Since Memorial Day weekend marks the unofficial start to summer, here are some old LIFE magazine photos showing city-dwellers cooling off during past summer months. Maybe you can take some pointers from them this season (stoops, shorts, shade and swimsuits seem to help)! Or you can always spend the hot months indoors finally reading Infinite Jest. [Hat tip Ephemeral NY]






Picture #7:
Looks like the guy in the middle left his ass at home along with his trousers.
Heck, it looks like the guy in the right had a double buttstectomy...
They look like the early gentrifiers up there in Harlem. Italians tan quickly but I don't see any dark skin individuals in the picture.
Great pictures.
You're not from NYC are you Snoopy?
Nope. I'm from west SoHo.
YEP. You're European.
No, he's Asian.
People used to sleep on fire escapes and roofs during heat-waves. The beaches at Coney and Rockaway had sleepers as well. People would spend all day in the movie theaters because they were "air cooled".
My neighbor in BK was just telling me stories about that today...their fathers and grandfathers used to sleep on fire escapes at night. He maintains it kept the block safer.
No. Everyone was just too sweaty to steal.
Shorts!? Quick report this to House Un-American Activities Committee! Go back to Bermuda yah pinko basterds.
Where aren't there any fat people in those photos?