LOS ANGELES – Photographer Alfred Wertheimer got a call in 1956 to take publicity pictures of a young singer he had never heard of. It was Elvis Presley, on the cusp of worldwide fame.
Wertheimer got impromptu, often sweet-natured photos that are among the most celebrated images of the future king of rock ‘n’ roll.
“He was just starting to gain a sense of his own stardom,” Wertheimer told Los Angeles Times writer Robert Hilburn in 1979 when his photo book, “Elvis ’56,” was published. “That’s what I think makes the pictures so interesting now.
“They capture that changing time in his life.”
Wertheimer, 84, died Sunday at his home in New York. He had been in declining health since a bad fall several months ago during a trip to Germany for an Elvis festival, said his book editor and exhibition curator, Chris Murray.