Celebrity Watch: Al Wertheimer and the Dreaded Tonto Bar

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Al Wertheimer and the Dreaded Tonto Bar

I received an unexpected e-mail last week. It was from Alfred Wertheimer, the most famous Elvis photographer and an interesting guy. He sent me a joke. Not just me. He had a blast e-mail list of folks he shared the joke with, and I was thrilled he had me on his list.

The message was short:

?All:

Time out for a good old fashioned laugh.

AW?

And, at that point I realized Al had sent me a joke. Cool. Here it is:

Nice little joke.

When I wrote Al back to thank him, I enclosed a photo I found on the internet somewhere and asked if it was one of his. And, if it was, could I post it as well and comment on it. Al not only was nice enough to say yes, he also was nice and sent me a better copy of the photo.

Photo by Alfred Wertheimer - used by permission

Do you know what Elvis is doing here? If you are familiar with his 1956 TV show appearances, you will recognize this as a shot from the Steve Allen Show. It is from the same night when Elvis wore a tux and sang to a real hound dog. Allen had Elvis in a comedy sketch about coyboys. Here we see him shooting at a dreaded Tonto Bar being pulled across the stage by a wire. The skit was pretty lame, but I love watching it again.

A couple of observations. How do you like that wide belt Elvis is wearing? Maybe a forerunner of things to come. And what?s with the shoes? I asked Alfred why Elvis was wearing white shoes, not cowboy boots, and he said the photo was taken at rehersal. Elvis wore boots for the live broadcast.

Alfred always has plenty of stuff going on -- mostly Elvis related. I keep asking him if I could do a phone interview about his gig as a film photographer at Woodstock. Al was on the Woodstock staff. Talk about being in a situation with amazing opportunities for memorable events. You know Al has to have some good stories to tell, and I?ll be happy just to write about his. Someday, I hope.

For the past two years, Alfred has been involved with the Smithsonian Institution?s touring exhibition ?Elvis at Twenty One.?

"Elvis at Twenty-One" features forty of his famous photographs of Elvis, and it opened in January 2008 at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles. The exhibition?s three month run at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond just ended. Click here for a great review of this exhibit by Troy Yeary at the Mystery Train Elvis Blog.