Ger Rijff wrote:
Greedy as I was, I asked him for more
color images from Richmond. "I know of many more, I said". He smiled,
left his office room and returned after 10 minutes.
"Here. Is this what you're lookin' for, Rijff?" He opened a large cardboard
box, and pulled out half a dozen plastic holders, containing at least 20 color
slides each ! Some amazing backstage material I looked at, that never, to
this very day, have seen print!
"These are the original slides, dating back to 1956", he explained. "Ive never
let them out of this office. I don't trust photo labs... They can make dubbs
behind my back, and before I know, they pop up on the black market!"
"But give me some time, and I will see if I can think up a way to get copies
made..."
Five years would pass, but he never got around making copies of the color slides
for me. There was always some excuse why he didn't. In the meantime I had
worked on several cover designs for the Hound Dog session photo book... Still
optimistic, hoping to make the Wertheimer photos into a series of 5 different
volumes. Hence the volume 1 on the cover of Songs Of Innocence reject.
He finally said he couldn't do it, as he had been offered a small fortune by a
big UK Publishing House that wanted to do a monster sized book that would
include all his 1956 color photography...!
For whatever reason that project never materialised either. I took my losses,
published 'Songs', and kept the remaining Richmond material for a later date.
There wasn't enough Richmond to fill up a book, so I had it combined with
other rare early photographs from various sources. It was released in 2001
as 'The Hottest Thing That's Cool'. One of my own all time favourite books.
I just received the great German magazine Golden Boy Elvis. In it there's an interview
with Alfred Wertheimer with some great news.
This magazine is published by Helmut Radermacher.
He's living in Coburg, the place where Alfred Wertheimer was born.
Alfred Wertheimer was born November 16, 1929 and left Germany at July 2, 1936
Alfred worked with Elvis till July 4, 1956. He was for 3 and a half month the photographer of
Elvis Presley.
Here a picture from Alfred Wertheimer on the cover of a German magazine from 1957
Attachment:
File comment: Kristall
Kristall.jpg [ 325.08 KiB | Viewed 73 times ]
Alfred started photographing when he went to school in the Schule Cooper Union in New York.
Then he was called for Duty as a soldier where he was stationed in Germany.
In 1954 when he came out of the Army he got a job as a fashion photographer with Tom Palumbo
in New York City. His photographs were published in a lot of magazines back then.
In 1955 he left Palumbo and became free photographer with a group in David Linton Studio on
3rd Avenue, near 74th Street in New York City.
This is where he got in touch with RCA who were searching for a photographer for "the new singing
sensation". Alfred had to be in the CBS Studio 50 at March 17 1956 to make photos on the Stage Show.
Alfred once more made pictures of Elvis. That was September 22, 1958 when Elvis was in Brooklyn
with USS Randall with 6000 other soldiers to ship to Germany.
Other celebrities Wertheimer photographed were amongst others Paul Anka, Dion & the Belmonts,
Leonard Bernstein, Eleanor Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline, Richard Nixon and his
wife, Nina Simone ...
He also filmed for the movie WOODSTOCK in 1970.
The great news is the Alfred Wertheimer still has ca.100 unpublished color pictures of Elvis.
He is planning to release these in a book with the first edition of only 1000 copies.
The price for this first edition will be 800-900 euro's.
Later on there will be a cheaper version.
I'll wait for the cheaper version. But I hope it will be published soon !!!!!!!!!
Login
Register
FAQ
Members
