ext to me in the blackness lay my oiled blue-steel beauty.

The greatest Christmas gift I had ever received…

or would ever receive.

Gradually, I drifted off to sleep, pranging ducks on the wing…

and getting off spectacular hip shots.

Ralphie, A Christmas Story Directed by Bob Clark 1983

It is early December in the Mid West. The air hangs heavy with the lingering promise of snow. I just moved my office to downtown Franklin Indiana and as a result, I have been firmly gripped by the seasonal fever that descends on the city center of Franklin. It’s this infusion of Christmas spirit that grabs you and pulls you into the welcoming marquee of the Historic Artcraft Theatre. Within the ice crystals and foggy breath lies a warmth that these days is often hard to find.

Last week The Artcraft screened ELF, I had reported that 2100 tickets were sold, I was wrong…the number was 3499. In these days of the declining box office, 3499 people walked away from Disney +, Netflix and Amazon to sit in 1950’s seats and watched a movie with 622 of their closest friends. This weekend the Artcraft will be serving up another classic “A Christmas Story”. It will do similar business. For a business that is searching for answers, this kind of activity is significant.

As I left my office late on Friday, I jumped into my van and started to head home. A figure runs out of the dark in the alley behind the Artcraft, it is a young man, a local who I am familiar with. I roll down the window and ask if everything is okay. “I have to Swede up” is the response. Now if you are familiar with the movie “A Christmas Story” you know that Swede is a character in the movie who queries Ralphie’s father on the origins of a leg lamp. Before each movie, at The Artcraft, there is a presentation by the Short Attention Span Theater of an extremely condensed version of the movie that is about to be screened.

Only in Franklin would the statement “I have to Swede up” make any sense. This young man in his mid 20’s was rushing home to get on an older pair of pants so he could play the Swede on stage. He was genuinely excited and he fully realized that when that screen flickered with the image of “A Christmas Story” the Christmas season had indeed begun in his hometown.

The Historic Artcraft is for all intents and purposes the heart and soul of this small Mid Western city and it shines brightest when it can inject nostalgia and warm memories back into the Christmas season. All too often attempts are made to dilute and deflect the meaning of the season, in contrast the Artcraft has a singular way of grabbing your heart and placing you firmly in a time when community deeply mattered, when talking to strangers was a good thing and that it allows your soul to shake off the dust from an increasingly cynical world.

I am so blessed to be living in a city that has at its core been both spiritually and economically reborn by the re-invigoration of a great downtown movie theater. Stores have popped up, restaurants have flung their doors open to trade and the downtown has been re-shaped as a destination. This is all due to the Artcraft. I have seen it before. A group of committed community-minded individuals gathers together to re-invigorate an old theater. They work hard, put forth a disciplined vision and grow prudently. Big chairs don’t matter, cold chicken tenders don’t matter….community matters. That is what they are selling. I have seen this re-invigorate dying communities in North Carolina, Upstate New York, and Canada. But no one, and I mean no one does it better than Rob Shilts and his team in Franklin Indiana….no one. In the face of the pressures on movie theaters, Rob’s actions are nothing short of heroic. I have come to deeply admire this man.

Year after year the Artcraft is the global leader in Christmas movie attendance, often beating their nearest competitor screen by screen by a multiple of 7. What has happened at the Historic Artcraft Theater is nothing short of miraculous. The passion that is instilled in that 1923 movie theater is stunning. In town, there is a growing reverence and respect for what has evolved.

We are living in a digital age, an age when things move very fast and change constantly. We are living in a time where society is quickly disconnecting from one another. Families are under considerable pressure and the massive amount of decisions being required of us every day can often be overwhelming. All kinds of mental and physical disorders are arising as a result of these pressures. We are increasingly becoming a collection of symptoms; society tells us we must really be individuals then works incessantly at suppressing the same individuality they claim to be promoting. They sell you bad food, so 20 years later they can sell you bad medicine. It is a wheel that is going faster and faster. People want what was. A time that was happier, a time that brought more personal fulfillment, a time the allowed you to be just you.

The building of the community next to the bonding of a family was the most important aspect of human evolution. Unless we have a community, we as a species can never be truly happy. The community is the true foundation of human society. It is that same idea of community that the Historic Artcraft Theatre is consistently building.

Repeated collective experience is what leads us to a definition and establishment of a community. Do that over a decade and you will have built a community that is vibrant, resilient, and self-sustaining. This is what the Artcraft has done and keeps doing. Going to the movies truly built the ideal of America. It re-enforced the hopes and dreams that were instilled in this country. Movies gave America self-definition and facilitated the path of immigrants to one of an American. Movies and movie going are an imperative for the weaving of an American cultural fabric.

Tomorrow, in front of the County Courthouse, the mayor shall flip a switch which will light up the City of Franklin. Christmas will have descended on this small Mid Western city. The brightest light though is the marquee of the Historic Artcraft Theatre, a light that is a beacon to the hundreds of small-town theaters that are seeking direction, a light that proclaims boldly that movies and movie-going are so very important. This light breathed life into the downtown core and this light has the potential to shape the generations to come.

There is nothing as magical as walking out of a Christmas movie at the Artcraft. The audience slowly exits the theaters, all regretting their departure. Groups of people gather to discuss what they had just experienced. The pulsing glow of the marquee shines a light on all their faces and if they are blessed a small dusting of snow will drift down. It is magic.

Christmas is once again here. A time of community, a time for families and a deep time for hope. The heart of the movies still beats, but it’s beating loudest in Franklin, Indiana.

God Bless Us, Everyone.