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An Architect of Social Change in Deep River

Jerome Zerbe was born in Euclid, Ohio in 1904, but was hardly the typical Midwesterner of the times. By the time of his death in 1988, he was credited with being the first celebrity paparazzi and the inventor of the vodka martini. His radical cocktail first appeared in a 1951 book, Bottoms Up, and was dubbed the “vodkatini.”

Zerbe’s career began in Cleveland in 1933 as a contributing editor to Parade magazine. His early success brought him to New York City by way of Hollywood where he became the society editor of Town and Country Magazine. Zerbe formed many of his friendships with movie stars and magnates, including Gary Cooper, Hedda Hopper, Errol Flynn, Cary Grant. He held his own table at famed Manhattan nightclub, El Morocco, where he would photograph the celebrity guests at play, and publish pictures the following day.

A Professional Disguised as an Amateur

As his co-author and biographer, Brandon Gill wrote: “Zerbe not only photographed celebrities but, in the course of doing so, became a celebrity himself. A professional disguised as an amateur, he crisscrossed the United States and Europe for decades, moving from great house to great house, from party to party. Wherever there were parties, there was the smiling and clicking Zerbe: Hollywood, Nantucket, Paris, Palm Beach to Montego Bay. An invincible social butterfly.”

Still, Zerbe yearned to design a home of his own in the countryside. For years he designed and redesigned a one-story, octagon shaped home with two wings. When it came time to build, he chose a waterfront property in Deep River for the location of his home, one that he called Windsong

His guests at Windsong included Joan Crawford, Joan Fontaine, Katherine Hepburn, Hedda Hopper, and Barbara Stanwick. Local residents had never seen such a guest list before.

Windsong is set on four acres and has since had several owners–most recently Dr. Richard and Virginia Linburg who restored and improved the grounds, and added a second floor. As many as 11 replicas of Windsong have been built around the world, many by Zerbe’s friends and admirers.

All That and a Martini, Too

A vast collection of Zerbe’s memorabilia–including over 50,000 photos–was donated to the Yale University by philanthropist and collector Frederick R. Koch in 2013. They are currently stored at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library and include diaries that include records of his work life and social life.

Windsong is currently for sale for $4,850,000 and is listed with Timothy Boyd of William Pitt Sotheby’s International.

As for that vodkatini, the recipe for it is published in The Martini: An Illustrated History of an American Classic, by Barnaby Conrad.

“Zerbe called for 4/5 jigger of Smirnoff vodka and 1/5 jigger of dry vermouth to be stirred with the ice; the garnish was a twist of lemon peel. Forty years ago, ordering a vodka Martini in an old-time bar was as radical as exploding a Molotov cocktail. Today it is purely a matter of taste,” Conrad writes. “Even if you don’t mix your own drinks, an essential part of enjoying a Martini is its preparation. With professionalism and a dash of character, a masterful bartender elevates duty to craft, then to an art.”