Alfred Wertheimers classic pictures of Elvis Presley are part of a photo exhibit which will be a part of the new Smithsonian Traveling Exhibition. It Shows Elvis before He Was “The King of Rock ’n’ Roll”. This exhibit will debut at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles on Elvis' 75th birthday, January 8, 2010. The exhibit will remain there until March 28, 2010 and then travel to museums across the USA throughout 2013.
The exhibit is titled, " Elvis At 21: Photograghs by Alfred Wertheimer" and it will feature 56 striking images of the king. We wish Al much success with the exhibit.
More about Alfred Wertheimer:
Photojournalist Alfred Wertheimer was hired by RCA Victor in 1956 to shoot promotional images of a recently signed 21-year-old recording artist, Elvis Presley. Wertheimer’s instincts to “tag along” with the artist after the assignment and the resulting images provide us today with a look at Elvis before he exploded onto the scene and became one of the most exciting performers of his time.
Wertheimer had unparalleled access and documented Elvis on the road, backstage, in concert, in the recording studio and at home in Memphis, Tenn. “Colonel” Tom Parker, Elvis’ manager, restricted contact just a short time later. The photographs document a remarkable time when Elvis could sit alone at a drugstore lunch counter.
“Henri Cartier-Bresson was known for photographing what he called the ‘decisive moment,’ that moment when everything falls into place,” said Wertheimer. “But I was more interested in the moments before or after the decisive moment.”
Wertheimer was up close to capture a flirtatious encounter with a young woman backstage in Richmond, Va. He was in the New York City recording studio on the historic day Elvis recorded “Don’t Be Cruel” and “Hound Dog.” Both songs hit No. 1 on the charts, the first and only time a single record would achieve this distinction.
Wertheimer also joined Elvis after the recording session as he traveled home to Memphis by train. One image shows Elvis as just part of the crowd surrounding a lunch vendor on a train platform during a brief stop on the 27-hour trip. The anonymity he had during this stop was short-lived; the trip followed a busy few months when Elvis appeared on the television shows “Stage Show,” “The Milton Berle Show” and “The Steve Allen Show.” The photographs of a concert in Russwood Park on his return to Memphis show a young man who now had to have a police escort to get through the crowd of fans between his car and the stadium.