ELVIS AT 21: Early portraits of the young King

Elvis Presley died Aug. 16, 1977, at Graceland, his mansion in Memphis, Tenn.

All the headlines said so.

However, that's not stopping the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts from throwing a party Jan. 8, complete with cake, to celebrate Presley's 77th birthday.

The 1-3 p.m. bash is free and open to the public. It's part of the hoopla surrounding VMFA's Christmas Eve opening of "Elvis at 21," an exhibition of 56 black-and-white photographs of Presley taken by New York photojournalist Alfred Wertheimer in 1956 when the baby-faced singer was on the verge of superstardom.

The honored guest at the birthday party will be Barbara Gray, 75, of Charleston, S.C., a real estate manager who recently was identified as the girl kissing Presley backstage at the Mosque (now Landmark Theater) in several of Wertheimer's photographs.

Presley will be there, too, if VMFA director Alex Nyerges has his way.

Nyerges fancies himself the world's biggest Presley fan. He loves to proclaim Presley "the king." The license plates on Nyerges' car read LUVN YOU in tribute to one of Presley's hits.

"Just like those folks who lay roses on Edgar Allan Poe's grave, I wouldn't be surprised if folks come to the birthday party with spontaneous gifts for the king," Nyerges says.

Who will get the presents?

"Elvis, of course," Nyerges deadpans. "You don't believe that myth that he's dead, do you?"

Meanwhile, the museum is working overtime on everything Elvis. The casual Best Café is coming up with a panini version of Presley's favorite sandwich, peanut butter and banana, and a private-label chardonnay with Wertheimer photos of Presley on the label. The upscale Amuse Restaurant is dreaming up what it calls Elvis-inspired cocktails. The gift shop is stocking items ranging from Presley's signature sunglasses to hound dog toys.

The exhibition is a no-frills affair that will display the photos that Wertheimer took for RCA Victor for publicity purposes after Presley signed with the label. Eleven of the photographs were shot at the Mosque, the Jefferson Hotel and other Richmond locations.

Two years later, Wertheimer photographed a multimillionaire Presley when he was being inducted into the Army and going through training, but those photographs are not included in the show. He never photographed Presley again.

"It was just another assignment, but one that lasted 55 years," Wertheimer, 82, recalls by phone from his Manhattan home. "I went through a 19-year dry spell after I took those photographs. I didn't get a single call for an Elvis photograph."

When Presley died, Wertheimer's phone started ringing, and the Presley photo requests have never stopped.

Wertheimer's photographs trade on intimacy.

"I got along very well with Elvis," he recalls. "If people are involved deeply in what they're doing, they don't pay much attention to you as an observer. I left him alone. I was too shy to ask him to do otherwise. He let me follow him around. I accepted what he was doing. I didn't question it. I got the feeling that he was basically a very quiet guy who, when he was onstage, would be extremely exuberant. He was very shy offstage, shyer than I was."

Wertheimer attributes Presley's success largely to his effect on girls.

"Elvis knew how to make girls cry," he says. "They weren't just screaming and yelling. They were crying. When you can do that, you're a winner. The girls are the ones who buy the tickets, the (fan) magazines. Elvis let his hair down, and the girls let their tears down. It was like a catharsis, almost a religious experience, even a sexual experience. After it was over, you felt good."

Wertheimer said he saw no hint of the drug abuse that would lead to Presley's early death.

"But he did like his junk food," Wertheimer says. "We're talking Pepsi and Coke, and he liked his burgers. As a musician in those days, you ate what was in the vending machines outside the recording studios. You didn't eat properly."

Wertheimer tried to persuade RCA Victor to let him shoot Presley in color.

"They shot me down on it," he recalls. "They asked who was going to pay for developing the film."

"Elvis at 21" is on the last leg of an eight-city tour. Booking it was a no-brainer for Nyerges, especially since the array includes 11 photographs shot in Richmond. The show occupies about 4,000 feet in VMFA's south wing.

"There will be some panels, but no extensive labeling," Nyerges says. "We want people to concentrate on the photographs.

"They stand on their own. They cross the line between documentary photography and that amazing trend in the 1950s called street photography, or candid shots of everyday life. The drama of the compositions, the printing and the artistry that Wertheimer put into these photographs make them important, even if Elvis hadn't become the king of rock 'n' roll."