Ed Bonja, the longtime photographer of Elvis Presley, is dead. He died on Wednesday at the age of 74 years after a serious illness in a Berlin hospital, said the music producer Bernhard Kurz. Bonja and Kurz have worked together for years on "Elvis - The Musical". Since Bonja as a concert photographer and tour manager from 1970 until shortly before his death in 1977 was very close to Presley, his insider knowledge flowed into the musical.
Bonja knew the rock'n'roll musician by his own account since the 1960s and later accompanied him as assistant to the manager Colonel Tom Parker on his tours. His recordings adorn several LP covers of the musician. His archive with some still unpublished recordings includes the information according to about 9000 photos of Elvis Presley.
With some fans, the photographer had strange experiences when they learned of his Elvis connection, he once told the "Berliner Zeitung". So it had happened that someone just wanted to hold his hand for only half an hour because he could feel close to the King.
The first time Bonja saw Elvis 1957 in the Pan-Pacific Auditorium in Los Angeles, where Presley played two days in a row. Bonja told the "Mitteldeutsche Zeitung" that he had seen more than a thousand concerts by Elvis and made them on almost all photos. Elvis also loved his camera. "Whenever he saw me, he did poses, and I was even allowed to take pictures directly on stage, which was very unusual."