Summer Photo Archives - LIFE

A Summer-Ending, Hand-Harvested Seafood Soiree

Bill Syken — Mon, 31 Jul 2023 16:08:22 +0000

Who doesn’t want to finish the summer in style? If that was the goal of these Santa Monica lifeguards and their friends, then mission accomplished. The party captured by LIFE photographer Peter Stackpole certainly looks like grand old time, especially because these lifeguards pulled their lunch straight from the ocean.

The story that ran in the Nov. 18, 1940 issue was titled “LIFE Goes to a Lifeguard Party.” The lifeguards and their friends sailed a short ways north to Point Dume for the day, but the story drew on the glamor of their Santa Monica origins, talking about how these young men were responsible for protecting Cary Grant, Norma Shearer, Marion Davies and other movie stars who had beach homes in their territory. The lifeguards were at least connected enough to borrow a boat for their party from actor Arthur Lake, best known for playing Dagwood in the Blondie movies based on the popular comic strip. LIFE’s story described the female party guests as “Aquabelles from the San Francisco Fair,” which seems to reference to a show called Aquacade that had been popular around the country and had set up shop in San Francisco that summer.

A highlight of this lifeguard party was when they took Lake’s boat out, dropped anchor, and began to forage in the Pacific. Here’s how LIFE described the scene:

Diving for abalone, lobster and octopus in beds of entangling kelp is a hazardous sport, hence the Aquabelles stayed on the paddling boards, spotted game by peering into the depths through gas masks (used professionally by the guards when searching for drowning victims) and let their expert hosts do the underwater work….Boys dived for abalone and for spiny lobsters which they captured by grabbing their feelers, yanking them out of their holes. Soon they had enough for lunch.

After securing their catches, the lifeguards went to the shore to boil the seafood and then returned to their sloop to dine.

After eating, they took their boat home to Santa Monica and despite the fine day there was a wistful feeling about summer coming to an end. LIFE’s story closed on this note: “As they sailed home through the slashing sunlight, they realized with quick regret that the day had been brief, the hot golden summer finally fled. Soon winter’s fogs would billow over empty beaches from the sea.”

Santa Monica lifeguards partied at the end of their season, California, 1940.

Peter Stackpole/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Scene from a season-ending party for Santa Monica lifeguards, 1940.

Peter Stackpole/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Paddlers gathered over a bed of kelp where they hoped to find lobsters and abalone for the Santa Monica lifeguards’ season-ending party, 1940..

Peter Stackpole/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A member of a lifeguard’s party dove for abalone that would be part of their end-of-summer seafood feast, California, 1940.

Peter Stackpole/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The octopus was among the catches of the day for the season-ending party for Santa Monica lifeguards, 1940.

Peter Stackpole/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A member of the lifeguard party killed a recently-caught octopus by biting its head, Santa Monica, California, 1940.

Peter Stackpole/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Part of the freshly caught lunch at a season-ending party for Santa Monica lifeguards, 1940.

Peter Stackpole/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The seafood that had been pulled from the water was cooked on land and then taken back aboard their boat during the Santa Monica lifeguards’ season-closing party, 1940.

Peter Stackpole/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Santa Monica lifeguards relaxed after an on-boat lunch of freshly caught seafood during their season-ending party, 1940.

Peter Stackpole/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Santa Monica lifeguards and their guests relaxed after lunch aboard a boat at their season-ending party, 1940.

Peter Stackpole/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Santa Monica lifeguards sailed home from Point Dume at the close of their season-ending party, 1940.

Peter Stackpole/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The post A Summer-Ending, Hand-Harvested Seafood Soiree appeared first on LIFE.

Vacation’s End: Classic Photos of Late-Summer Cape Cod

Fri, 15 Aug 2014 17:49:17 +0000

In early September 1946, LIFE magazine published a cover story that, in words and especially in pictures, perfectly captured the unique, sweet, melancholy feel of summer vacation’s end. That the article focused, as LIFE put it, on “the first postwar summer vacation” of the 1940s somehow added if only in retrospect a quiet intensity to the story. All these years later, the pictures and the story itself remind us of just how fleeting the peaceful, hot days and long, cool nights of late summer really are.

