The Chicago Theatre

This guide to The Chicago Theatre traces its origins to a Maxwell Street grocery stall, where Gussie Balaban taught her sons a theory about paying customers who couldn't ask for refunds. You'll hear how that grocer's instinct, carried by her son Barney and the Balaban and Katz chain, shaped the flagship they built on State Street in 1921. The guide walks you through the five-story lobby modeled on a European royal chapel, built to astonish crowds who had never seen anything like it. Look up at the marquee before you go inside.