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HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELVIS!

Had he lived, Elvis Presley, the King of Rock-n-Roll, would have been 75!


Selections from 'Elvis at 21: Photographs by Alfred Wertheimer'


Photographer Al Wertheimer captured Presley at the moment his fame ignited. Some of those images form the heart of a new exhibit at downtown L.A.'s Grammy Museum.


(Alfred Wertheimer)

July 4, 1956: After his visit to New York, where he had sung "Hound Dog" to a basset hound dressed in a top hat on "The Steve Allen Show," Elvis is happy to be back home in Memphis, Tenn., with his mother, Gladys. She is showing him a present -- a bottle of eau de cologne she had received from Barbara Hearn, his high school sweetheart, who is waiting for Elvis in another room.



(Alfred Wertheimer)

July 3, 1956: On the long train ride from New York to Memphis, Elvis listens on a portable record player, plugged into an electric shaver outlet, to one of the acetates of what he'd just laid down in the RCA Records recording studio: "Hound Dog" and "Don't Be Cruel."



(Alfred Wertheimer)

July 4, 1956: Just out of the semi-functional swimming pool he'd bought for his family's home on Audubon Drive in Memphis, Elvis settles down in the house to play acetates of his latest recordings for his high school girlfriend, Barbara Hearn.



(Alfred Wertheimer)

July 1, 1956: Outside the Hudson Theater in New York, where Elvis was about to appear on "The Steve Allen Show," the singer meets with a white-gloved fan from Long Island. Upon his departure, she dissolves in tears.



(Alfred Wertheimer)

Following his hip-shaking appearance on "The Milton Berle Show" a few weeks earlier, Steve Allen tries to avoid further controversy by having Elvis sing the gritty hit "Hound Dog" to a basset hound, playing it for laughs. "Elvis knew he was being had," Wertheimer said, "but what could he do? He was a 21-year-old kid, but it was Steve's show."



(Alfred Wertheimer)

July 4, 1956: "Starburst." Elvis plays to hometown fans back in Memphis at Russwood Park. Wertheimer's camera synced perfectly with that of a fan at the back of the crowd, creating the starburst effect above his head.



(Alfred Wertheimer)

July 1, 1956: Elvis is swarmed by fans seeking autographs outside the Hudson Theater in New York City following his performance on "The Steve Allen Show," where he also had appeared in a comedy skit as Tumbleweed Presley.



(Alfred Wertheimer)

June 30, 1956: Elvis plugs his ears, trying to hear himself better over the screams of fans waiting outside for his show at the Mosque Theater in Richmond, Va., while rehearsing with members of the Jordanaires vocal group. A few minutes later, he went to the window and asked them to be quiet, a request the fans respected.



(Alfred Wertheimer)

July 4, 1956: Elvis waits at a lunch counter for his food at a railroad station in Chattanooga, Tenn., on his way back from New York to Memphis. In the then-segregated South, the black woman waiting for a sandwich had to stand because African Americans weren't allowed to sit at the counter.



(Alfred Wertheimer)

June 30, 1956: "The Kiss." - The one photo people invariably ask about first is the shot he calls "The Kiss," in which Elvis and an unidentified woman playfully embrace in a darkened hallway.

Wertheimer notes that it was taken shortly before Presley was due to step onstage in Richmond, Va. As part of the traveling entourage that also included guitarist Scotty Moore, bassist Bill Black and drummer D.J. Fontana, Wertheimer looked around the dressing room where they were preparing for the show and noticed that Presley was missing.

The photographer went down a flight of stairs and spotted a young couple silhouetted against a window at the end of a corridor. It was Presley and a woman he'd met in a luncheonette earlier that day.

He moved in and began shooting, worrying that his subject might turn at any moment and tell him to get lost or even fire him. He soon realized he was never in any jeopardy.

