The Uplifting Magic of “The Karate Kid”

The following is excerpted from LIFE’s new special issue on The Karate Kid, available at newsstands and online:

The title was ridiculous. So ridiculous nobody thought it would stick. It was a name fit for a silly Saturday morning cartoon, a sappy after-school special, a flop. It certainly wasn’t a title for a movie that could launch an enduring Hollywood franchise. 

No, “The Karate Kid” had to go. 

“I mean, can you imagine?” Ralph Macchio wrote in his 2022 memoir, Waxing On: The Karate Kid and Me. “If I ever did get this part and the movie hit, I would have to carry this label for the rest of my life!”

Macchio got the part. And once he landed the lead, he fought to get the title changed. He wasn’t alone. Next to nobody liked it. But producer Jerry Weintraub wouldn’t budge. He knew it was memorable: “It’s a terrible title, but because of that, it’s a great title.” It wasn’t the only thing memorable about 1984’s The Karate Kid.

“Wax on, wax off.” “Sweep the leg.” “Ali . . . with an i.” “Get him a body bag!” Forty-one years on, we’re still quoting classic lines from the original film. Four decades in, the Netflix series Cobra Kai has introduced multiple new generations to Daniel LaRusso, Johnny Lawrence, John Kreese, and the wisdom of Mr. Miyagi. And now 2025’s Karate Kid: Legends pairs Macchio with martial arts icon Jackie Chan. 

In the early 1980s, karate wasn’t cool. Aliens were cool: E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial broke box office records in 1982, and the original Star Wars trilogy wrapped to wild fanfare in 1983. Hunky boxers, barbarians, and (oddly enough) archaeologists were cool, as flicks from Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Harrison Ford filled the multiplexes. 

Blockbuster teen movies weren’t even a thing yet. Before 1984, nobody knew who Molly Ringwald, John Hughes, or the Brat Pack were. Karate and high school drama wasn’t exactly a winning combination for a film. This meant expectations for The Karate Kid were low. 

The $8 million budget came in at less than a quarter of what it cost to make Return of the Jedi. The leads were B-list at best—Macchio’s most notable credit was a spot as a recurring character on a single season of ABC sitcom Eight Is Enough; Mr. Miyagi actor Noriyuki “Pat” Morita was best known as restaurant owner Matsuo “Arnold” Takahashi in two dozen Happy Days episodes. Despite the modest budget and lack of star power, The Karate Kid was a smash. 

“After the first Karate Kid screened and everybody was doing the crane kick in the parking lot, [producer Jerry Weintraub] put his arm around me and said, ‘You’re going to be making a few of these,’ ” Macchio remembered. 

Macchio has now made four films—the original ’80s trilogy plus this year’s Karate Kid: Legends—set in the Miyagi-verse, which is what he calls the Karate Kid cinematic universe. Morita also tallied a quartet of movies in the series (he followed the trilogy with 1994’s The Next Karate Kid, starring an unknown Hilary Swank in her breakout role). And the universe has continued to expand, even when Macchio and Morita sat out projects. 

A Saturday-morning cartoon was made in 1989 with Morita doing narration. Car washes popped up that incorporated “Wax On, Wax Off” in their names. 

A reimagining of the first film with the same title starring Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan racked up $359 million worldwide in 2010. Then in 2018, the Netflix streaming hit Cobra Kai reunited Macchio with original nemesis Johnny Lawrence, played by William Zabka, adding their characters’ kids to the martial arts rumbles across six seasons. The world couldn’t get enough of the Miyagi-verse.

Why was the movie such a success when it debuted? Why does the saga’s popularity endure through generations? And who exactly must shine their Honda at Wax On, Wax Off? The latter question might be impossible to answer. But the first two aren’t so confounding when you look at what the Karate Kid myth delivers. 

Everybody loves an underdog, and Daniel LaRusso is the ultimate underdog. 

Also, it turned out The Karate Kid did have a few things in common with past blockbusters. Daniel and Miyagi’s relationship echoed that of Rocky Balboa and trainer Mickey Goldmill. It recalled the lovable battle of wills between Luke Skywalker and Miyagi-like Jedi Master Yoda. 

The lessons of the first film, lessons about kindness, acceptance, and mercy, reverberate across the Miyagi-verse. In The Karate Kid Part II, Miyagi says, with a little bit of cheek, “Rules to karate. Rule number one: Karate for defense only. Rule number two: First learn rule number one.” After the fictional death of Miyagi—Morita passed away in 2005—Daniel carried his mentor’s wisdom forward in Cobra Kai, telling his pupil: “You may know the moves, but none of that matter unless you have balance . . . I mean balance in your life.” 

