History of Chicago and south branches of the Chicago River, which flows through the city's downtown. The three white stripes represent the North, West and South sides of the city, Lake Michigan being the east side. The most famous and serious disaster was the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. On December 30, 1903 the "absolutely fireproof", five-week-old Iroquois Theater was engulfed by fire. The fire lasted less than thirty minutes; 602 people died as a result of being burned, asphyxiated, or trampled. The S.S. "Eastland" was a cruise ship based in Chicago and used for tours. On 24 July 1915—a calm, sunny day—the
Theater in the United States 14 former legitimate theaters with a normal seating capacity of 16,955, have been taken over for either radio broadcasts or television performances. In the late 1990s and 2000s, American theater began to borrow from cinema and operas. For instance, Julie Taymor, director of "The Lion King" directed "Die Zauberflöte" at the Metropolitan Opera. Also, Broadway musicals were developed around Disney's "Mary Poppins", "Tarzan", "The Little Mermaid", and the one that started it all, "Beauty and the Beast", which may have contributed to Times Square's revitalization in the 1990s. Also, Mel Brooks's "The Producers" and "Young Frankenstein" are based on his