London Smog Closed Movie Theaters

The famous "London Fog" of Victorian novels was not merely natural weather. Smoke from soft bituminous coal burned in homes and industry mixed with ordinary fog and became trapped beneath still air, producing the thick, toxic "pea-soupers" that plagued the city. The five-day Great Smog of December 1952 became so dense that cinemas closed because audiences could not see the screen from the fourth row. The disaster killed thousands and helped bring about the Clean Air Act of 1956.

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