1. CIRCLE CITY
Last Picture Shows OUT THERE
Before movie theaters had 14 screens and espresso machines behind the
KNOW YOUR
snack bar, a more charming version drew crowds for the Saturday-night
feature show. Here’s what’s showing at the few that still light up the screen. —Sarah Ellis This Little
Piggy
An Indiana hog farm sends
in the clones.
most of the roughly 45,000 hogs
raised annually at Whiteshire Hamroc
LLC, a pig farm outside of the Northern
Indiana hamlet of Albion, wind up on
somebody’s menu. But some—or more
accurately, selected parts of some—
become medicinal compounds with
near-miraculous properties.
How miraculous? They can trick other
mammals (including humans) into
regenerating lost body parts. “When you
can do something like this and improve
people’s quality of life, that really makes
you feel good,” says Whiteshire Hamroc
president Rebecca Schroeder, whose
firm found its unique niche almost by
accident when Dr. Stephen Badylak, a
pioneer in the use of pig parts for tissue
regeneration, went shopping for blad-
The Historic Artcraft Theatre (above) ders to use in his research at the Uni-
HOMETOWN: Franklin OPENED: 1922 THE SEQUEL: Ongoing renovations began in 2004 MARQUEE: Clas-
sics PRICE OF LARGE POPCORN: $5.50 NUMBER OF SEATS: 572 TICKET PRICE: $5 adults; $4 seniors, college, versity of Pittsburgh.
military; $3 12 and younger SHOWSTOPPER: Leather-couch seating at the back of the theater. Badylak started procuring pig blad-
ders from Whiteshire Hamroc due to the
facility’s reputation for having extremely
Fowler Theatre
HOMETOWN: Fowler OPENED: 1940 THE SEQUEL: Reopened in 2001 MARQUEE: Family-oriented first-runs
sanitary conditions. (Visitors must strip,
and second-runs PRICE OF LARGE POPCORN: $3 (25-cent refill) NUMBER OF SEATS: 196, with plenty of leg shower, and wear masks and special cloth-
room (the original layout had 442 seats) TICKET PRICE: $5 general admission; $3 kids 12 and younger ing just to visit the animals’ air-filtered
SHOWSTOPPER: The red neon and sky-blue paint job.
barns.) It didn’t hurt that the operation’s
THE HISTORIC ARTCRAFT THEATRE PHOTO BY SUSIE FLECK
CEO went to Purdue with Badylak. And
Royal Theater as the Department of Defense is funding
HOMETOWN: Danville OPENED: 1908 THE SEQUEL: Reopened in 1999 MARQUEE: First-runs, second-runs,
occasional independents and classics, live shows PRICE OF LARGE POPCORN: $4 (one free refill) NUMBER
a crash study to develop techniques for
OF SEATS: 228 TICKET PRICE: $3 matinee; $5 general admission; $3 kids 12 and younger SHOWSTOPPER: regrowing body parts, several research
The exterior’s Tudor-revival facade with timber and stucco detail. firms have started purchasing the com-
pany’s pig parts. One company orders
Paramount Theatre approximately 350 bladders per month
HOMETOWN: Anderson OPENED: 1929 THE SEQUEL: Restoration began in 1989; theater reopened
in 1995 MARQUEE: Classics and indies PRICE OF LARGE POPCORN: $1 NUMBER OF SEATS: 1,458 TICKET and is on track to double that in the first
PRICE: $5 SHOWSTOPPER: 24-karat gold leaf detailing. quarter of 2010. —sam stall
22 IM | MARCH 2010 ILLUSTRATION BY Christoph Hitz
