Indianapolis, IN
‘I think that was Tom Hanks.’ Actor pops into Indianapolis shops. Here’s what he bought
New York bookstore exchanges used books for pickles
Customers can exchange used books for a jar of pickles at this New York bookstore.
When Alexandria Dugan rang up the purchases of a male and female customer at her Old Northside stationery store recently, she thought the guy’s face and voice were familiar.
“As they were checking out I was like, ‘Oh, he kind of looks like Tom Hanks. He kind of sounds like Tom Hanks.” And then they left and I was like, ‘I think that was Tom Hanks,” said Dugan, owner of Semantics Paper Goods, 111 E. 16th St.
It wasn’t until more than a week later when her neighbor Dream Palace Books & Coffee posted to social media a photo of Hanks outside of the shop that she realized it really was the multi-Oscar-winning actor and filmmaker.
Hanks had hit up the Northside Indianapolis businesses on Sept. 28.
Dream Palace owner Taylor Lewandowski didn’t post the photo until last week. He said Hanks asked him not to post the photo for a while.
“He wanted us to wait a week. That was his request,” he said.
Both the shops are in the same building on the ground level.
Tom Hanks’ visit to Northside Indy shops
Hanks and his daughter, E.A. Hanks, had stopped in the bookstore and cafe after the stationery store; and Lewandowski said he nearly missed the visit while working in the back office.
His barista went to the office to report the sighting of Hollywood royalty.
“She came back and was just like, ‘I’m like 90% sure Tom Hanks came in here,” Lewandoski said.
He went out front to investigate and saw that two Dream Palace customers were outside talking with Hanks. That’s where Lewandowski met the actor, who asked about how the year-old shop started.
Hanks posed for photos with the Dream Palace barista and some students from nearby Herron High School across the street.
The encounter was brief, and Lewandowski said he suspects the Hanks didn’t stay long at the bookstore because folks started to recognize him.
He said Hanks told him another Indianapolis bookseller suggested they make a trip to Dream Palace. Dream Palace, in turn, directed Hanks to The Whispering Shelf, 414 N. College, but the actor never made it to that store.
Pink about Indy: Before her concert, Pink took her family to Conner Prairie’s Headless Horseman 🎃
While Hanks didn’t make a purchase at Dream Palace, he did buy a lot of stuff from the stationery store.
Hanks and daughter — E.A. Hanks is a writer — entered the shop in the afternoon.
“They didn’t really announce themselves or anything. They just came in and started shopping,” Dugan said.
The Hanks were in Semantics for about five minutes, picking out notebooks, letter writing paper, envelopes, pens and postcards, she said.
“They were pretty efficient shoppers. They kind of knew what they had in mind.”
What did Tom Hanks buy from indie Indianapolis stationery store Semantics?
Among the items Hanks took a liking to at the stationery store:
- Shorthand Task Pad Notebooks. Hanks bought several lined rule notebooks with checkboxes. Dugan said he wiped out her stock of forest green pads.
- Letter writing paper and matching envelopes from MD Paper Products, a Japanese brand.
Why was Tom Hanks in Indianapolis?
No word on what brought the actor and his daughter to Indy. The shop owners said they didn’t ask.
EA Hanks might make another trip to the Indy bookstore
Lewandowski said he hopes E.A. Hanks will return to Dream Palace to promote her book “The 10,” due out in 2025.
“She took my email down and said she’d like to do some kind of book signing or event here,” he said. “I hope she reaches out. That’d be great to have her come back and do something.”
Contact IndyStar reporter Cheryl V. Jackson at cheryl.jackson@indystar.com or 317-444-6264. Follow her on X.com: @cherylvjackson.
Capturing The Feeling
Our photographer, known by many as Pink Bike Mike, shares how he ended up cruising around town on a pink chopper, camera bag strapped to his back.
When I was in second grade, my friend’s mom gave me the nickname “Michael Michael Motorcycle.” She thought she was teaching us how to balance a checkbook, not realizing she was manifesting my destiny instead.
