The Betsie Current

The Betsie Current A free, full-color community newspaper that celebrates the dynamic and diverse communities in Benzie. Josephine Arrowood, Nicole L.

The Betsie Current is a community newspaper celebrating the dynamic and diverse communities in Benzie County. The Current is a free, full-color newspaper funded through advertisements. Jordan Bates, Co-Owner: Design & Web
Aubrey Ann Parker, Co-Owner: Editor, Photographer, Ad sales

That one guy: Jacob Wheeler
Billing: Randi Lyn Stoltz
Occasional Reluctant Copy Editors: Ellie MacDonald and Roger St

ow
Future Delivery Boys & Girl: Colton Michael Bates, Beckett Anthony Bates, and Sophia Brook Bates ( )
Non-official Mascot: Nova Parker-Bates, a 12-year-old black Labrador

Frequent and Not-so-frequent Contributors
F. Bates, Sarah Bearup-Neal, Andy Bolander, Greta Bolger, Kevin Brooks, Nancy Bordine, Steven M. Brown, Elijah Browning, Emily Cook, Elysha (Rom-Povolo) Davila, Julia Davis, Linda Alice Dewey, Brenna Dilts, Jim Dulzo, Ned Edwards, Eliza Forrest, Cyrus Ghaemi, Cheryl Gross, Molly Harrison, Linda Hepler Beaty, Rhiannon Hildenbrandt, Faith Hopp, John Jass, Jed Jaworski, Olivia Jones, Dan Kelly, Emma Kelly, Mackenna Kelly, Mitch Kennis, Susan Koenig, Alana Kuhlen, Chales T. Kraus, Ella Larsen, Melia Lorenz, Sarah Louisignau, John McCormick, Jimmy McLaren, Kirsten Miller, Stephanie Mills, Nancy Morrison, Matt Nannten, Carol Navarro, Anne-Marie Oomen, Kelly Ottinger, Stacy Pasche, Pearce Pomerleau, Annis Pratt, Stephanie Purifoy, Ian Richardson, Helene Rimer, Mandy Gray Rineer, Karen Roberts, Jenny Robertson, Beth Roethler, Renee Herman Russell, Jenn Ryan, P.G. Misty Sheehan, Keith Schneider, Monica Schultz, Drew Smith, Noah Sorenson, Christina (Harig) Steele, Pat Stinson, Kathleen Stocking, Randi Lyn Stoltz-Flynn, Lucy Straubel, Beau Vallance, Joe VanderMeulen, Chad Van Tol, Madeline Hill Vedell, Emily Votruba, Norm Wheeler

TONIGHT: We're so excited to be partnering with The Garden Theater to showcase a favorite summer film -- Top Gun (PG-13,...
07/16/2025

TONIGHT: We're so excited to be partnering with The Garden Theater to showcase a favorite summer film -- Top Gun (PG-13, 1986)!

The showing is FREE to all guests, and if you dress up in your "best Top Gun outfit," you get a free treat from Kilwins Frankfort (limited to first-come, first-serve basis.)

We couldn't BELIEVE the turnout to our free showing of Practical Magic back in October 2023 when we first started this thing; we had around 125 of you show up, and probably 90% of you were dressed up as a witch!

So we decided we'd like to make this a MONTHLY event, and we're calling it "Monthly Movie Club," where we will feature great nostalgic flicks!

January 2024: Grumpy Old Men - 75 people
February 2024: Casablanca - 130 people
March 2024: The Big Lebowski - 105 people
April 2024: A League of Their Own - 105 people
May 2024: The Great Outdoors - 70 people
June 2024: The Goonies - 210 people
July 2024: Dirty Dancing - 170 people
August 2024: Overboard - 100 people
September 2024: Clueless - 65 people
October 2024: Beetlejuice - 75 people
November 2024: Planes, Trains, & Automobiles - 85 people
December 2024: Love Actually - 125 people
January 2025: The Shining - 55 people
February 2025: Sleepless In Seattle- 80 people
March 2025: The Shawshank Redemption - 70 people
April 2025: You've Got Mail - 60 people
May 2025: Best In Show - 70 people
June 2025: Stand By Me - 155 people

We can't wait to see you on Wednesday, July 16, at 7:30pm--bring your friends! Learn more and RSVP at FREE "Top Gun" Showing & Party and "invite" your friends to the Facebook event, too!