As LIFE put it in that long-ago article:

William and Carol Foster [of Nashua, N.H.], with their sons Karl, 9, and Michael, 4, have spent the summer at Cotuit on Cape Cod, enjoying the lazy and wonderful pastimes of sailing, swimming, digging clams and loafing. Now they and their summer neighbors are going home. Boats will be hauled out of the water to lie forlornly in the tall beach grass. Cottages will be boarded up. The clam bar and dance pavilion will be deserted. The golf course, the tidal pool and the lonely sea beach will again revert to the rabbits, the fiddler crabs and the sandpipers.

Labor Day is here. A month ago it seemed hazy and remote, separated from the present by an endless succession of golden summer days. Now, suddenly, these days are changed and gone. The mornings are still the same. It is still hot and fragrant in the cranberry bogs, hot on the white shell roads, hot on the beaches and in the village streets, with everywhere the strong smell of pine, bay leaves and salt water. It is the afternoons and nights that are different. It gets dark early, and cold. Heavy fogs often roll in from Martha’s Vineyard and the late swim is a shivery business, made enjoyable only by the quick warmth of the picnic fire. In the evenings, going to the movies, the fog is wet in the streets. All night long the in the harbor rings a steady accompaniment to the remote blasts from the lightship out in the Sound.

These are sad and disturbing days. Everything is being seen for the last time, everything done for the last time. The last clam is eaten. The last bag is packed, the cottage door locked. . . . Down on the steamboat wharf at Woods Hole the last passenger gets off the Nantucket boat and joins the crowd of departing vacationists from the Cape, pushing to board the train. . . . Walking across the station platform, they catch a last glimpse of the white gulls turning in the sun and nets drying in the fishing boats, take a last deep breath of salt air before they are swallowed up in the incalculable stuffiness of the Pullman. Another summer on the Cape is gone.

Finally, note that most of the Cornell Capa photos in the gallery above never ran in LIFE. A dozen or so photos at the end of the gallery are those that appeared in the magazine in 1946.

Caption from LIFE. "Michael Foster, 4, and his friend Marcia Perry, 5, spend the summer among the sand dunes of Cape Cod, at Contuit."" caption="Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Cape Cod Vacation 1946" src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/08/140820-cape-cod-capa-01.jpg" alt="" />

Cape Cod Vacation 1946

Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Summer vacation, Cape Cod, 1946." caption="Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Cape Cod Vacation 1946" src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/08/140820-cape-cod-capa-02.jpg" alt="115726650.jpg" />

Cape Cod Vacation 1946

Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Digging clams, Cape Cod, 1946." caption="Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Cape Cod Vacation 1946" src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/08/140820-cape-cod-capa-03.jpg" alt="" />

Cape Cod Vacation 1946

Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Summer vacation, Cape Cod, 1946." caption="Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Cape Cod Vacation 1946" src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/08/140820-cape-cod-capa-04.jpg" alt="" />

Cape Cod Vacation 1946

Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Summer vacation, Cape Cod, 1946." caption="Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Cape Cod Vacation 1946" src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/08/140820-cape-cod-capa-05-1024x662.jpg" alt="" />

Cape Cod Vacation 1946

Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Summer vacation, Cape Cod, 1946." caption="Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Cape Cod Vacation 1946" src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/08/140820-cape-cod-capa-06-1024x662.jpg" alt="" />

Cape Cod Vacation 1946

Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Summer vacation, Cape Cod, 1946." caption="Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Cape Cod Vacation 1946" src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/08/140820-cape-cod-capa-07.jpg" alt="" />

Cape Cod Vacation 1946

Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Summer vacation, Cape Cod, 1946." caption="Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Cape Cod Vacation 1946" src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/08/140820-cape-cod-capa-08.jpg" alt="" />

Cape Cod Vacation 1946

Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Young boys outside a sandwich shop, Cape Cod, summer 1946." caption="Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Cape Cod Vacation 1946" src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/08/140820-cape-cod-capa-09.jpg" alt="" />

