [00:32:38] GERALD HOAG: One to six weeks.
  • [00:32:40] TED TROST: That's half a year. One film?
  • [00:32:43] GERALD HOAG: Nineteen weeks.
  • [00:32:45] TED TROST: That's still the longest?
  • [00:32:46] GERALD HOAG: Yes, I would say.
  • [00:32:49] TED TROST: You don't have to do that.
  • [00:32:50] GERALD HOAG: That's how bad things can go.
  • [00:32:54] TED TROST: What was the shortest?
  • [00:32:56] MALE_1: Just keep talking.
  • [00:32:57] TED TROST: What was the shortest stay? Did you just show up months and that was it?
  • [00:33:02] GERALD HOAG: The shortest show that I ever had was a picture that I bought and I advertised with Rudolph Valentino. Then when the picture came in, I had bought the picture without seeing it. When it came in, it was of course after Valentino made his big famous Sheik. He was only in it for just walking through a scene. I walked out on the stage that night and said, I apologize. I hope you've enjoyed the newsreel, and the comedy, and the cartoon. But the picture doesn't have a Valentino in only a few seconds.
  • [00:33:37] TED TROST: All of that was a come on?
  • [00:33:39] GERALD HOAG: I have misled you, and everybody can get their money back. All you have to do is go to the box. I'm sorry to have wasted your time. One day was the only day I want. Incidentally, they all stayed too long, stay pictures.
  • [00:33:55] TED TROST: Goodbye, Mr. Chips. That was a good movie too.
  • [00:33:59] GERALD HOAG: Pictures there are so many, of all kinds. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and many pictures. Of course, as a director, I like either anything from Frank Capra or anything from Alfred Hitchcock.
  • [00:34:16] TED TROST: Did Rear Window show here?
  • [00:34:17] GERALD HOAG: Yes, many times, brought it back a couple of times. That's one of Hitchcock's.
  • [00:34:22] TED TROST: Hitchcock's.
  • [00:34:22] GERALD HOAG: Favorite ones he had. This guy Hitchcocks got a grand sense of humor. I've got some marvelous letters from him in which he says he will always remember Ann Arbor because when we played Vertigo, it was the only town where it had any success and the reason why it was the only place where they knew what the title meant. [LAUGHTER] He always claims that Ann Arbor should be a bond of young. That's a typical of lot to think about money that they treated more than just grand people.
  • [00:35:01] TED TROST: Technically, I suppose today the films that are being made are better, at least color wise and sound wise.
  • [00:35:11] GERALD HOAG: Sound wise.
  • [00:35:12] TED TROST: Even if the stories are catchy somehow.
  • [00:35:17] GERALD HOAG: They have to shock the people they think make a success of it.
  • [00:35:21] TED TROST: You know you mentioned earlier that you felt that the film should be for families and sound, but the truth isn't it true that people just don't no matter what you do not go and see movies as families?
  • [00:35:31] GERALD HOAG: That's very true and the saddest part of the business is frankly missing. When I go to Rotary and somebody says, well, I have been to a movie. I went to two movies this year or something like that. That's very discouraging, because back in the old days, we played to the be plus opera, finest people. In other words, it wasn't anything except good entertainment.
  • [00:36:02] TED TROST: Do you find it's mostly young people?
  • [00:36:03] GERALD HOAG: Mostly young men.
  • [00:36:04] TED TROST: That are coming to the movies? It used to be a big thing. You go out Saturday night to a good date and you took a girl to a movie.
  • [00:36:12] GERALD HOAG: Well, it's like everything else. When the consent decree came through the government regulations on buying up pictures. When that came through, it changed everything around, and you had such a thing as everybody said, well, that will help the little public. I'm sure that would put him out of business. Back in the old days, there was a theater in Saline, a theater in Chelsea, a theater in all little towns. Now, that built up a trade. Those kids wanted to go to a movie. But when you got old enough to date, he wanted to go to a movie down the street. He wanted to come into Ann Arbor and go to a movie.