(Editor’s Note: As the University administration seeks to protect its budget and reduce expenses in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, Michigan Today has been asked to temporarily suspend its freelance budget. This affects our talented and much-loved columnists, like Frank, who is taking what we hope is just a temporary intermission. His columns are archived here. We will miss you, Frank.)
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Michigan Theater marquee during COVID-19 pandemic, April 2020. (Image: D. Holdship.)
Hello, dear readers:
Talking About Movies in Michigan Today has been a wonderful, decades-long opportunity for me to share my thoughts and love for motion pictures, an artistic medium with wide-ranging cultural, social, political, and historical implications.
I’m writing to express my gratitude to all of you who read the columns and enriched them with your own enlightened ‘end-of-article’ comments. Many of you were former students and your emails were special and heartwarming. Thank you all.
I must thank Michigan Today’s former editors John Woodford (who ran the publication when it was printed and mailed by the USPS), John Lofy, who is executive director of marketing and communications at LSA now, and current editor Deborah Holdship. I am grateful for their collaborative and editorial expertise in preparing each column for release. THANK YOU.
Rightfully and understandably Talking About Movies’ departure from this publication has been a result of budgetary restraints for the University of Michigan in a time of dire institutional and public health challenges.
I look forward to the day when we can return to the theater and enjoy the movies together.
I hope you all will stay in touch. My e-mail hasn’t changed in decades and I do love hearing from you: fbeaver@umich.edu.