But it wasn’t until eight years ago that my friend Scooter taught me how to ride on his 2002 Honda Shadow Spirit 750cc. We both dropped the bike that summer, putting matching dents on either side of the gas tank. A year later, I bought the Shadow and fully entered a new chapter of my life.
Three years ago, I became a “chopper guy,” earning a reputation for my hot pink 2004 Harley Davidson Sportster Custom chopper. Oil leaks, loose screws, the backbreaking feeling of hitting every small bump in the road, and old men constantly asking, “But why’s it pink?” became a personality statement.
Film photography and motorcycles go better together than prom king and queen. They hark back to a time when you tinkered with the equations and used your hands to determine the results. Plain and simple, they are a vintage lifestyle.
The biggest story in these photographs is the strength of the riding community. Sure, we rag on each other—sport bikes versus cruisers, vintage versus brand-new, carbureted versus fuel injection, Harley Davidson versus … everyone else—but at the end of the day, we are all just little kids cruising the neighborhood showing off our bikes.
Bike Night
Originally founded in Erie, Pennsylvania, in 2002, high-performance motorcycle parts manufacturer Horsepower Inc. has called Gasoline Alley in Indy home since 2012. Every year around the Indianapolis 500, HPi hosts a bike night with hundreds of attendees from around the world. What started out in 2018 as a small gathering among friends and customers, with some Sam’s Club hot dogs on the grill and a few bottles of beer or Londo’s Flameade, has turned into a much-anticipated yearly event featuring vendors, food trucks, DJs, and stunt crews including Jeff (C-Bear), CJ and the Concrete Cowboys, Junkyard Kenny, and the EastCoastin’ Crew.
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Mortgage expert Tom Hlava joined WISH-TV Sunday morning to talk about today’s market and what it means for home buyers, sellers, and homeowners.
Hlava told News 8’s Stacey Schooler that the Federal Reserve does not change mortgage rates. They change the federal funds rate, which he says is more closely tied to car loans and credit cards.
Hlava says that if we wait until the mortgage rate drops, there will be many more buyers and prices will rise even further.
“Should I wait until the Colts are just about ready to go to the Super Bowl to buy tickets to a game? Probably not, because by then it’s a little bit too late. The market has gone way up. I think it’s pretty much the same way with interest rates”.
The new average home price in Indianapolis for a two- to three-bedroom house is $250,00 to $300,000.
“When I started in the mortgage business many, many years ago, rates were 13% and 14%. But houses were, like you said,
$ 70,000- $ 80,000. We don’t have those houses. Now it’s a half million dollars”.
Hlava added that there is a program for the families of first responders and a duty death program that will erase the loan for that first responder’s family.
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — While fireworks are the centerpiece of most Independence Day celebrations, one July 4th event in Indianapolis focused on bringing unity through athletic competition.
“Peace on the Plaza” was held at Gainbridge Fieldhouse Saturday afternoon and evening. The focal point of the event was a 3-on-3 basketball tournament featuring eight teams with young men who have ties to area nonprofits and other community organizations, like IndyPeace.
Shardae Hoskins, Administrator for Community Violence Reduction for the City of Indianapolis, said the participants were, “a bunch of teams that all play together often, and are all a part of mentoring or other community organizations… We really wanted to highlight those teams and give them an opportunity to play on such a big stage.”
The event was part of the city’s violence reduction strategy.
“Communities that have meetings, communities that have parks or opportunities for each other just to gather with each other, also have reduced violence,” Hoskins said. “Community builds peace.”
The teams were coached by people like Chauncey Anderson, a life coach who works with young adults to help them become productive citizens.
“My team got knocked out early, I’m kinda in my feelings about that,” Anderson said, smiling. “But they did (well), they held the fort down. And at the end of the day, they showed good sportsmanship and they just linked up with some people that they didn’t know prior to this. So it was a win.”
For those not interested in hoops, the other side of the basketball court had games like cornhole and Giant Jenga. Nearby, workers gave out free snow cones to offer relief from the sweltering heat. There were also opportunities to sign up for free programs to build skills, like conflict resolution.
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