Cape Cod Vacation 1946

Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Reading comics, Cape Cod, 1946." caption="Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Cape Cod Vacation 1946" src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/08/140820-cape-cod-capa-10.jpg" alt="" />

Cape Cod Vacation 1946

Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Summer vacation, Cape Cod, 1946." caption="Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Cape Cod Vacation 1946" src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/08/140820-cape-cod-capa-11.jpg" alt="" />

Cape Cod Vacation 1946

Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Summer vacation, Cape Cod, 1946." caption="Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Cape Cod Vacation 1946" src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/08/140820-cape-cod-capa-12-1024x662.jpg" alt="" />

Cape Cod Vacation 1946

Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Summer vacation, Cape Cod, 1946." caption="Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Cape Cod Vacation 1946" src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/08/140820-cape-cod-capa-13.jpg" alt="" />

Cape Cod Vacation 1946

Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Summer ice cream on the screened-in porch, Cape Cod, 1946." caption="Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Cape Cod Vacation 1946" src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/08/140820-cape-cod-capa-14.jpg" alt="Summer ice cream on the screened-in porch, Cape Cod, 1946." />

Cape Cod Vacation 1946

Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Summer vacation, Cape Cod, 1946." caption="Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Cape Cod Vacation 1946" src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/08/140820-cape-cod-capa-15-1024x662.jpg" alt="" />

Cape Cod Vacation 1946

Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Summer vacation, Cape Cod, 1946." caption="Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Cape Cod Vacation 1946" src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/08/140820-cape-cod-capa-16.jpg" alt="" />

Cape Cod Vacation 1946

Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Not published in LIFE. Summer vacation, Cape Cod, 1946." caption="Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Cape Cod Vacation 1946" src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/08/140820-cape-cod-capa-17-1024x662.jpg" alt="" />

Cape Cod Vacation 1946

Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Caption from LIFE. Driven by the soft southwest wind, the four Fosters sail on Cotuit Bay in the family's knockabout, "The Sea Dog." " caption="Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Cape Cod Vacation 1946" src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/08/140820-cape-cod-capa-18.jpg" alt="" />

Cape Cod Vacation 1946

Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Caption from LIFE. Mike sight-sees around Cape on the back deck of the family convertible but falls asleep after first few minutes' ride" caption="Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Cape Cod Vacation 1946" src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/08/140820-cape-cod-capa-19-1024x781.jpg" alt="" />

Cape Cod Vacation 1946

Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Caption from LIFE. Mike likes to get up before daybreak and bring in the milk." caption="Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Cape Cod Vacation 1946" src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/08/140820-cape-cod-capa-20.jpg" alt="" />

Cape Cod Vacation 1946

Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Caption from LIFE. Mike, who is fascinated by all the babies in the neighborhood, gawks at the little boy who lives in the cottage next door." caption="Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Cape Cod Vacation 1946" src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/08/140820-cape-cod-capa-21-1024x821.jpg" alt="" />

Cape Cod Vacation 1946

Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Caption from LIFE. Mike and Karl while away long hours fishing in a fresh-water brook. When lucky, they catch a few small herring." caption="Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Cape Cod Vacation 1946" src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/08/140820-cape-cod-capa-22.jpg" alt="" />

Cape Cod Vacation 1946

Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Caption from LIFE. Given a good head start, Karl manages to beat both his parents in a swimming race in Cotuit Bay." caption="Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Cape Cod Vacation 1946" src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/08/140820-cape-cod-capa-23-1024x730.jpg" alt="" />

Cape Cod Vacation 1946

Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Caption from LIFE. Mike beats Marcia Perry, his best girl, in a race down a lane." caption="Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Cape Cod Vacation 1946" src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/08/140820-cape-cod-capa-24.jpg" alt="" />

Cape Cod Vacation 1946

Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Caption from LIFE. On the porch, with boys off playing, the Fosters get some time to themselves. Bill Foster was down weekends and for a two-week vacation." caption="Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Cape Cod Vacation 1946" src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/08/140820-cape-cod-capa-25-1024x768.jpg" alt="" />