Even Johnny Lawrence, the ’80s quintessential high school bully, looks for some balance in Cobra Kai. One thing that makes the Netflix series so compelling is the reinvention of Johnny from bad boy to, well, a little bit less of a bad boy. The kid who was raised to “strike first, strike hard, no mercy” grows up to understand Miyagi’s teachings and becomes another lovable underdog you can’t help rooting for. 

This shared Miyagi-verse not only unites all of these projects but provides a consistent human-first worldview that we should all strive for, making the films as entertaining as they are memorable. Well, as memorable as a franchise with the title “The Karate Kid” can be.

Here are a selection of photos from LIFE’s new special issue on The Karate Kid:

Front Cover ©Columbia Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection; (background) Columbia Pictures/Album/Alamy

Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) works on his crane kick in the 1984 film “The Karate Kid.”

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Daniel sets up for the crane kick against Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) in the climactic fight of “The Karate Kid” (1984).

@Columbia Pictures/Photofest

Daniel (Ralph Macchio) and Kumiko in the 1986 film “The Karate Kid Part II.”

©Columbia Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection

Daniel and Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita) celebrate in “The Karate Kid Part III “(1989).

©Columbia Pictures/courtesy Everett Co / Everett Collection

Mr. Miyagi takes on new pupil Julie (Hilary Swank) in “The Next Karate Kid” (1994).

©Columbia Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection

Jaden Smith took center stage in the 2010 franchise reboot film “The Karate Kid.”

©Columbia Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection

Ralph Macchio and William Zabka reprised their roles from The Karate Kid in the Netflix series Cobra Kai.

Curtis Bonds Baker/Netflix

Ralph Macchio directed William Zabka on the set of the Netflix series “Cobra Kai.”

CURTIS BONDS BAKER/NETFLIX

(Left to right) Ralph Macchio, Ben Wang and Jackie Chan in the 2025 film “Karate Kid: Legends.”.

Jonathan Wenk/Columbia Pictures

There’s Cool, and Then There’s Keith

In his wonderful 2010 autobiography Life—hey, nice title—Keith Richards wrote that “We age not by holding on to youth, but by letting ourselves grow and embracing whatever youthful parts remain.”

His philosophy seems to be working, because Keith Richards has moved through the decades with a spirit that remains remarkably untouched by time. He is first and foremost known as a member of The Rolling Stones and for his guitar work on classics such as Sympathy for the Devil. But the unapologetic and unrepentant way he has lived his life has come to be appreciated as its own work of art. It’s why the most popular photo of Richards in the LIFE print store shows him holding not a guitar but a bottle of whiskey.

This collection of performance and paparazzi shots from the 1980s and 1990s captures Richards showing his mastery on stage, and also living the life of a beloved rock star. Included are photos of the breathtaking all-star jam at the 1992 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, in which he shreds on classics such as All Along the Watchtower and Green Onions with the likes of Neil Young, Johnny Cash, Jimmy Page, Little Richard and The Edge, among others.

While offstage, Richards posed for photos with, among others, action star Tom Cruise, fellow rock legend Bruce Springsteen, and President of the United States Donald Trump. When you are as cool as Keith Richards is, everyone wants to be in the frame with you.

Keith Richards took center stage during the Rolling Stones’ ‘Voodoo Lounge’ tour, 1994.

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Rolling Stone band members Mick Jagger (left) and Keith Richards shared a laugh.

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Keith Richards and his father, 1983.

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Keith Richards outside New York’s Danceteria night club, 1980.

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Keith Richards.

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Keith Richards in concert.

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The Rolling Stones, with Bill Wyman, Mick Jagger and Charlie Watts, basked in the cheers.

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Bruce Springsteen and Keith Richards.

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Keith Richards

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Keith Richards

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Actor Tom Cruise (right) chatted with Keith Richards (right) and Ron Wood backstage before a Rolling Stones concert in Las Vegas.

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Keith Richards (right) with (left to right) The Edge, Carlos Santana and John Fogerty at the 1992 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

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Keith Richards, with (left to right) Neil Young, The Edge and Jimmy Page at the 1992 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

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Keith Richards with Johnny Cash, John Fogerty, Little Richard and others at the 1992 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

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Actress Elizabeth Hurley with rock musician Keith Richards and his wife, Patti Hansen, at the premiere of the 1999 film Mickey Blue Eyes, which Ms. Hurley co-produced.

