Indiana Theatre
Historic theater has avoided curtains time and time again to shine in Valley
By Stephanie Salter

If the Indiana Theatre could sing its life song, it would be a show-stopper from Stephen Sondheim's "Follies":

Good times and bum times/ I've seen them all and, my dear/ I'm still here/ Plush velvet sometimes/ Sometimes just pretzels and beer/ But I'm here.

Oh, yes. The Indiana is a survivor.

And for an 84-year-old dame who's been adored, neglected, used, abused, abandoned and revived, she looks darned good.

Much of that is due to the theater's current owners, Kathy and Roger Aleshire, who have poured heart, soul, energy and bucks into refurbishing the 1,600-seat brick landmark. Another reason may just be the old girl's excellent bones.

The Indiana is the 1921 creation of John Eberson, a man known as "the Frank Lloyd Wright of theater design." A Romanian immigrant to the United States, Eberson lived nearly to 90, and his spectacular entertainment palaces dotted the nation.

Only 18 of Eberson's theaters still exist, some of them totally restored and oft-used, such as the Palace in Marion, Ohio, and some, like the Indiana, that are moving toward their original splendor.

Eberson was a master of the early-20th century "atmospheric style." That meant Fantasy Land. Outdoor waterfalls, indoor star-lit skies, live birds in the lobby, whatever it took to transport folks to another land in another era.

In Marion, the theme was Moorish royalty. In Terre Haute, Eberson went Spanish baroque with the best of everything: hand-carved sculpture, a cascading fountain on a lobby landing, 3,000 electric lightbulbs on the marquee and a luxurious ladies powder straight out of a Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers film - in Technicolor.

The cost: $750,000, which is between $45 million and $90 million in today's money, depending on the index used.

On the Indiana Theatre's opening night, Jan. 28, 1922, its staffed was decked out in Spanish costumes, live peacocks picked their way over the terrazzo floors and the movie was a silent one: "Cappy Ricks," which starred the handsome Thomas Meighan and the beautiful Agnes Ayers, a native of Carbondale, Ill.

Over the decades, vaudeville acts that graced the Indiana's 54-foot-wide stage gave way to touring big bands and operettas. The movies became talkies, and many a generation of Wabash Valley couples made their way to Seventh and Ohio streets to see the latest Hollywood hit or to just snuggle in the balcony.

The last couple of decades of the 20th century, home video, changes in film distribution and the rise of the cineplex spelled death for big movie palaces like the Indiana. Sometimes the theater operated with little or no heat. Sometimes it showed movies only on weekends, often long after the films were out in video.

But, miraculously, everytime it looked like curtains for the Indiana, somebody with dreams and just enough money rescued it.

The Aleshires are the most recent in the series, owners since October 2003. Inch by inch, tile by tile, bulb by bulb, they are restoring the Indiana.

As the Sondheim song concludes:

I've run the gamut, A to Z/ Three cheers and dammit/ C'est la vie/ I got through all of last year/ And I'm here/ Lord knows, at least I've been there/ And I'm here!/ Look who's here!/ I'm still here!

Stephanie Salter can be reached at (812) 231-4229 or stephanie.salter.com.