Cape Cod Vacation 1946

Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Caption from LIFE. Mike and Karl Foster run to the top of the hill each morning with Fluffy, their dog, to get the paper." caption="Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Cape Cod Vacation 1946" src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/08/140820-cape-cod-capa-26.jpg" alt="" />

Cape Cod Vacation 1946

Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Caption from LIFE. Quiet evenings in the cottage are spent around the fire, which is needed in chill Cape air. Karl sits on floor, reading about Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn attending their own funeral. Mike has stopped painting, which he does well, long enough to listen in on his parents' conversation." caption="Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock" title="Cape Cod Vacation 1946" src="https://static.life.com/wp-content/uploads/migrated/2014/08/140820-cape-cod-capa-28-1024x794.jpg" alt="" />

Cape Cod Vacation 1946

Cornell Capa The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The post Vacation’s End: Classic Photos of Late-Summer Cape Cod appeared first on LIFE.

Two-Piece Be With You: In Praise of the Bikini

Sun, 18 May 2014 19:11:09 +0000

On July 5, 1946, less than a week after the United States detonated an atomic bomb above tiny Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific, a Frenchman named Louis Réard an automobile engineer moonlighting as a fashion designer introduced to the sunbathing public what was billed as the world’s smallest swimsuit. Réard called his creation the bikini a name inspired, he later said, by the sight of women rolling up their bathing suits in order to acquire a more complete tan.

Two-piece swimsuits had, of course, been around for a long, long time before Réard came along. Greek urns and mosaics created more than 3,000 years ago depict women athletes wearing two-piece outfits. But Réard’s genius was to devise a garment, out of as little fabric as possible, that one could still legally wear in public.

He marketed his new fashion brilliantly, as well—pronouncing, for example, that a bathing suit wasn’t a true bikini unless both pieces could be pulled through a wedding ring.

Here, LIFE.com offers a celebration of a bathing staple that, through the years, has enjoyed and endured a dizzying array of permutations while always remaining, unmistakably, itself.

Some of the early photos in this gallery depict two-piece bathing suits that might, at first glance, look like bona fide bikinis—but, in Réard’s eyes, would not fit the bill. After all, can be wearing a genuine bikini if, say, one’s bellybutton is covered by a swath of nylon, no matter how elegant or tasteful that swath might be.

Bikinis are not for everyone. There are, thankfully, as many styles of bathing suit as there are human body types and temperaments. That said, it remains incontestably true that few sights can evoke thoughts of summer’s delights with quite the same visceral punch as the unmistakable silhouette of Monsieur Réard’s ingeniously simple, timeless design.

Model June Pickney, 1960.

Stan Wayman/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Actress Linda Christian in 1945.

Bob Landry/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Sunbathing in France, 1945.

Ralph Morse/ Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Actress Dona Drake playfully took aim with a rifle on the balcony of her Los Angeles home, 1942.

Peter Stackpole/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Model Lynn Jones, 1955.

Peter Stackpole/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

French actress Barbara Lange in a makeshift two-piece bathing suit she cut from one yard of cloth, 1945.

Nina Leen/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Santa Monica, Calif., 1940.

Peter Stackpole/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

This sun bather had creative tattoos, 1941.

Peter Stackpole/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Rita Hayworth at home in Los Angeles, 1945.

Peter Stackpole/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Florida, 1945.

Nina Leen/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Sunbathing in France, 1945.

Ralph Morse/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Beauty pageant winner Jackie Lee Barnes posed poolside in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1949.

Ed Clark/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Model in a bikini, 1950.

Ed Clark/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

French fashion model Christiane Richard wore a bikini while drinking her morning coffee, 1950.

Nat Farbman/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Jayne Mansfield posed with hot-water bottle likenesses floating around her, 1957.

Allan Grant/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Jayne Mansfield and unidentified man, 1961.

Stan Wayman/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Skin diving in Israel, 1960.

Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Sunbathing, 1961.

Allan Grant/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Actress Philomene Toulouse, cradling a pet fox, vied for attention at the Cannes film festival, 1962.

Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Cannes, France, 1962.

Paul Schutzer/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Atlantic City, New Jersey, 1964.

Art Rickerby/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Hungarian model, 1965.

Walter Sanders/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Model Naty Abascal showed off designs on her chest and stomach, Bahamas, 1968.

Bill Eppridge/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Near Malibu, California, 1970.

Co Rentmeester/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Southern California, 1970.

Co Rentmeester/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

The post Two-Piece Be With You: In Praise of the Bikini appeared first on LIFE.

New York Groovy: City Fashions from the Summer of 1969

Tue, 06 May 2014 12:59:03 +0000

Summertime in pretty much any city is a different experience than any other season, but summer in New York is another world. Many of the people who can afford to escape Gotham in July and August usually do so, and even if their numbers are relatively small among the city’s eight million souls, the extra elbow room that their absence provides the rest of us on the streets, at the museums and in the parks, bars and restaurants lends the metropolis a far less frenetic vibe.

It’s not that the city’s unique energy vanishes; instead, it’s directed toward the pursuit of leisure—street fairs, picnics and plays in the parks, free concerts, people-watching rather than New Yorkers’ customary quests for money, power, fame, an apartment with two bathrooms. . .

In the summer, despite baking in the sweltering heat, encountering undefinable and often jarring aromas around every street corner and dealing with the constant prospect of citywide blackouts, New Yorkers give themselves license to slow down. To cease striving. To breathe.

In August 1969, meanwhile, LIFE magazine was busy celebrating not the season itself, but the eye-popping fashions that the “young people” which, judging by these pictures, meant anyone under the age of 40 were sporting during the summer months. In a cover story shot by photographer Vernon Merritt III, LIFE lauded “That New York Look” with an almost poetic zeal:

New York City is a costume party for the young this summer, a party taking place outdoors, on the streets and in the parks. Long hair, long legs. The party is not always elegant, but it is completely alive.

It isn’t really hard to tell the boys from the girls, even when they are both in bell-bottoms, and of course most boys don’t put shoe polish on their eyes. All are wearing what they want to to wear, from the shortest skirts to the longest skins.

How they look depends partly on where they go. The ferry is different from a Seventh Avenue lunch stand and very different from Central Park.

The look is not what New York calls sophisticated, but even so, it catches the eye. Many of the girls seem to get their kicks with makeup. They wear it anywhere absolutely anywhere.

The important thing is to express yourself. Depending on your talents you can do it with a 25-key soprano Melodica or a long, cool stare. You choose. The New York look is a celebration of the self.

Here, in recognition of the singular look and feel of that long-ago New York summer, LIFE.com presents a number of the photographs that ran in the “New York Look” article, as well as some other, atmospheric shots that did not run in LIFE.

Young couple with a balloon in Central Park, 1969.

Vernon Merritt III/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Young couple on the Staten Island Ferry, 1969.

Vernon Merritt III/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

A couple on the street in New York, summer 1969.

Vernon Merritt III/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Young people at Bethesda Fountain in Central Park, 1969.

Vernon Merritt III/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

New York City, summer, 1969.

Vernon Merritt III/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Private party on the balcony of a New York City apartment building, summer 1969.

Vernon Merritt III/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

New York City, summer, 1969.

Vernon Merritt III/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Young people at Bethesda Fountain in Central Park, summer 1969.

Vernon Merritt III/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

New York City, summer, 1969.

Vernon Merritt III/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Hare Krishna devotees wore traditional saffron robes and chanted in a New York park, summer 1969.

Vernon Merritt III/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

New York City, summer, 1969.

Vernon Merritt III/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Central Park, 1969.

Vernon Merritt III/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

Central Park, summer, 1969.

Vernon Merritt III/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

New York City, summer, 1969.

Vernon Merritt III/Life Pictures/Shutterstock

LIFE Magazine, Aug. 22, 1969.

LIFE Magazine

The post New York Groovy: City Fashions from the Summer of 1969 appeared first on LIFE.