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Keith Richards and wife Patti Hansen with Donald and Melania Trump.

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The Bohemian Life in Big Sur, 1959

Big Sur, located on the Central California coast, has been a touchstone of alternative culture for decades. In the final episode of the television show Mad Men, Don Draper is at a retreat in Big Sur when he achieves his climactic moment of enlightenment (which turns out to be an idea for a Coke ad that commercializes 1960s idealism). Today Big Sur is still home to plenty of resorts and retreats, including the storied Esalen Institute, which offers self-improvement workshops galore at its cliffside perch overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

When LIFE magazine visited Big Sur in 1959, the Esalen Institute was three years from opening, but the coastal community had long been attracting free-thinking types. LIFE’s story was headlined “Rugged, Romantic World Apart: Creative Colony Finds a Haven in California’s Big Sur,” and it offered an explanation of how Big Sur gained its bohemian character:

In 1944 Henry Miller, the once-expatriate novelist whose most famous works (Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn) are banned in the U.S. as pornographic, settled in Big Sur. Around him, living in tents and shacks, clustered a coterie of young rebels who seemed bent on creating what one reporter called “a cult of sex and anarchy.” But the rigors of Big Sur living eventually drove most of the rebels to more easeful surroundings. In their place came a calmer breed; dedicated craftsmen who find they work best far from the urban rat-race; others, still more conventional, who have retired, young and old, to Big Sur’s tranquility.

LIFE’s story is richly illustrated with photos by J.R. Eyerman, and to today’s viewer it can be remarkable how stately most the images are. Sure, Eyerman photographed a few skinny dippers by the shore and captured an outdoor art class drawing a nude model. He also shows a man teaching yoga to his neighbors long before that practice became popular.

But Eyerman’s other photos from Big Sur have a Norman Rockwell-like gentility. A group of musicians play chamber music at home. A retired magazine editor enjoys tea with his friends on the terrace. A group of men gathered at a bar are mostly wearing coats and ties. Granted, one of those men is the aforementioned literary rebel Henry Miller (whose years at Big Sur are commemorated there at the Henry Miller Memorial Library—which is proudly not banning any books on its shelves).

But even the famously licentious novelist told LIFE that BIg Sur at its best was a a place “of grandeur and of eloquent silence.” If there is a common theme to Eyerman’s pictures beyond their location, is it quiet pleasure—the kind that continues to draw visitors to this coastal spot.

Big Sur, California, 1959.

J.R. Eyerman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Douglas Madsen (rear), a sculptor, instructed his neighbors in yoga in Big Sur, California, 1959.

J.R. Eyerman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Writer Henry Miller, 67 (second from left), a longtime Big Sur resident whose presence helped lure others there, held court with friends (from left, poet Eric Barker, sculptor Harry Dick Ross, and archaeologist Giles Greville Healey) at the round bar of the Nepenthe Restaurant, 1959.

J.R. Eyerman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Seating on fallen trees, a group of children listened to 80-odd year old Susan Potter recount tales of Irish folklore, Big Sur, California, 1959.

J.R. Eyerman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Hermits of New Camaldoli, a Roman Catholic order dedicated to the arts, set up their first monastery outside Italy in Big Sur, 1959.

J.R. Eyerman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A weekly figure drawing class met outdoors at Lafler Canyon in Big Sur, 1959.

J.R. Eyerman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Retired American magazine editor and publisher (of Collier’s) William Ludlow Chenery (center) and his wife Margaret shared tea with their guests on the patio of their home in Big Sur, California, 1959.

J.R. Eyerman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Author and former diplomat Nicholas Roosevelt (left, rear) played cello as he led a chamber music session at his home, Big Sur, California, 1959.

J.R. Eyerman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

At her Big Sur studio American mosaic artist Louisa Jenkins planned out designs for the ceiling of St. Anne’s Chapel in Palo Alto, 1959.

J.R. Eyerman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Sam Hopkins, 43, rejected the socialite world he grew up in and moved his family to Big Sur, California, 1959.

J.R. Eyerman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Diners watched dancers on the patio of the Nepenthe Restaurant, Big Sur, California, 1959. The restaurant opened in 1949 after the building was purchased from actors Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth, who had used it as a cabin.

J.R. Eyerman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Big Sur, California, 1959.

J.R. Eyerman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Big Sur, California, 1959.

J.R. Eyerman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

A van drove on the Pacific Coast Highway in Big Sur, 1959.

