The Lobby Bar at Second City

Jim Newberry

The Lobby Bar at Second City

Chicago doesn’t have a full-fledged theater museum—though it should—but the lobby bar at Second City comes close. For nearly 50 years the theater has served as a training ground and launching pad for actors and comics, and the cabaret’s wall-to-wall array of archival photographs chronicle some essential Chicago history. The youthful images of familiar faces are fascinating. Was John Candy ever that thin? Did Bill Murray really have such long hair? Is that what Joan Rivers looked like before all her face-lifts? Other notables whose pictures adorn this rogues’ gallery: Mike Myers, Stephen Colbert, Alan Arkin, Peter Boyle, Mike Nichols and Elaine May, Tina Fey, Rachel Dratch, John and Jim Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Gilda Radner, Harold Ramis, George Wendt, Horatio Sanz, Chris Farley, Tim Meadows, Steve Carell, Amy Sedaris, Amy Poehler, Dan Castellaneta, and many more. Also on view are caricatures of cast members by local artist Bill Utterback, Second City’s own Hirschfeld since 1976. The lobby and box office open daily at 9 AM (Sundays at 11 AM); the bar starts serving at 6:30 PM.
1616 N. Wells, 312-337-3992, secondcity.com. —Albert Williams

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