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Jimmy Greenfield -- Chicago RedEye -- May 10, 2006 William Houston and Beatriz Jara stood in line to see "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" for about 20 hours. Olivia Swider stood in line for about 90 minutes. They all got in. In fact, everybody got in. Not only did everybody who stood in line on Tuesday get in to see the first of four "Late Night" shows taping at the Chicago Theatre this week, but as showtime approached, "Late Night" staffers began roaming State Street seeking people to fill seats. "I was just walking down the street, and they asked if I wanted to see Conan," said Swider, 18, a freshman at the School of the Art Institute. "I wasn't going to see it because I thought I would have to wait in line for hours." That's what Houston, 24, of Lincoln Park and Jara, 20, of Lakeview thought. They were first in the standby ticket line at the southwest corner of Lake and State Streets at 8:30 p.m. Monday night, about eight hours before the next people showed up, they said. They brought folding chairs, sleeping bags, water, books, movies and even parked their car close enough to stash everything away before going into the show. They overlooked one thing: birds. "I would recommend in the future if you do sit [next to] a building like this, make sure you're under the awning," Houston said. "Because we got pooped on a little bit." Houston and Jara were among hundreds of anxious Conan fans gathered on opposite street corners Tuesday morning, several hours before the show began. By the afternoon, there were more than 3,000 people in both lines. The standby line reached about 200 people by 10:30 a.m. and stayed around that size throughout the day, according to people in line. Any seats available after tickets were given to people with e-mail reservations and VIPs went to people in the standby line, which stretched about a half-block down Lake Street. The general admission line, which began forming at the northeast corner of Lake and State Streets around 9 a.m., was for people who had received e-mail ticket reservations. According to an NBC staffer, approximately 3,000 people from this line were seated, and 250 from the standby line were let in when the doors opened at 3:45 p.m. Audience members continued to filter in after the show started. The Chicago Theatre seats approximately 3,800. "We hate those people over there," said Houston, pointing to the general admission line. "They all come up and ask, 'where's the line if you actually have tickets?' We're the true fans, and they just happened to get lucky." Across the street, Mo Gannon, 33, and Joe Gannon, 30, of Virgil, Ill., might dispute that they aren't true fans. They took the 4:48 a.m. train in from Elburn to get in line and arrived around 7 a.m. Joe Gannon said they were not allowed to start standing in line until 9 a.m. "If we're going to take the day off to get in there, we better make sure we get in," Mo Gannon said. With everybody in line getting in Tuesday, there could be a lot more people taking days off this week. |