J.R. Eyerman/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Madonna (and Friends) Striking Poses

In the 1980s and 1990s, Madonna was such a big star that people started comparing her to Marilyn Monroe. Madonna had the hit songs, of course—such as Like a Prayer and Vogue, to name a couple. But as the reigning sex symbol of the MTV generation, she had a a cultural influence that went beyond her album sales.

This collection of photos from the height of her fame shows her on stage but also highlights the company she kept. Here she is pictured with, among others, Warren Beatty (her costar in the movie Dick Tracy and also a one-time flame), Sean Penn (her husband from 1985 to 1989), Rosanna Arquette (her costar in the movie Desperately Seeking Susan), Jellybean Benitez (the DJ who produced Madonna’s early music) and actors Joe Mantegna and Ron Silver (her costars in the 1988 Broadway production of David Mamet’s Speed-the-Plow).

This collection also includes a photo of Madonna with Michael Jackson, the rare pop star who could meet her on equal footing. The two attended the 1991 Academy Awards together, which led to breathless speculation that they might actually be a couple. Madonna later told VH1 that their Oscar night date came about in a casual way: “Michael was like, ‘Well, who are you going to go with? I looked at him and said, ‘I don’t know. You want to go?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, that’d be great.’” While their relationship seems to have been mostly friendly and professional, Madonna did say that they kissed at one point, with her playing the initiator.

But even if the reality is that there wasn’t all that much to their relationship—they never made any music together either, despite apparently discussing the possibility—it’s not hard to see why the mere idea of their union gripped the imagination. A relationship could have led to an American version of a royal wedding. Thus does the photo of these two icons attending the Academy Awards remain the best-selling image of Madonna in the LIFE print store.

It is one of many wonderful photos of Madonna in the LIFE archives, and here is a sampling of some favorites. Especially when she was on stage, she could strike a pose like there was nothing to it.

Madonna and Michael Jackson (left) arrived at the Shrine Civic Auditorium for the 63rd Annual Academy Awards ceremony, March 25, 1991.

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Madonna performed at the MTV Video Music Awards at Radio City Hall in New York, 1984.

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Singer Madonna with record producer Jellybean Benitez at tge opening of the club Private Eyes, 1984.

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Madonna with Rosanna Arquette, the costar of her 1985 film “Desperately Seeking Susan.”

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Madonna with singer David Lee Roth in the mid 1980s.

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Madonna out for a run with a trainer, 1987.

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Madonna in concert, 1987.

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Madonna with actor Sean Penn, her husband from 1985 to 1989.

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Madonna in concert, 1987.

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Madonna in concert, 1987.

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Madonna with Ron Silver (left) and Joe Mantegna (right), her costars in the Broadway production of the David Mamet play Speed-the-Plow, 1988.

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Madonna in concert, 1988.

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Madonna performed in Los Angeles during her Blonde Ambition tour, 1990.

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Madonna in concert, 1990.

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Madonna with her boyfriend, model Tony Ward, at the premiere of the 1990 film Goodfellas at the Museum of Modern Art; Ward appeared in videos for the Madonna songs “Cherish” and “Justify My Love.”

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Madonna with Rosie O’Donnell, her costar in the 1992 movie A League of Their Own.

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Madonna performed at Madison Square Garden, 1993.

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Former flames Warren Beatty and Madonna at the nightspot Moomba for the premiere party of the 1997 motion picture Two Girls and a Guy.

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Bob Dylan and Madonna in the late 1990s.

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Madonna in concert, 1990.

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Twilight of an Idol: A Portrait of Mickey Mantle in Decline

The greater the athlete, the tougher it is to leave the arena. It was certainly the case for Yankees center fielder Mickey Mantle. A tremendous natural talent, Mantle became a dominant force on the diamond almost as soon as he joined the Yankees in 1951. He would go on to win three MVP awards and the 1956 Triple Crown, all the while making a name for himself with towering home runs. His purported 565-foot moonshot in 1953 gave birth to the phrase “tape-measure home run.” Mantle also delivered big when the stakes were highest, leading the Yankees to seven championships. To this day he still holds World Series records for career home runs (18), RBIs (40) and total bases (123).

While the young Mantle was electrifying, his career was plagued by injuries great and small until, by the time he was in his 30s, his legs were so thoroughly wrapped and bandaged on game days that he literally hobbled to the plate to hit. His heavy drinking also contributed to his physical decline. Mantle wrote in a 1994 story about his drinking habits in Sports Illustrated that he began to lean on alcohol during his second season in the majors, after his father died from Hodgkin’s disease.

