History

Many Americans experienced air conditioning for the first time in theaters as owners struggled to revive summer business that always slumped as temperatures rose.

"The cooling plant is revolutionizing picture show attendance in Houston!" said Will Horowitz, Jr., the Texas theater owner who asked Carrier to air condition The Palace, the Texan and the Iris theaters in 1924. "Patrons exclaim with delight when they get inside the doorway."

The Rivoli in 1925

As Willis Carrier said, though, the acid test came when the young company was asked to air condition the famed Rivoli Theater in New York. The Rivoli's "cool comfort" was heavily advertised and block-long lines formed early on Memorial Day 1925 — nearly every patron was carrying cardboard fans, just in case. The film that night was soon forgotten, but not the appeal of air conditioning. Summer film business boomed and by 1930, the 300 theaters Carrier had air conditioned were showing Americans they no longer had to settle for stifling indoor environments.

( top of page | continued )