Jerome Zerbe - The Nightclub Era

The Nightclub Era

Around 1934 Zerbe was in business in Manhattan. He was the staff photographer for both the Rainbow Room and a bustling nightclub, El Morocco. Zerbe said that from 1933 to 1938 he spent most nights from nine p.m. to four a.m. at El Morocco eating, drinking and taking pictures. Many considered El Morocco the classiest nightclub in town, and looked down upon the Stork Club regulars as "tacky". El Morocco was the place to be seen – particularly if you just came from a Broadway show. There is one way to tell a Zerbe photo of El Morocco: the distinctive background. The club had imitation zebra skin fabric coverings on all banquettes and couches; the walls looked like a zebra-stripes jungle. With the striped black-and-white background, it was obvious to anyone looking at it -- without reading a caption -- that it was taken in El Morocco.

World War II prompted Zerbe to enlist in the Navy. He was able to bring his camera, and became the official photographer for Admiral Nimitz. He found a way to travel with the stars that flew overseas to entertain the troops.

After the war, Zerbe took up photographing Café Society with gusto. He was a charming man who was able to rub shoulders with dukes, duchesses, visiting dignitaries, as well as John Hay Whitney, Cornelius Vanderbilt IV, and scores of others. He traveled to France to photograph estates and country homes – and the residents as well.

In the 1940s, Zerbe worked for the Hearst newspaper chain, and wrote a Sunday column for the Sunday Mirror for more than ten years. From 1949 to 1974 he was the society editor for Town & Country. He traveled around the globe photographing big celebrity events.

Zerbe had several “coffee table” photo books published. Among them was People on Parade (1934), El Morocco Family Album (1937), The Art of Social Climbing (1965), and with Brendan Gill of The New Yorker, he published his greatest collection, Happy Times, in 1973.

He died August 19, 1988, at his Sutton Place apartment in Manhattan. He was 85.

Today, little is known about Zerbe's vast collection of photographs, which a biographer estimated had 50,000 images in 150 scrapbooks. They are part of an extensive private photography archive that is owned by collector Frederick R. Koch, the eldest son of industrialist Fred C. Koch.