Catching Zebra

Brad Elterman:

My timing could not have been more perfect to be nineteen and right there on the scene with The Ramones, Runaways, Dylan and nude swim parties with a camera hanging around my neck. If I was a couple of years later, I would have missed everything!

I think John Rockwell invited me to this party. Directly behind the Beverly Hills Hotel is a huge mansion owned by David Lane. I knew many of the guests, although an older crowd because I was about 21. It was a warm sunny afternoon, I was standing next to the bar trying to get a drink and all of a sudden this lovely girl started to strip down right in front of me. I only had a wide-angle 24 mm camera lens, not really wide enough, so I backed up as far as I could, almost knocking over the bar. You have to do the best you can in these situations. Take a close look at the guy on the left of the photograph walking towards the girl. That is Burt who was and still is, almost thirty years later, a permanent fixture on the party circuit. I am sure that he was on his way to get this girl’s telephone number. Back then, I did not think it too much of a big deal going to a Mega Mansion party in Beverly Hills with nude girls because I attended three or four of these a week! This was the only photograph worth taking at the party and now is one of my favorite photos. It truly captured a moment from that incredible era that I will never see again.

Photo by Brad Elterman