Jayne Mansfield Posing With a Uncle Sam Top Hat to Celebrate the Fourth of July in 1954

These portraits of Jayne Mansfield were staged as a holiday-themed pin-up designed to celebrate the Fourth of July. The striped pedestal is revealed here to be the base of a massive, oversized Uncle Sam top hat adorned with stars around the brim. To match the Americana theme, Mansfield is wearing a star-spangled strapless top accented with a dark bow, paired with high-waisted satin shorts and polka-dot open-toe heels.

Holiday-themed “cheesecake” photography was an incredibly effective publicity tool in 1950s Hollywood. New models and starlets frequently posed with festive, oversized props for events like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Independence Day because national newspapers and entertainment magazines guaranteed publication of patriotic visuals leading up to the holiday weekend.

In 1954, Jayne Mansfield was a 21-year-old mother who had recently moved from Texas to Los Angeles to pursue her dreams of movie stardom. To build her portfolio, network, and gain visibility, she worked extensively as a glamor model.

These early modeling sessions proved highly successful. Within months of shots like this circulating, she caught the attention of major studio executives and publications. By 1955, she would break out on Broadway in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? and quickly establish herself as Hollywood's primary alternative to her personal idol, Marilyn Monroe.

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Soapbox Auto Race at July 4th Celebration at Salisbury, Maryland in 1940

The Soapbox Auto Race, often called a Soap Box Derby, is a youth racing program in the United States where children build and race unpowered, gravity-driven cars down a hill. These events are popular in the United States, ranging from local community races to major national championships.

The concept of soapbox racing originated in 1933 when Myron Scott, a photographer for the Dayton Daily News in Ohio, witnessed boys racing homemade cars down a hill. Inspired by the idea, he organized a larger, more formal race. The success of this event led to the establishment of the All-American Soap Box Derby in 1934, with Chevrolet as a national sponsor.

In 1935, the race moved to Akron, Ohio, due to its central location and hilly terrain. A permanent track, Derby Downs, was built in Akron in 1936 with the assistance of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), and it remains the site of the national championship today.

Over the years, the Soap Box Derby gained immense popularity, especially in the 1950s and 60s, drawing tens of thousands of spectators and attracting celebrities. While originally for boys, girls were first allowed to compete in 1971, and in 1975, Karen Stead became the first girl to win the All-American Soap Box Derby.

Below are some vintage photographs documented a soapbox auto race during July 4th celebration at Salisbury, Maryland in 1940:

 

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Stars and Stripes: 20 Stunning Vintage Photos of American Beauties Wearing Flag Inspired Fashion

Long before Lynda Carter donned her Wonder Woman uniform complete with patriotic cape, starlets wore the stars and stripes to sell War Bonds and promote movie studios. The flag inspired fashion theme has since continued with celebrities, entertainers, musicians and models.

Whether they are wrapped in flags for magazine covers, wearing various versions of patriotism onstage, or donning red, white and blue bathing suits – here’s a collection of 20 stunning vintage photos of celebs, models and musicians in stars and stripes from the past decades.

Susan Hayward

Ann Miller

Ann Sheridan

Anne Gwynne

Barbara Bates

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July 4, 1884: The Statue of Liberty Was Presented to the United States

In a ceremony held in Paris on July 4, 1884, the completed Statue of Liberty is formally presented to the U.S. ambassador as a commemoration of the friendship between France and the United States.

Head of the Statue of Liberty on display in a park in Paris, 1883.

Statue of Liberty, formally Liberty Enlightening the World, colossal statue on Liberty Island in the Upper New York Bay, U.S., commemorating the friendship of the peoples of the United States and France. Standing 305 feet (93 meters) high including its pedestal, it represents a woman holding a torch in her raised right hand and a tablet bearing the adoption date of the Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776) in her left. The torch, which measures 29 feet (8.8 meters) from the flame tip to the bottom of the handle, is accessible via a 42-foot (12.8-meter) service ladder inside the arm (this ascent was open to the public from 1886 to 1916).

