16 Old-School New Year's Eve Photos that Will Have You Feeling Nostalgic

In the 70s, New York's Studio 54 was where the hip went to sip. Squashed into this action shot from New Year's Eve 1978 are (from left): fashion designer Halston, Bianca Jagger (Mick's wife), film producer Jack Haley, Jr., his wife, Liza Minnelli, and Andy Warhol. Just over a year later, the nightclub would close when the owners were busted for tax evasion.

The war was on, but this Navy man on leave was able to raise a champagne glass with his lady as 1941 turned into 1942.

Remember the Y2K scare, when half the planet was convinced the world was going to self-destruct at the stroke of the new millennium (and the other half, like these partiers in the U.K., just laughed)? We really don't either. To be fair, it turned out to be much ado about nothing...and a lot has happened since then.

Here's a rollicking celeb countdown taken a couple of decades back at a Black Crowes New Year's Eve show at Madison Square Garden. That's Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell, Goldie's daughter Kate Hudson, and Kate's then-husband, Crowes' founder, Chris Robinson. NYE concerts are The. Best. Just ask anyone who's seen Nashville's Big Bash!

This little tyke made a perfect Baby New Year in this 1934 pic snapped in Madison, Wisconsin. It's hard to believe, but this enduring symbol of the New Year has been around since the days of the ancient Greeks!

Related: Everything You've Ever Wondered About "Baby New Year"

People dressed to the nines for New Year's Eve in New York City back in the day, if this photograph is any indication. The well-heeled partiers, clad in formal attire, are raising the roof at the El Morocco nightclub, circa 1935.

Lighting lanterns for New Year's dates back thousands of years, when Asian cultures honored their ancestors on the 15th day of the first month of the lunar calendar. This pic is a bit more recent—it dates to 1940.

Ah, 1988...hair was big, neon was everywhere, and Reba rocked Dick Clark's New Year's Eve celebration in Times Square in a leather pantsuit. Dick Clark hosted New Year's Rockin' Eve annually for more than three decades, until 2004.

New York wasn't the only American city where folks celebrated the New Year in finery. This woman's whole look, from the gorgeous beaded gown to her jewels and delicate nails, makes us swoon. The image was taken in 1956, at a New Year's Eve party held at the Romanoff Restaurant in Hollywood.

In 1929, Canadian bandleader Guy Lombardo began an annual live radio broadcast of his New Year's Eve shows from New York City. It was the first program of its kind in the country, and he'd continue the show (on television as well as radio), for just short of 50 years. This photo was taken on New Year's Eve 1976, during his farewell show, which Guy closed, as always, with "Auld Lang Syne."

Related: The Meaning and Lyrics of "Auld Lang Syne"—and How It Became *the* New Year's Song

We're not exactly sure what's happening in this photo taken in Rome, Italy, as 1959 turned into 1960. But everyone sure looks like they're having fun.

This New Year's Eve bash from 1921 was clearly the bee knees, filled as it was flappers and Dapper Dans. Of course, hootch was made illegal by the 18th amendment to the Constitution almost two years before this photo was taken...but we'd still wager these folks weren't sipping water.

New Year's Eve and balloon drops go together like....well, New Year's Eve and cruise ships. This colorful and chaotic overhead view of a packed dance floor of merrymakers was taken on board an ocean liner in 1965.

If you haven't been to Times Square at least once for New Year's Eve, have you really experienced New Year's Eve at all? The crowd in 1962 was estimated at a festive 600,000, despite the cold and snow flurries that greeted them.