STrUCTioN - Taschen

February 2013
The making of Elvis,
behind the scenes
The King of Rock’n’Roll is born
Opposite: Elvis on his Harley outside the
family home, 1956.
“Elvis who?” was photographer Alfred Wertheimer’s response when, in early 1956, an
RCA Victor publicist asked him to shoot an up-and-coming crooner from Memphis.
Little did Wertheimer know that this would be the job of his life: just 21 years old,
Elvis Presley was—as we now know—about to become a legend. Trailing him like a
shadow, Wertheimer was given unlimited access to get up close and personal with
Elvis; even as the singer was seducing young women in dark hallways, he allowed the
photographer to record his every move. Wertheimer took nearly 3,000 photographs
of Presley that year, creating a penetrating portrait of a man poised on the brink of
superstardom. Extraordinary in its intimacy and unparalleled in its scope,
Wertheimer’s Elvis project immortalized a young man in the very process of making
history. (Just a month after he shot Elvis recording the “Don’t Be Cruel”/”Hound
Dog” record, it became the first ever to top all three Billboard charts.)
XL
Format
Limited to 1,706 numbered copies signed by Wertheimer, this Collector’s Edition
brings together his most remarkable Elvis shots from 1956, along with a selection
from his historic pictures of the star in 1958 as he was being shipped off to an army
base in Germany. Though many of Wertheimer’s photos of Elvis are among the best
known, nearly half of the photographs in this book have never been published before.
Each chapter is illustrated with an original poster created for this book by Hatch
Show Print, one of the oldest letterpress print shops in America. In business since
1879, Hatch printed posters for vaudeville, circuses, and entertainers on world tours
in the early 20th century; and created many of the powerful woodblock images to
help define the look of country music in the 1940s, Rock’n’Roll (including many early
Elvis posters) in the 1950s. Fans of photojournalism, portraiture, and, of course, the
King himself will covet this collector’s volume.
Alfred Wertheimer.
Elvis and the Birth of Rock and Roll
Chris Murray, Robert Santelli
Hardcover in clamshell box,
12.2 x 17.3 in., 418 pp.
978-3-8365-3423-9
$ 700 / CAD 800
,!7ID8D6-fdecdj!
— 65 —