Happy Times, Signed by Jerome Zerbe and Brendan Gill
[Signed by Jerome Zerbe and Brendan Gill] Zerbe, Jerome. Happy Times. First Edition. 1973. Book and dust jacket are both in very good condition. Text by Brendan Gill. Book is signed by both Jerome Zerbe and Brendan Gill on the half title page.
Society lensmen Jerome Zerbe teamed up with longtime New Yorker writer Brendan Gill for this photographic retrospective of Zerbe’s life and work. Included are his Depression-era party photos of El Morocco that transformed the nightclub the Studio 54 of its era; his Hollywood adventures in which he did more than simply photograph films stars—he became lifelong friends with them; and his World War II photographs of U.S. war efforts in which he was the personal photographer for Admiral Chester Nimitz. Jerome Zerbe was an unapologetic bon vivant who preferred to focus on the good times, but he did not exactly gloss over them. He shares his honest opinion of the celebrities and social figures with whom he interacted and photographed. That, along with the exceptional writing of Brendan Gill, makes this a book for the ages.
“[Zerbe] is a dedicated hedonist, with convictions as strong as any follower of Calvin. To him it is evident that to be joyous, even selfishly joyous, enriches life, while to be despairing, even unselfishly despairing, cheapens it.”
--Brendan Gill
