Jack Nicholson posing for the poster from *The Last Detail* (1973).

The Statue of Liberty, as seen from an Indonesian ship arriving in New York for Fleet Week, 2012.

Two young sailors roaming Fifth Avenue, 1968.

*Top,* a group of U.S. service members in Times Square for Fleet Week, 2022; *above,* Vera-Ellen and Gene Kelly in *On the Town* (1949).

Two sailors talking to a New York policeman while on liberty.

A view of the Twin Towers from the U.S.S. *America* aircraft carrier, circa 1991.

Frank Sinatra on the set of *On the Town,* in New York, 1949.

A ship sails on the Hudson River for Fleet Week, 2004.

*Top,* a scene from a Broadway production of *On the Town,* 1945; *above,* an Ecuadorian ship passing by Manhattan for Fleet Week, 2012.

A New York State Maritime College cadet re-uniting with his girlfriend after a 10-week trip across Europe, 1962.

Naval Gazing

Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly, Jack Nicholson … As Fleet Week returns to New York, a look back at the sailors who have stolen our hearts since the 1930s

By Steve Garbarino

U.S. Navy servicemen have always been the showboats among the military branches, largely due to that capriciously chic but elusively functional sailor’s jumper. From Popeye and Donald Duck to Paddington Bear and the young Prince Albert, Billboard hit songs (“Brandy, You’re a Fine Girl”), countless films (Anchors Aweigh, The Last Detail, Cinderella Liberty), and Broadway musicals (On the Town, South Pacific), the uniform has billowed through visual culture for centuries, its nautical dash embraced by Picasso and Warhol in their Bretons and by Kris Kristofferson in a captain’s peacoat. The sailor who fell from grace with the sea, indeed.

In all its components—the “Dixie cup” cap, the square-flap collar, the 13-button bellbottoms symbolizing the original 13 colonies—the so-called Crackerjack uniform, named for the candy-box icon “Sailor Jack,” evokes salty nightcaps, pounding Turner-esque seas, and emerging submarines. Let’s face it, it’s fun in a box.