In 1925, Willis Carrier installed his new air conditioning machines in the Rivoli Theatre in New York’s Times Square. Movie fans and the merely over-heated swarmed the theatre regardless of what was showing to escape the oppressive New York summer.
Between 1925 and 1930, Carrier installed air conditioning in three hundred movie theaters across the county. The era of “chillin’ at the cinema” was born!
By 1926, the Mark Strand Theatre on 47th and Broadway was one of the growing number of movie houses offering man-made weather to revive wilting audiences and expand their owners’ revenues. Thank goodness the The Strand was chilled for the premiere of Rudolph Valentino‘s Son of the Sheik. Rudy’s infamous love scenes were enough to get anyone hot and bothered.
Ordinary People - Extraordinary Times 