The image by LIFE staff photographer John Dominis that is featured in this story was taken in 1965, when Mantle’s skills were clearly slipping. Mantle had just stumbled through a lousy at-bat, and he tossed his helmet in frustration. It is the kind of action shot you rarely see, and one that captures the anguish of a sports hero in decline. It is no surprise that this resonant photo is one of the top sellers in the LIFE print store. 

Dominis’s photo ran with a story in LIFE magazine titled “Last Innings of Greatness.”  The image was taken during a meaningless game midway through the team’s disappointing 1965 season (the Yankees finished below .500 for the first time in 40 years). The story began with with a description of Mantle’s helmet toss and then offered a quote from the fading star: “It isn’t any fun when things are like this,” Mantle told LIFE. “I’m only 33, but I feel like I’m 40.”

Despite his frustrations Mantle kept at it for three more years until 1968, when his batting average slipped to an anemic .237, and that was his last year in the game.

In 1995 Mantle died of liver cancer at age 63. On the occasion of his death, Richard Hoffer wrote an obituary in Sports Illustrated that attempted to explain the meaning of Mantle to those who witnessed his beautiful prime:

For generations of men, he’s the guy, has been the guy, will be the guy. And what does that mean exactly? A woman beseeches Mantle, who survived beyond his baseball career as a kind of corporate greeter, to make an appearance, to surprise her husband. Mantle materializes at some cocktail party, introductions are made, and the husband weeps in the presence of such fantasy made flesh. It means that, exactly.

Dominus’ photo captures the moment of the fantasy coming to an end for the man who was fortunate enough to live it.

Mickey Mantle flings his batting helmet in disgust after a lousy at-bat, Yankee Stadium, 1965.

Mickey Mantle tossed his batting helmet in disgust after a lousy at-bat, Yankee Stadium, 1965.

John Dominis/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

The Jockey Who Was a Granny (and She Was No Novelty Act, Either)

In the 1940s Neva Burright gained attention as a harness-racing grandmother. But by that time she had been competing in the sport for decades, and she had been around horse tracks from the beginning of her life—quite literally

Burright was born on the infield of a racetrack in 1883, and for the rest of her life she stayed close by. She had a 57-year career in horse racing; even after she stopped competing she worked as a timer and a race official. She did all this while being a mother of seven. “I would raise a baby or two and then go back and race some more,” she told LIFE magazine in 1948, in a story headlined “Queen of Racing.”

The photos by LIFE staff photographer Joe Scherschel show a woman who was truly at home at the track. whether racing horses or hanging out with her family in the stables. LIFE’s 1948 story said that Burright “not only spends 18 hours a day training and driving trotting horses at Chicago’s Maywood Park, but she spends the night in one of the barns, with her husband [who was also a harness racer] in the next stall.”

The crowning moment of Burright’s career was in 1943, when she became the first woman to win on harness racing’s Grand Circuit, with a gelding called Luckyette. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch described the joyous scene after her race victory: “…it has been years since we saw so many hats tossed into the air at a race track, and heard so many feminine screeches of satisfaction as when this pleasant white-haired lady demonstrated her skill and the ability of her honest gelding to such a superb degree.”

Neva competed until 1954, and she died in 1958. In 1994 she was inducted into the Harness Racing Hall of Fame.

Competitive harness driver Neva Burright at age 65, in 1948.

Joe Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Neva Elizabeth Burright, 65, competed as a harness racer at Maywood Park in Chicago, 1948.

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Harness driver Neva Burright celebrated her 65th birthday at Maywood Park in Chicago, 1948.

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Harness racer Neva Elizabeth Burright, 65, walking her horse after a morning workout at Maywood Park in Chicago, 1948.

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Competitive 65-year-old harness racing driver Neva Burright, photographed at Maywood Park in Chicago, 1948.

.Joe Scherschel/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock

Neva Elizabeth Burright, 65, held a lead through the midway point of a race at Maywood Park in Chicago, 1948.

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Harness racer Neva Burright, 65, mended socks in her stables at Maywood Park in Chicago, 1948.

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Neva Elizabeth Burright, 65, spoke with two younger female harness drivers at Maywood Park in Chicago, 1948.

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Harness racer Neva Burright, 65, at Maywood Park in Chicago, 1948.

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Harness racing grandmother Neva Burright made French toast for breakfast at the race track, 1948.

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Harness racing driving Neva Burright, 65, had a whip in hand as she clocked one of her horses at Maywood Park, 1948.

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Harness driver Neva Burright, 65, at Maywood Park in Chicago, 1948.

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