Elvis at
21: New York to Memphis
featuring Alfred Wertheimer's
seminal Elvis photos from 1956
will be released during October,
2006.
For a peek inside the book-
click here.
In 1956, a
twenty-one-year-old Elvis
Presley was at the beginning of
his remarkable and unparalleled
career and photographer Alfred
Wertheimer was asked by
Presley�s new label, RCA Victor,
to photograph the rising star.
With unimpeded access to the
young performer, Wertheimer was
able to capture the unguarded
and everyday moments in Elvis'
life during that crucial year, a
year that took him from Tupelo,
Mississippi to the silver
screen, and to the verge of
international stardom and his
crowning as "The King of Rock
'n' Roll.� As Alfred Wertheimer
photographed Elvis during 1956,
and again in 1958, he created
classic images that are
spontaneous, unrehearsed and
completely without artifice.
Wertheimer�s photographs of
Elvis are extraordinary and he
appears almost ethereal, whether
reading a newspaper while
waiting for a cab, or washing
his hands during one of his many
train trips. After 1958 and
Elvis� induction into the army,
the world seemingly forgot about
Wertheimer�s magical
photographs- for nineteen years-
until Aug 16, 1977, the day
Elvis died and Time Magazine
called. �The phone hasn�t really
stopped ringing in the last
thirty years,� observes
Wertheimer.
Many of the photographs in this
visual treasury are previously
unpublished and some have become
almost as famous as the man
himself.
About the Author
Alfred
Wertheimer was born in Germany
in 1930, came to America and
settled in Brooklyn as a young
boy. He took an early interest
in architecture and design,
which led him to Cooper Union,
from which he graduated in 1951.
In the spring of 1956, a series
of commercial assignments for
RCA Records led to a shoot of a
newly signed singer named Elvis
Presley. Instantly impressed,
Wertheimer devoted four months
of his own time to intensely
shadow the young star. The
result would be the most
intimate and candid look at the
future legend ever recorded.
Peter
Guralnick is an award-winning
biographer of Elvis Presley and
author of Last Train to
Memphis and Careless Love.
A music critic, screenwriter,
and historian of American
popular music, he is also the
author of Dream Boogie: The
Triumph of Sam Cooke.
Hardcover with 224 pages a
deluxe edition with 248 pages.