"I don't think they knew or cared who I was. Elvis was totally focused on her . . . I heard her say, 'I'll bet you can't kiss me, Elvis,' and she sticks out her tongue. He's been trying to kiss her all day long. Then he decides to stick his tongue out just a bit . . . It actually lasted for about one-tenth of a second, but I've been talking about it ever since."


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Loved the pictures and the descriptions of them! Thanks

Great post Craig.

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Thanks guys!


I was a kid when he died, and I remember being sad for quite awhile. He was my favorite, and I just couldn't believe he was gone.

In fact 1977 was a bad year for me. I lost Elvis and from my own hometown of Jacksonville Florida, I also lost Ronnie Van Zant of Lynyrd Skynyrd. Both in the SAME YEAR!


But, these pictures are amazing.

I want to buy the book now.

What a moment in history, that young photographer captured.

Elvis... He'll always be the King!

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I just saw him on TV, he can't be dead

WHen I was in college we went down for the candlelight thingie they do every year, around 82 that would have been the 5th anniversary of his death. Anyway some of my dorm buddies and I are sitting around, and some folks were spray painting the wall. I didnt bring any paint but we were drinking some cheap wine so I said lets spray paint the wall, before it was over 50-60 people were peeeing on the wall. Seemed like a good idea til we sat back down and the pee started running across the sidewalk and stunk the place up.

Sorry Elvis

jw123 wrote:WHen I was in college we went down for the candlelight thingie they do every year, around 82 that would have been the 5th anniversary of his death. Anyway some of my dorm buddies and I are sitting around, and some folks were spray painting the wall. I didnt bring any paint but we were drinking some cheap wine so I said lets spray paint the wall, before it was over 50-60 people were peeeing on the wall. Seemed like a good idea til we sat back down and the pee started running across the sidewalk and stunk the place up.

Sorry Elvis

Elvis was probably one of the 50-60. Berkeley smells like that on some streets. I hate walking that city.

Love the post Craig. Everytime year at this time Elvis's birthday comes around and reminds me my Moms birthday is coming 2 days later. Elvis was born 2 day's before my Mom! I was 19 the year Ronnie and Elvis died. I was a huge fan of both.

I thought he was dead ??
Never cared for his music but used to watch some of his movies.
Now I have to wonder why and how.
It don't get much lamer than that.


Nicely detailed post and good pictures though.

I have to wonder though, that "kiss" photo was to well lit and in focus to not have been staged.

Nice post Craig! Elvis will always be the king. I was a kid too. I was hanging from a branch in my front yard. Mom had promised we would go see him. She came and told me. I was crushed. I had Elvis Golden Records. That was a first permanent influence album on me. I listened to it over and over and over.

J-HALEY wrote:Love the post Craig. Everytime year at this time Elvis's birthday comes around and reminds me my Moms birthday is coming 2 days later. Elvis was born 2 day's before my Mom! I was 19 the year Ronnie and Elvis died. I was a huge fan of both.

Your mom and I share a birthday!

The man was gorgeous, as men go, I suppose. I never found either him or his music to be all that appealing, & I know I'm in the minority on that.

I always looked at Elvis as "he's JUST a singer." I dunno if he ever actually created anything, but I am much more impressed by a creator than I am by a mere performer. And his voice doesn't touch me as much as many others do. He helped bring about the trend what says you hafta be beautiful to be great, though, & I hate him for that, in a way.

There were a cpl of his songs that I quite liked, though.

Gorgeous ?

Pretty boy .... yea maybe.
But gorgeous ?

Look at that first picture. Milk bottle pallor. My 14 year old has more muscle tone / physique.
I,m no judge of male beauty mind you but he looked like a wus to me.

Young guys were suppose to be skinny back then, sans. And women were supposed to be voluptuous. Trends change, but he was quite pretty in his time, as was Marylin Monroe.

What size was Miss Monroe when she died? She was a 16!!! Today, that's considered a frikken COW! Back then, she was the ultimate beauty queen.

Me like em with some curve.