-----------------------------

Top Gun is a 1986 American action drama film, directed by Tony Scott and produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer; the screenplay was written by Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr. and was inspired by an article titled "Top Guns", written by Ehud Yonay and published in California magazine three years earlier.

The film stars Tom Cruise as Lieutenant Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, a young naval aviator aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise. He and his radar intercept officer, Lieutenant (junior grade) Nick "Goose" Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards), are given the chance to train at the United States Navy's Fighter Weapons School (Top Gun) at Naval Air Station Miramar in San Diego, California. Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer, and Tom Skerritt also appear in supporting roles.

When Top Gun was released on May 16, 1986, although its visual effects and soundtrack were universally acclaimed, the film initially received mixed reviews from film critics. Despite this, four weeks after its release, the number of theaters showing it increased by 45 percent, and it overcame initial critical resistance to become a huge commercial hit, grossing $357 million globally against a production budget of $15 million. Top Gun was the highest-grossing domestic film of 1986, as well as the highest-grossing film of 1986 worldwide.

The film maintained its popularity over the years and earned an IMAX 3D re-release in 2013, while the retrospective critical reception became more positive, with the film also emerging as a cult classic. Additionally, the soundtrack to the film has since become one of the most popular film soundtracks to date, reaching 9× Platinum certification. The film won both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for "Take My Breath Away," performed by Berlin.

In 2015, the United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry, finding it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

A sequel, "Top Gun: Maverick," in which Cruise and Kilmer reprised their roles, was released 36 years later on May 27, 2022, and surpassed the original film both critically and commercially.

We had 11 adults, 3 kids, and 1 baby help us to hand out more than 2,100 newspapers at the annual 4th of July parade in ...
07/04/2025

We had 11 adults, 3 kids, and 1 baby help us to hand out more than 2,100 newspapers at the annual 4th of July parade in the City of Frankfort, Michigan, this morning!

Thank you SO MUCH to the largest team of "newsies" that we've ever had, and so much appreciation for (our editor/co-owner Aubrey's) Aunt Brenda and Uncle John for bringing down the 1955 Ford pick-up truck and letting us use it to stash extra newspapers--it made the 1-mile route SO MUCH EASIER this year!

Lastly, a big "thank you" as well to everyone who cheered for us and took a newspaper--we hope that you enjoy reading it! :)

(This photo is missing 4 adults and the baby!)

07/04/2025

Frankfort Parade 2025: We handed out more than 2,100 copies of our newspaper this morning! This is the view from the parade route!

TONIGHT: We'll find out which nostalgic coming-of-age flick y'all prefer! (You can also let us know which you prefer in ...
06/24/2025

TONIGHT: We'll find out which nostalgic coming-of-age flick y'all prefer! (You can also let us know which you prefer in the comments below!)

Last year, on June 18, 2024, we had 210 people attend our free showing of "The Goonies," and we raised $380 for Benzie Area Pride Network through your kind donations.

Tonight, we've got our Free "Stand By Me" Showing & Party at 7:30pm at The Garden Theater.

Will we have more than 210 people show up...?

REMINDER: The theater has air conditioning, so that's a great way to beat this early summer heat!

We can't wait to see you--preferably dressed up as characters from the film--and we can't wait to see if we top last year's numbers of attendees, so bring your friends!

SAVE THE DATE: We're so excited to be partnering with The Garden Theater to showcase a favorite film -- Stand By Me (R, ...
06/03/2025

SAVE THE DATE: We're so excited to be partnering with The Garden Theater to showcase a favorite film -- Stand By Me (R, 1986)!

The showing is FREE to all guests, and if you dress up in your "best Stand By Me outfit," you get a free treat from Kilwins Frankfort (limited to first-come, first-serve basis.)

We couldn't BELIEVE the turnout to our free showing of Practical Magic back in October 2023 when we first started this thing; we had around 125 of you show up, and probably 90% of you were dressed up as a witch!

So we decided we'd like to make this a MONTHLY event, and we're calling it "Monthly Movie Club," where we will feature great nostalgic flicks!

