Alfred Wertheimer. Elvis and the Birth of Rock and Roll Book

The Most Intimate Portrait of Elvis Ever Captured

In early 1956, photographer Alfred Wertheimer was handed an assignment he almost turned down. "Elvis who?" was his response when an RCA Victor publicist asked him to photograph an up-and-coming singer from Memphis. What followed was the job of a lifetime.

Trailing a 21-year-old Elvis Presley like a shadow, Wertheimer took nearly 3,000 photographs over the course of that extraordinary year — capturing a young man on the precise cusp of becoming a legend. No barriers, no handlers, no distance. Just a photographer and his subject, in the moments before the world changed.

Elvis and the Birth of Rock and Roll collects Wertheimer's most remarkable images from 1956, along with a selection of his 1958 photographs documenting Elvis's departure to an Army base in Germany. Together, they form an unparalleled visual record of rock 'n' roll's most pivotal chapter.

Each chapter is illustrated with original posters by Hatch Show Print — one of America's oldest letterpress print shops, which created many of Elvis's earliest concert posters in the 1950s — adding a layer of historical authenticity that makes this volume truly special.

Wertheimer's photographs first gained national attention after Elvis's death on August 16, 1977. Decades later, they remain the definitive visual document of a cultural transformation — the moment a young man from Tupelo became The King.

Book Details

• Author/Photographer: Alfred Wertheimer (1929–2014)
• Pages: 336
• Format: Hardcover
• Dimensions: 8.8 x 12.4 in.
• Weight: 5.22 lb
• Photos: Over 300 photographs

An essential volume for every serious Elvis collector — and anyone who loves the history of rock 'n' roll.