There is a timeless tranquillity to the lobby of the Auditorium Theatre when no one is there. But very many people were there Tuesday afternoon. There were some security folks and many workmen rigging tons of equipment that will revamp the theater for the television broadcast of the National Football League’s 2015 draft that begins Thursday and runs through Saturday, making millionaires of kids, geniuses or idiots of scouts and coaches, and putting smiles or scowls on the faces of fans.
Already street closures have begun, and the attendant headaches. Nearby Grant Park is being transformed into something called Draft Town, an outdoor interactive football fan festival as the actual draft takes place inside the Auditorium. Those seeing the theater on television might actually be compelled to put down their beers and stop their bitching long enough to allow themselves to be wowed by the setting. It is, as Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin has put it, “one of America’s most stirring spaces.”
Off toward the back of the lobby in that stirring space stood two people who are on the theater’s staff. Kevin Fitzpatrick, the director of development, is an ardent football fan, and he was saying, “I think I may be more excited than Judie” — Judie being Judie Moore Green, chief development officer, who then said, “There are going to be some 50 million people seeing the theater on TV. Now, that’s exciting.”
They were standing near the newest addition to the theater, the month-old Memory Wall, which consists of two glass cabinets in which are plaques of various sizes for which people have paid to have their memories immortalized.
A couple of years ago, with the building’s 125th anniversary looming in 2014, Green and Fitzpatrick, along with Executive Director Brett Batterson, were brainstorming ideas to help raise funds for the not-for-profit institution.
“We have been a lot of things to a lot of people,” said Fitzpatrick.
“We mean something to history and architecture lovers, fans of ballet, people who attend church services here, plays, theater, rock shows,” said Green.
So with Fitzpatrick leading the way, they decided on the idea for the Memory Wall. It is a lovely and evocative addition to the building. It contains 48 9-by-9-inch spaces for a $1,000 (tax deductible donation), 20 12-by-9 spaces ($5,000) and six 18-by-12 spots ($10,000). Twelve of the spots have been filled, with three more on the way. And Green and Fitzpatrick are confident all cabinets will eventually be filled with varied memories.
Fitzpatrick calls the wall, “An evolving monument to artistic experience.”
There are a lot of memories to be had — since it’s estimated that some 20 million people have seen an event at the theater — as noted by donor Gail Beedie’s contribution to the Memory Wall: “I will always remember dancing to the music of Jefferson Airplane with Grace Slick (woman rock star extraordinaire!).”
A building is not, of course, a living thing. But the Auditorium Theatre was born on Dec. 9, 1889, with a glittering night and 5,000 “notable” Chicagoans and “Home Sweet Home” sung by Adelina Patti. The shows kept coming, and coming, until the theater went bankrupt and closed in 1941.
The next year it was taken over by the City of Chicago and used as a World War II servicemen’s center, its stage and front rows converted to a bowling alley. In 1946 Roosevelt University acquired the building, but with no money for renovation kept the theater dormant for nearly two decades.
In 1963, Beatrice Spachner (a sculpture of whom sits between the glass cabinets of the Memory Wall) created the Auditorium Theatre Council and raised nearly $3 million to bring it back to life, with architect Harry Weese overseeing the rebirth. It reopened on Oct. 31, 1967, with a performance by the New York City Ballet.
The first NFL draft was held in 1936. Few noticed through the decades as it took place in cities across the country, and here at such local spots as the Sherman House, Blackstone and Palmer House hotels. For three years in the early 1960s it was held in what is now the Hotel-Intercontinental but was then the Sheraton Hotel.
The draft was no big deal because there was no Super Bowl, no “Monday Night Football,” no multimillion-dollar contracts, no ESPN with its hype-hoopla proclivities, no NFL Network. The first draft choice in 1964 was Dave Parks, a receiver out of what is now Texas Tech; he played for the San Francisco 49ers, New Orleans Saints and Houston Oilers. He called it quits in 1973.
The Bears, NFL Champs in 1963, selected last in the 1964 draft and picked Dick Evey, a 6-foot-4, 245-pound offensive/defensive tackle from Tennessee. He played in 82 games for the team through 1969 and a few games after that with other teams. He quit in 1972 and he died in 2013 at the age of 72. He had been one of the first recipients of “The 88 Plan,” a fund administered by the NFL to financially help former players with dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, ALS or Parkinson’s disease.
“He left nothing in the tank,” Bears teammate Ed O’Bradovich said at the time of his death. “He gave it everything he had, every play, every game. He was a good Bear, a damn good football player.”
Roosevelt University does not have a football team, but perhaps some of the thousands who visit its Auditorium Theatre for the draft will appreciate its stewardship of the building. Perhaps some will have memories that they would like to share on the wall. You can be sure that something along the lines of “What a beautiful building … just majestic” would be preferable to “It was a blast. Cool theater. But why the hell did the Bears draft so-and-so in the fourth round and not so-and-so?”
Buildings come and go. We barely notice. But the city always carries on. Just below its ever-changing surface Chicago can be at once familiar and unexpected. And so, we do our part to celebrate what remains, to partake of events and circuses. The Auditorium is a portrait in endurance, prevailing over time and circumstances. NFL draft choices go bust, of course, but the Auditorium is a welcome reminder in a turbulent time that not everything goes up in smoke or tumbles into rubble, or tears an Achilles on the way to stardom.
“After Hours With Rick Kogan” airs 9-11 p.m. Sundays on WGN-AM 720.
rkogan@tribune.com Twitter @rickkogan