January 2024: Grumpy Old Men - 75 people
February 2024: Casablanca - 130 people
March 2024: The Big Lebowski - 105 people
April 2024: A League of Their Own - 105 people
May 2024: The Great Outdoors - 70 people
June 2024: The Goonies - 210 people
July 2024: Dirty Dancing - 170 people
August 2024: Overboard - 100 people
September 2024: Clueless - 65 people
October 2024: Beetlejuice - 75 people
November 2024: Planes, Trains, & Automobiles - 85 people
December 2024: Love Actually - 125 people
January 2025: The Shining - 55 people
February 2025: Sleepless In Seattle- 80 people
March 2025: The Shawshank Redemption - 70 people
April 2025: You've Got Mail - 60 people
May 2025: 70 people

We can't wait to see you on Tuesday, June 24, at 7:30pm--bring your friends! Learn more and RSVP at Free "Stand By Me" Showing & Party and "invite" your friends to the Facebook event, too!

-----------------------------

Stand by Me is a 1986 American coming-of-age drama film, directed by Rob Reiner and based on Stephen King's 1982 novella "The Body." Starring Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, and Jerry O'Connell as four boys who set out on a journey to find the dead body of a missing boy, the film is set in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Oregon in 1959. The film's title is derived from the 1961 song of the same name by Ben E. King, which plays during the film's closing credits.

Stand by Me received positive reviews upon release and was a commercial success. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and for two Golden Globe Awards--one for Best Drama Motion Picture and one for Best Director. Rolling Stone has called Stand by Me "a staple of youthful nostalgia" and "the rare movie that necessarily gets better with time".

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 92% based on 64 reviews and a rating average of 8/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Stand by Me is a wise, nostalgic movie with a weird streak that captures both Stephen King's voice and the trials of growing up." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 75 out of 100 based on 20 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.

Stephen King was very impressed with the film--on the special features of the 25th anniversary Blu-ray set, King indicated that he considered the film to be the first successful translation to film of any of his works. According to a later interview with Gene Siskel, Reiner recalled that after a private early screening of the film, King excused himself for fifteen minutes to compose himself; he later returned to remark, "'That's the best film ever made out of anything I've written, which isn't saying much. But you've really captured my story. It is autobiographical.'" In a 2016 interview, King said that Stand by Me was his favorite adaptation of his work, alongside The Shawshank Redemption.

In a 2011 piece entitled "25 years of Stand by Me", writer Alex Hannaford opined that "[for] anyone older than about 33, Stand by Me remains one of the greatest films to come out of the Eighties." Hannaford added that the film "has a charm and depth that seems to resonate with each generation".

The film is considered a cult classic.

SAVE THE DATE : We're so excited to be partnering with The Garden Theater to showcase a classic film -- The Graduate (19...
06/02/2025

SAVE THE DATE : We're so excited to be partnering with The Garden Theater to showcase a classic film -- The Graduate (1967, PG)!

We can't wait to see you on Thursday, June 12, at 6pm--bring your friends!

Learn more at the FREE "The Graduate" Showing - Garden Classic Movies event.

--------------

The Graduate is a 1967 American independent romantic comedy-drama film, directed by Mike Nichols and written by Buck Henry and Calder Willingham. The film is based on the 1963 novella by Charles Webb. Starring Dustin Hoffman as Benjamin Braddock, a recent college graduate who is seduced by an older married woman, Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft), but falls for her daughter, Elaine (Katharine Ross). The soundtrack was recorded by Simon & Garfunkel, and featured the hit single "Mrs Robinson".

The Graduate grossed $104.9 million in the United States and Canada, making it the highest-grossing film of 1967 in North America. Adjusted for inflation (as of 2021), its gross is $857 million, making it the 22nd-highest-grossing film in the United States and Canada. It received seven nominations at the 40th Academy Awards, and won for Best Director.

In 1996, The Graduate was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In 1997, the American Film Institute ranked it the 7th-greatest American film and the 17th-greatest a decade later, in 2007.

It is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential films.

On Monday, May 5, our Aubrey Ann Parker attended an online meeting with more than a dozen reporters and editors from oth...
05/28/2025

On Monday, May 5, our Aubrey Ann Parker attended an online meeting with more than a dozen reporters and editors from other Northern Michigan publications, such as the Traverse City Record-Eagle, Traverse City Ticker, Northern Express, Interlochen Public Radio, Glen Arbor Sun, Leelanau Enterprise, The Elberta Alert, WCMU Public Media, Boyne Citizen News, Cadillac News, and others.

