The photos seem to be from another planet, or at least a parrallel universe.
It was not so long ago that Hollywood was institutionally patriotic. Studio photos always included an Independence Day shot, frequently an innocent piece of cheesecake. Because what’s more American than igniting fireworks while wearing a bathing suit.
L.B. Mayer of MGM did not know his birthday—common for Jews born in the Pale of Settlement—and so the powerful studio chief symbolically adopted July 4 as his own and threw America and himself a huge birthday party on the studio lot. Everyone was expected to attend. Only Greta Garbo, the great narcissist, refused to attend.
Here’s a sample of studio shots celebrating America’s birth.