Going Back Backstage

As previously mentioned, on last year's vacation, we took the Casino backstage tour again. The first time we'd taken the tour was on our 2013 vacation. Once again, here's a remix picture of the outside as a line drawing!!!

I likely could have made a post about just the tour on the previous trip, but never did. I remember our guide on that particular tour was a girl named Porsche that my wife really liked. The closest I did was the years later tale of the Chime Tower post, which I first heard on that particular tour.

As outside, so is it inside!!! A beautiful building, with fine construction. The ground floor houses the theater, which is a work of art. It is also nearly acoustically perfect, and on the tour it was mentioned that it was measured to use the same geometry for some other auditorium, possibly Carnegie Hall or maybe Radio City Music Hall.

Murals adorn the walls, and the ceiling is adorned with gold leaf.

Centered at the top of the stage is a depiction of Botticelli's Venus, our guide noted that the designer had depicted her as a redhead!!!

The construction was right around the time of the transition from silent movies to the talkies, so naturally an organ was included. It's being worked on currently.

Our tour guide had pointed out from the theater the private suite of William Wrigley Jr., but noted that he generally preferred to be out mingling with the guests. This is the view from his suite.

This was also during the big band era, and there were several posters of bands that had preformed there.

The projection room featured several generations of projectors, from arc light projectors to digital projectors. This was our tour guide, I don't remember his name, but it might have been Tom. He did a great job. The wall behind him has several people that have signed their names. Most of them, he said, you probably don't know, but prominently in the middle was the signature of Stan Lee!!!

There were displays with several vintage pictures of the area, and construction of the Casino, as well as the original structure that was there.

On the top floor, the world's largest round dance floor!!! Something new that they're doing now, they've re-purposed it as a skating rink!!! There's a spinning ordainment in the middle of the ceiling that Surrogate wanted to get underneath and take a picture of. There weren't too many people skating up there, and I told him he probably could just stride out there like he was supposed to be there, lay down and get his picture and no one would give him any trouble!!!

The tour finished up on the outside promenade. Our guide was fielding any questions, and I asked him if he was familiar with the story of the Chime Tower, and why the ramps were no longer carpeted. He wasn't, and I was able to relate the story as I had been told on our previous tour.

After the tour was over, we worked our way down to the next level where the restrooms are located. They had this nice bar area, where they had a video playing about the old days of Avalon and the Casino.

And as teased in the previous post, the selfie in the restroom mirror!!!