A plaque at the pedestal’s entrance is inscribed with a sonnet, “The New Colossus” (1883) by Emma Lazarus. It was written to help raise money for the pedestal, and it reads:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she

With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

A French historian, Edouard de Laboulaye, made the proposal for the statue. Funds were contributed by the French people, and work began in France in 1875 under sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi. The statue was constructed of copper sheets, hammered into shape by hand and assembled over a framework of four gigantic steel supports, designed by Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc and Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel.

The colossus was presented to the American minister to France Levi Morton (later vice president) in a ceremony in Paris on July 4, 1884. In 1885 the completed statue, 151 feet 1 inch (46 meters) high and weighing 225 tons, was disassembled and shipped to New York City. The pedestal, designed by American architect Richard Morris Hunt and built within the walls of Fort Wood on Bedloe’s Island, was completed later. The statue, mounted on its pedestal, was dedicated by President Grover Cleveland on October 28, 1886. Over the years the torch underwent several modifications, including its conversion to electric power in 1916 and its redesign (with repoussé copper sheathed in gold leaf) in the mid-1980s, when the statue was repaired and restored by both American and French workers for a centennial celebration held in July 1986. The site was added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 1984.

Fourth of July Parade Winner, 1900

Leela McAdam (nee McCabe), winner of the best decorated bicycle for the 1900 Fourth of July parade in Lompoc, California, stands outside her home at 137 South J Street. Her bicycle, her belt, and her hat were decorated with sweet peas.

Portraits of Andy Warhol Posing With an American Flag, 1983

“Everybody has their own America, and then they have the pieces of a fantasy America that they think is out there but they can’t see. When I was little, I never left Pennsylvania, and I used to have fantasies about things that I thought were happening in the Midwest, or down South, or in Texas, that I felt I was missing out on. But you can only live in one place at a time. And your own life while it’s happening to you never has any atmosphere until it’s a memory. So the fantasy corners of America seem so atmospheric because you’ve pieced them together from scenes in movies and music and lines from books. And you live in your dream America that you’ve custom-made from art and schmaltz and emotions just as much as you live in your real one.” – Andy Warhol

These original photographs were taken by Karen Bystedt, then a tenacious young film student at NYU, who in 1983 boldly cold-called Andy Warhol at Interview Magazine inviting him to pose for her for her book-in-progress featuring the era’s top male models. Having come across an image of the artist modeling for Barney’s, she had hoped to capture the icon in this unique context, positioned amongst faces renowned for their aesthetic ideal – and on hearing whom else she intended to include, Warhol swiftly agreed to join the fold. Bystedt’s resulting images capture a soft and vulnerable Warhol, the man made infamous by making others his model, now the model himself.

“When I called Interview Magazine, the last “Factory,” I didn’t expect Andy Warhol to answer, so I was taken aback when he answered himself,” Bystedt recalled. “It was a moment! I was nervous, but I  just went for it and I straight off I told him who I was and the photography book I was working on about top male models. He wanted to model and I kind of sensed that – I had seen Andy in an ad for Barneys New York and that’s what gave me the idea to photograph him as a model. It turned out that one of the guys who was on my roster was in a Zoli catalog that Andy also was in… on the same page as Andy. So he knew I was shooting the hottest male models of the day and wanted to be in their company.”

Bystedt also interviewed Warhol and published the resulting portraits in a book of male models titled “Not Just A Pretty Face” in 1983. Then, fait accompli, she stored away the negatives and forgot about them. Until 2011, when she saw a Warhol artwork fetch $100 million at auction and decided it was time to dig them up. To her horror, most of the 36 negatives were eaten away by termites or covered in termite poop and it took a painstaking pixel-by-pixel process of Photoshop magic to bring just 10 back to their former glory.

“After I graduated from NYU, I moved around a lot and put my things in storage in different places and lost track of what was where. Finding the 10 negatives in my garage in L.A. almost 30 years later was like finding treasure. It was a “huge” moment!”

(Photos by © Karen Bystedt)

Adorable Photo of Leonardo DiCaprio as a Baby With His Mother, Irmelin, in 1975

Leo DiCaprio and his mother pose for a portrait in their home in front of American flag in July 1975 in Hollywood, California. Note that the flag behind them is actually a 48-star US flag that has had two new stars sewn in it to represent Alaska and Hawaii.

