• Loews 34th Street & Loews Orpheum 7

  Near Eighth Avenue (Loews 34th Street) & 1538 Third Avenue ( Loews Orpheum 7)

  Just as the lights dim in a recent showing of Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights, an infant cries out to be fed. Yet not a single person in the audience does the “shush” thing, or the angry glare. It’s one of the regular showings of Reel Moms, where parents bring their babies to first-run films and the theater is set up to accommodate them. Inglesinas, Eddie Bauers, and Kolcrafts are parked in the lobby, and there’s even live entertainment before the movie. Inside the theater, it’s never pitch-black: The folks at Loews and UrbanBaby.com, the program’s sponsor, know that parents still need to keep an eye on Junior, even if he’s napping. Marketers of all things baby have caught on as well and have been setting up booths for sample giveaways. “I’m hoping that they start showing some indies and foreign films,” says mom Catherine Hoffman. “That may be harder, though, because we would actually have to watch the screen.”

From the 2004 Best of New York issue of New York Magazine