Set Sail This Memorial Day With a Splash of Old Hollywood Inspiration

Whether you'll be spending this Memorial Day on a boat or not, kick off summer with vintage photos of your favorite stars hitting the high seas.

Elvis Presley and Stella Stevens, 1962. Photos: Getty Images

Memorial Day, the unofficial first day of summer, is irrevocably associated with a wistful longing to be on a sailboat in the middle of the ocean, celebrating a hopefully a long and luxurious summer of swimsuits, sunglasses, and soaking up the sunlight (while wearing sunscreen, of course). To jump-start a great summer this Memorial Day, turn to Old Hollywood for limitless nautical inspiration, proving that everyone really does look better on a boat.

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Barbara Read and John Wayne, 1937

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Claire Wemlinger, 1939

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Gary Cooper, 1939

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Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart, 1940

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Sterling Hayden, 1941

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Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini, 1949

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Jane Wyman, 1952

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Claude Ivry, 1953

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Audrey Hepburn, 1954

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Ava Gardner, 1954

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Grace Kelly, 1956

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Elaine Stewart, 1956

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Eddie Fisher and Liz Taylor, 1959

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Elvis Presley and Stella Stevens, 1962

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Kirk Douglas and wife, 1965

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Mia Farrow and Frank Sinatra, 1966

The Splendor of Photographer Slim Aarons’ Endless Summer

Celebrated for chronicling the lives of the rich and famous in all their glory, Slim Aarons’ photography gave rise to an exquisite lifestyle ideal of refined glamour that lives on to this day.