Perhaps they had just acquired the land for the temple in the 70’s and that’s why they were advertising. The way building permits go in NYC a 15 year completion date would make sense.
I’ve never met a NY Mormon in my life. Leads me to wonder if the people attending the NYC temple are Mormon tourists.
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I know they didn’t aquire the land until the 1990’s - I remember reading about when they bought it. It is not impossible, but is unusual to go to other temples, most Mormons go to the temple nearest them. I know there are several wards (congregations) in NYC and a friend’s son served his LDS mission there. There are NYC Mormons, probably mostly those who work on Wall Street.
I asked my husband if he remembered the commercials and he did. He said the LDS had a store front reading room in the Lincoln Center area at that time and the commercials were for that.