A starring role

It's been years since she played the part, and she wasn't the first choice of movie scouts.

But when cameras roll, she can look the part by putting on as good a facade as any in the business.

For her age, she looks great. But standing next to Johnny Depp, a little touch-up can never hurt.

There are no speaking lines in her role for the film "Public Enemies," but it's the first time an agent has called with a juicy part like a bank heist.

Being the big, local star in a Hollywood production definitely has its perks, including instant fame as fans point and take photographs.

But soon the movie crew will leave and she will go back to her normal self in Columbus. But for a moment, the old First National Bank is ready for her close-up.

The only question is, can she look like she's from Indiana?

With a Hollywood A-list heading to Wisconsin for the new Michael Mann film, the local star of the movie may be an old bank.

"It's the opportunity of a lifetime," said Todd Frey, who owns the former First National Bank building in downtown Columbus that now houses the West James Gallery. "We will never see another (opportunity) like this again."

While Frey will not be in the movie himself, it's almost like a close friend will be. And though John Dillinger never robbed a bank in Columbus, both bank buildings on James Street have stories to tell.

First National

Grasping the steel vault door, Frey pulled it closed halfway.

It's been decades since there has been any money inside this concrete room, but it's one of the few things left from the bank's past.

"We did discover another vault buried away," he said. "The building was originally two buildings."

When The First National Bank in Columbus opened in 1863, its holdings totaled a little more than $45,000. Reuben W. Chadbourn had come to Wisconsin from Maine and founded the bank in the city's downtown. His family would carry on as leaders of the bank for more than 75 years.

When the bank opened, Columbus was a village of 800 inhabitants and seven stores, according to a 75th anniversary brochure about the bank that was printed in 1938.

In the early 1860s, banks didn't have working capital and almost all of them owned bonds of different states, which were used as security. When the Civil War broke out, those bonds declined and many banks closed. There were even bank riots in Milwaukee.

The year First National Bank opened in Columbus, Congress pushed through banking laws, and from that year on, it never closed during banking hours except in 1933 when the government ordered all banks closed for a day to stop large withdrawals because of fear.

The exterior of the bank when it opened looked different than it does today. Frey said the current facade was put on in the 1920s, and the floor inside is still the same from that era.

In the film, Frey's building will be the Central National Bank in Greencastle, Ind., which Dillinger robbed $75,000 from Oct. 23, 1933.

Had Dillinger decided to rob the First National in Columbus, its holdings at that time totaled almost $2 million.

A second life

Walking into the old First National Bank, it's hard to tell it had another life outside of a gift shop.

"It was a bank up until the '70s when the First National Bank built a new building and moved out," Frey said. "It was used for a variety of things after that."

With no presence in the city's downtown, the bank eventually moved back in for about a decade, Frey said, but then moved for good.

"The bank still owned the building at that time, and (it) had fallen into disrepair."

By the time Frey purchased it in the late '90s from the Main Street program, it had been stripped of its teller windows and its furnishings — even the vault's locks were taken.

After renovating the entire downstairs, a retail store opened in the old building that held a carriage theme, giving a nod to Frey's business, Colonial Carriage Works in Columbus. The upstairs, which had been offices, were turned into residential units.

But the exterior of the bank still has the look of a classic building from the Depression era in which Dillinger did his work.

The Secret

John Pratt was the first person Universal Studios contacted in Columbus because of the unique look of the Farmers and Merchants Union Bank.

Pratt, the vice president of the bank, said Columbus will play the part of three different towns in the movie.

The Merchants Bank has played a role in Pratt's family dating all the way back to his grandfather, who was on the board in the 1920s.

Although the business goes back to 1861 when it was started by John Wheeler, the current bank has no resemblance to its original look. The new bank was designed by famed architect Louis Sullivan who called it his "jewel box," and it was completed in 1919.

The Merchants Bank has such unique architecture that the Guggenheim Foundation had it photographed in the 1950s, the same decade a play was written about its creation.

While there was interest in the Merchants Bank from Universal for "Public Enemies," attention soon turned to Frey's bank building. Pratt said the lobby of the Merchants may be too narrow for inside shooting, although he said people from the studio have measured an old director's room in the building that could be used.

About 90 percent of the building has kept its original look, Frey said. And part of the bank may still make the movie.

"We believe that part of our new addition will be used," he said.

As Universal looked to Columbus, downtown business owners kept the contacts with Hollywood to themselves.

"We kept it a secret for a long time," Frey said. "They had architectural drawings of every building downtown before it hit the paper," he said. "It was a fun little secret to keep."

But Pratt didn't keep it a secret from his family.

"I have three teenage daughters that think it's cool Johnny Depp is coming to town," he said.

And just who comes to town has remained a secret, but Frey said Depp and Christian Bale, the "Batman" actor who will play an FBI agent hunting Dillinger, definitely will be in Columbus.

"We were told that the entire cast will definitely be here," he said.

A robbery

While Dillinger made an art form of robbing banks, Wisconsin was more of a hideout than his prey.

But just before the Depression-era robberies, Columbus may have been the victim of thieves.

"This location has never experienced a robbery," Pratt said with a nervous laugh, not wanting to encourage anyone. But he said through old family stories he believes the other bank, the old First National, was robbed. And the lore says they got away by throwing tacks down on the road.

While he didn't try out to be an extra in the film, Frey says he is thrilled to just watch the process. And he can feel part of the movie because he owns several properties in the downtown, and more than one may appear in the film.

He said since he was a child, the downtown in Columbus has changed a lot. And it's now making another metamorphosis.

"This place is going to be magically transformed into a new town," he said, adding that it will be up to downtown business owners to keep fans coming to the town long after crews have left.

"The residual benefits will depend on us."