The idea is to work together to promote regional stories that cross borders in multiple publication zones, to maximize getting the word out about important issues...

We've always enjoyed partnering with the Glen Arbor Sun, the Freshwater Reporter, and The Elberta Alert--cross-publishing stories in our publications when the stories warranted it.

We see this new project as yet another way to leverage the very talented journalists who reside in Northern Michigan, by cross-publishing some of their stories in our pages--and we're especially excited to see some of our Benzie-based stories making the greater regional scene!

Stay tuned for more on this project, but just know that we're excited!

---------------------------------

The Northern Michigan Journalism Project is led by Bridge Michigan and Interlochen Public Radio and is funded by Press Forward, a national movement to strengthen our democracy by revitalizing local news and information.

On Friday, May 16, our Aubrey Ann Parker visited the Yearbook Class for 9th-12th graders at Frankfort Elberta Area Schoo...
05/27/2025

On Friday, May 16, our Aubrey Ann Parker visited the Yearbook Class for 9th-12th graders at Frankfort Elberta Area Schools.

In case you missed it: The Yearbook Class this school year has been producing a monthly "Panther Paper," their own version of a school newspaper with interviews and current events!

Aubrey asked what their favorite stories to report have been so far this year, and the students were able to ask Aubrey questions, like what are her favorite types of stories to report. Aubrey also shared with the students about her unconventional journey into journalism, including her work for the past 12 years with The Betsie Current but also her previous job for six years at a nonprofit news organization that reported on water issues around the world, in which she got to write about her travels to Copenhagen for the UN Climate Negotiations, to Patagonia Chile to study hydropower, and to India for a month to report on the intersections of water, agriculture, and energy production.

We love when we're able to connect with local youth, and we hope that some of these students take us up on Aubrey's offer to them--we always need writers, and we'd love if some of them wrote stories for us!

TONIGHT: We're so excited to be partnering with The Garden Theater to showcase a classic film -- The Philadelphia Story...
05/20/2025

TONIGHT: We're so excited to be partnering with The Garden Theater to showcase a classic film -- The Philadelphia Story (1940)!

We can't wait to see you on Tuesday, May 20, at 6pm--bring your friends!

Learn more at the FREE "The Philadelphia Story" Showing - Garden Classic Movies event.

--------------

The Philadelphia Story is a 1940 American romantic comedy film, directed by George Cukor and based on the 1939 Broadway play of the same name by Philip Barry. Starring Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart, and Ruth Hussey, the film is about a socialite (Hepburn) whose wedding plans are complicated by the simultaneous arrival of her ex-husband (Grant) and a tabloid magazine journalist (Stewart). Notably, Hepburn played the socialite in both the play and the film; the character was inspired by Helen Hope Montgomery Scott (1904–1995), a Philadelphia heiress who had married playwrite Barry's friend.

Written for the screen by Donald Ogden Stewart and an uncredited Waldo Salt, the film is considered among the best examples of a comedy of remarriage, in which a couple divorce, flirt with outsiders, and then remarry. The genre was popular in the 1930s and 1940s at a time when divorce was considered scandalous and the depiction of extramarital affairs was blocked by the Production Code.

The film was Hepburn's first hit following several flops that caused her placement on a 1938 list of actors considered to be "box office poison," compiled by theater owner Harry Brandt. (After starring in the play, Hepburn acquired the film rights, with the help of Howard Hughes, to control it as a vehicle for her screen comeback.)

Nominated for six Academy Awards, including Outstanding Production (Best Picture), the film won two: Best Actor (Stewart) and Best Adapted Screenplay. MGM remade the film in 1956 as a musical ,retitled "High Society," starring Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly and Frank Sinatra.

The Philadelphia Story was produced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry in 1995.

Address

Frankfort, MI
49635

Telephone

+12316493988

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when The Betsie Current posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to The Betsie Current:

Shortcuts

Share

Category

Our Story

The Betsie Current is a community newspaper, celebrating the dynamic and diverse communities in Benzie County. The Current is a free, full-color newspaper that is funded through advertisements. Jordan Bates, Co-Owner: Design & Web Aubrey Ann Parker, Co-Owner: Editor, Photographer, Ad sales Jacob Wheeler: That one guy Joe Cissell: Deliveries Randi Lyn Stoltz: Billing & Ad sales