Just arrived from New York, and having to return again at night, for his intervention on the Steve Allen Show, Elvis and his musicians prepare to offer their concerts at the Mosque Theater.

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“Between Rehearsal and Performance on The Steve Allen Show, Elvis caught a train from
New York to Richmond, Virginia, where he was to play two concerts. My camera and I accompany him. When we arrived at the Jefferson Hotel, I watched him charm the ladies, from the elevator operator to the waitress to the mystery date who escorted him, his cousins ??Junior and Bobby Smith, and me in a cab to the Mosque Theater. During the first concert, while other artists were onstage, I briefly lost track of the singer, only to find him and his partner at the end of a dark hallway. They were so intimately involved that I was invisible to them… but my camera froze the memory in a photograph known today as “The Kiss.” Elvis’ electrifying performances that night ended with a flurry of screaming and wailing from fans and the final announcement: “Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has left the building.” It was the night of June 30, 1956, as Elvis was returning to New York to perform live on the nationally televised Steve Allen Show.”

Alfred Wertheimer. The photographer of your soul.