Jerome Zerbe, El Morocco Family Album
Perona, John. “El Morocco” Family Album. Privately Printed. 1937. Book is a hardcover in blue boards and embossed titles, with zebra-patterned endpapers. It is in very good minus condition—covers show a small tear to the seam, two small tears, and a minor scrape. Photographs by Jerome Zerbe.
This privately printed book has become as elusive as a table at El Morocco was in the 1930s. Folio-size, it is filled with half-tone portraits of the eclectic mix of Park Avenue society, Hollywood celebrity, and European nobility who frequented the club, all in evening wear and posed with the zebra-patterned banquettes as a backdrop. Divine.
“Those first years of El Morocco were stupendous. There wasn’t a celebrity or a socialite who didn’t clamor to get in. Evening dress was mandatory, and so large were the crowds that there was often a waiting line a block long to get in.”
--Jerome Zerbe