The 405 Aired Sept 15th, 2026

Today O.K. talks about what it was like before there was air conditioning. 

What is The 405 Coffee Break with O.K. Solberg?

Greetings and Welcome to The 405 Coffee Break with O.K. Solberg

New episodes tend to air over the local KMMR radio station @ 5 minutes past 4PM each M-F. And have been doing so, nearly every week since Sept 2018.
New episodes appear here usually within a few hours after that KMMR air time and been striving to post new releases here by 4:30PM.

OK Solberg: 00:00

I want to again welcome you to The 405 Coffee Break. Guys, get your cup of coffee, glass iced tea, bottled water, enjoy the cooler weather. Let's see what's happening.

OK Solberg: 00:08

Spring wheat $6.67 per bushel, 550lb steer calf top end, $4.60 a pound, 4-6-0 and a 100lb lamb that's fat in Billings $3 to $3.10 a pound. But guys there's more, much more.

OK Solberg: 00:32

Okay. Okay. Today, let's talk about what happened before there was air conditioning. You and I have it great, like sitting in the shade on a breezy afternoon. But guys, remember, air conditioning was not always available.

OK Solberg: 00:50

But 1st, a bible verse that fits the subject, then on to our story. From Psalm 121 verses 5-6. The Lord is your keeper. The Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day nor the moon by night. Psalm 121:5-6.

OK Solberg: 01:13

Oh, yes. How often have you looked for a shady spot? Now, guys, remember there was a time in America when nobody walked into the house and said, honey, turn the air conditioner down. Why? I'll tell you why because there wasn't one.

OK Solberg: 01:30

So you have to ask, how did people survive summer? And that's a good question. Back then they designed their lives around the heat, they really did. Homes were built to catch the prevailing breezes, windows and doors were positioned for cross ventilation, Porches and verandas became outdoor living rooms.

OK Solberg: 01:55

High ceilings helped hot air rise and in some hot humid areas houses were even elevated to encourage air movement. And then and then there was a summer kitchen. Cooking over a wood fire in July wasn't exactly a recipe for comfort. So many families had a separate kitchen building.

OK Solberg: 02:21

The cooking could be done outside the main house keeping all that heat from turning the kitchen into an oven. Now people ate on the porch, they visited on the porch, they slept sometimes on the porch or wherever they could catch a breeze.

OK Solberg: 02:38

But guys listen to this. There was another place people discovered during the hot summer months. Believe it or not, in the big cities, the cool place to go was, dun dun dun dun, the picture show, the movie theater.

OK Solberg: 02:54

Early movie theaters could be miserable places in the summer. They were dark, and closed crowded and without modern cooling they would become hot stuffy and unbearable and some theaters even closed during the summer because attendance dropped.

OK Solberg: 03:12

Then mechanical refrigeration changed the equation. In 1917, an early air conditioned movie theater appeared in Montgomery, Alabama. And in 1925, Willis Carrier installed a refrigeration system in one of New York City's theaters.

OK Solberg: 03:36

That changed the movie business because suddenly the theater wasn't just a place to watch a movie. Uh-uh. It was a place to get cool. Think about that for a minute. You walk down a hot, dusty street sweating through your shirt, and then you open the doors of the movie theater and there it is.

OK Solberg: 03:58

Boom. Cool air. Cool air like a gift from heaven. You didn't have to own an air conditioner. You didn't even have to have one in your house. You could simply buy a movie ticket. It's movie theater ticket. The movie came with air conditioning.

OK Solberg: 04:17

The Smithsonian has noted that movie theaters helped introduce cooled air to the general public and theater advertising actually promoted cool temperatures as a reason to come inside. So in the 1920's and beyond, movie theaters really were cool places to go.

OK Solberg: 04:39

Cool because the temperature was lower and pretty cool because you got to watch a movie while you were cooling off. There's even a wonderful photograph taken in 1940 of the Monroe Theater in Chicago, Illinois.

OK Solberg: 04:55

Outside the theater was a giant polar bear. Picture of a polar bear surrounded by blocks of ice and fake snow. And the sign said, it's cool inside. They weren't just selling a movie, they were selling people relief.

OK Solberg: 05:13

Just imagine someone standing outside in the blazing summer heat walking into that theater must have felt almost like jumping into a lake.

OK Solberg: 05:23

You got 2 hours of darkness, a movie, and something that has become almost magical in America, air conditioning. Yep, guys. So before central air, American Americans had high ceilings, open windows, shaded porches, summer kitchens, and whatever breeze mother nature was willing to provide.

OK Solberg: 05:47

But when the thermometer climbed and the picture show opened its doors, well you could buy yourself 2 hours of something almost unheard of, a movie and a cool place to watch it.

OK Solberg: 06:01

Sometimes, back then, the biggest attraction at the movie theater wasn't what was happening on the screen. Oh, no. The big attraction was the temperature. And guys, I just thought you'd like to know.

OK Solberg: 06:17

So until next time, as you go out there, remember now, don't be bitter.