“You know the saying ‘If these walls could talk’?” Javier Ayala asks. “Well, I think these walls do sort of talk.” He’s climbing the stairs that lead to the stage-left dressing rooms of the Chicago Theatre, where he’s manager of administration and tour operations. Every square inch of this stairwell and its stage-right twin is covered with the signatures of stars who’ve performed on the stage that, on this weekday morning, sits dark and quiet a few feet away. A staff member of the theater for 15 years, Ayala estimates the place contains some 10,000 autographs.
As with most wall scrawl, there are some lewd gestures, including a few penis doodles. But that doesn’t bother Ayala so much. “My biggest beef is when people write over other people,” he says. “Like here’s a terrific Sammy Davis Jr., and then some person wrote over it! They probably didn’t even know who he was.”
