Cathy Kightlinger, features writer for the Indy Star, reports on a recent “Manhattan-comes-to-Indianapolis” event:

When four-time Grammy nominee Michael Feinstein is in town, party planners go to work.

Feinstein was in Indianapolis last weekend for his Carmel foundation’s inaugural Great American Songbook competition. The vocal contest, which took place at Butler University, encourages high school students to embrace American Broadway, Hollywood and Tin Pan Alley-era music from the 1920s to the 1960s.

…

Feinstein spent time the next day at a dinner and reception with some of his foundation’s donors at the former home of Booth Tarkington on Meridian Street. Former Marion County Clerk Doris Anne Sadler, who serves as executive director of Feinstein’s foundation, bought the house last year with her husband, Tim.

So far, I’ve yet to actually meet someone from Indianapolis who knows anything at all about Booth Tarkington, so it’s refreshing to run across the occasional Tark article in the Star.  I’ve found it particularly interesting to track Sadler’s progress in restoring Tarkington’s home to its former, shall we say, luster, even though I’m no big fan of celebrity worship.