Promo from 1940 reminded people that they could enjoy air conditioning at this theatre

Originally published at: Promo from 1940 reminded people that they could enjoy air conditioning at this theatre | Boing Boing

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Cool!

The history of air conditioning is interesting (to me, anyway). The technology started as humidity control for printing presses, bc otherwise the paper would get all weird. Then they noticed all the workers would take their lunch breaks in the rooms with ac.
The first businesses to take it commercial/public facing were theaters bc they had the economic justification to be early adopters, since it would draw in more paying customers. Neat little bit of building tech history.

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I recall once seeing a movie in an UN-airconditioned theater in the Summer. It was unpleasant.

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in the Before Times, since we don’t have air conditioning in our house, going to a movie in July was our way to beat the heat. Maybe next summer we’ll be able to do it again.

AC is very uncommon in regular homes here in Tijuana, and we’re having a heat wave this summer. I’d love to be in a frigid auditorium right now.

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Having grown up in El Centro, CA I can tell you that an air conditioned theatre was a huge draw as late at 1970 (when, thankfully we moved away from that hellish heat).

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I have been there for a week once. Can concur about the hellish heat.

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I imagine having AC was also one of the major draws of the indoor shopping mall.

More broadly, climate control was the big draw. ISTR that the first indoor shopping mall was in Minnesota.

yup

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