McVicker's
"I took the chance of getting into a line moving rapidly at the McVickers where there was a Garbo picture, and inside the thick red cords that looped off in-going and departing crowds, and in the lobby, which was like an apartment Cagliostro and Seraphina had laid out to fuddle the court and royalty, I was out of danger for the time."
Chicago's vaudeville theater culture comes alive in Augie March. Shows at the Cort Theatre, Oriental Theatre and McVickers are just a few that are mentioned in the novel. The first McVickers Theater was built on Madison Street in 1857, but the original building burned down in the Chicago Fire of 1871. It was rebuilt several times between 1872 and 1922, always in the same location. The theater featured live shows and, later, became primarily a movie theater.
McVickers was demolished in 1985, but you can see a view of the theater in this photo dated 1929 from the Chicago Historical Society.