(Photo by Peter Fleming/Getty Images)

Fascinating Photos of Willie Nelson’s Fourth of July Picnic in the 1970s

Willie Nelson’s Fourth of July Picnic is an annual concert hosted by country music singer Willie Nelson. Nelson was inspired to create the annual concert after his participation in the 1972 Dripping Springs Reunion, that was hosted at Hurlbut Ranch in Dripping Springs, Texas. As part of the lineup, Nelson performed on the third day. The event failed to meet the expected attendance due to the concert being poorly promoted.

Interested in the concept, Nelson decided to host the inaugural Willie Nelson’s Fourth of July Picnic in the same place, as it was already prepared to host a concert. The success of the event led to other concerts.

During the late 1970s, the bad reputation of the concert for recurrent problems with safety of the audience made it difficult to find venues. During the 1980s the security improved, and the event recovered the trust of the potential venues.

Here below is a set of fascinating photos from buffalowillie that shows Willie Nelson’s Fourth of July Picnic in the 1970s.

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Marilyn Monroe Wishing You All a Happy Fourth of July

Marilyn Monroe posed for Fourth of July, wearing a bikini with some oversized fireworks and a sign that reads “Beware of Danger, July 4th”. These photographs were taken by Bert Reisfeld in 1953.‬

Wonderful Vintage Photographs Capture Independence Day Scenes in 1954

These wonderful color photographs were taken by LIFE photographer N.R. Farbman on the 4th of July, 1954. The location is an unknown town in America. All the classic Independence Day scenes are here: a family picnic, a parade complete with fire trucks, kids buying fireworks and holding sparklers, and smiles all around.

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Red, White, Blue and Awkward: 20 Hilarious 4th of July Family Photos From the 1980s and 1990s

Some people celebrate the Fourth with fireworks, others celebrate by taking the most awkward family photos of all time.

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Man Became a Millionaire After Finding a Copy of the Declaration of Independence in the Frame of an Old Painting He Bought for Only $4 in 1989

In 1989, a Philadelphia financial analyst bought an old painting for $4 at a flea market in Adamstown, Pennsylvania, mostly because he liked the frame. When the owner removed the painting, the frame fell apart and he found a folded document between the canvas and wood backing that appeared to be an old copy of the Declaration of Independence. A friend who collects Civil War memorabilia advised him to have it appraised.

To his amazement, that folded up paper turned out to be a copy of the Declaration of Independence. And not just any copy. A few months later, a historian would confirm that it was an original Dunlap copy, bringing the known total up to 25.

This rare document was offered for sale by Sotheby’s on 4 June 1991, and the lucky find fetched even more than had been anticipated: the $800,000 to $1.2 million estimate turned into a $2.42 million sale by the sound of the gavel.

The document was put up for sale again on June 29, 2000, fetching an $8.14 million bid from television producer Norman Lear in an online auction. It then became the centerpiece of the Norman Lear Center’s Declaration of Independence Road Trip, which took it on a three-and-a-half year cross-country tour.

In the late hours of July 4, 1776, the original signed Declaration was brought to a nearby printing press shop owned by a 29 year old Irish immigrant named John Dunlap. Dunlap proceeded to print dozens of copies of the Declaration. These copies were then distributed up and down the east coast in the following days. George Washington ordered that a copy be of the Declaration be read aloud to every one of his troops. Another Dunlap print was sent to King George back in England.

The majority of the Dunlap prints were discarded or destroyed over time. In 1949, 14 copies of the Dunlap broadside were known to exist. The number had increased to 21 by 1975. There were 24 known copies of the Dunlap broadside in 1989, when a 25th broadside was discovered behind a painting bought for $4 at a flea market.

On July 2, 2009, it was announced that a 26th Dunlap broadside was discovered in The National Archives in Kew, England. It is currently unknown how this copy came to the archive, but one possibility is that it was captured from an American coastal ship intercepted during the War of Independence.

A Series of Weird and Hilarious Vintage July 4th Comic Postcards From 1909

Now that we’re in the patriotic swing of things for the 4th of July, perhaps we should take a look at these vintage comic cards in response to the Independence Day.

Just sit back and relax!