November 17, 1965 – McCormick Place celebrates its fifth birthday as the
building’s general manager, Edward J. Lee, announces that 17,013,515 people
have been through the facility since it first opened its doors. Events open to the public account for 41.8
per cent of the attendance while commercial, industrial, trade and professional
shows account for 32.3 per cent. The
exhibition hall’s Arie Crown Theater did not open until the spring of 1961, but
it still drew 2,174,510 people. The largest attendance for any one event in the
hall was for the Billy Graham Greater Chicago Crusade in 1962, which drew
44,840 people. Also notable was the
first stockholders’ meeting ever held outside of New York City for the American
Telephone and Telegraph Company in April of 1961. On that occasion 18,458 stockholders attended
the annual event, and each of them was served lunch. It would be only 14 months before two-thirds
of the great convention hall on the lake would be destroyed in less than 45
minutes in a devastating fire.
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