About
Welcome to my web site, Ed Bonja’s IMAGES OF THE KING, where you can view hundreds of pictures of The King Of Rock ‘N’ Roll and Entertainer Of The Century, Elvis Presley. Ed Bonja was fortunate enough to have taken over 10,000 photos of Elvis, from in September of 1970 through June 1975. On my site, you will see some of the best and most famous photos of Elvis ever taken. I sincerely hope you enjoy them, and thank you very much for stopping by.
Born in Chicago, Illinois in 1945, Ed Bonja moved with his large family to Los Angeles, California, in 1952. Ed Bonja graduated from California State University, Los Angeles in 1970, majoring in Industrial Arts and French. A year of post-graduate studies culminated in a California Standard Teaching Credential.
Ed Bonja first met Thomas A Parker (not Colonel yet) in Chicago in the late 1940’s through his uncle, Tom Diskin, who was managing a singing trio known as the Little Dickens Sisters, made up of three of Ed’s aunts. Tom Parker and Tom Diskin met and became friends while their acts were performing on the same shows as they toured around the country. They often visited the Bonjas’ home in Chicago and Los Angeles for Sunday afternoon supper. The entire Bonja family grew up knowing Tom Parker and his wife, Marie, as Uncle Tom (later Uncle Colonel) and Aunt Marie. Of course, the Bonja’s were the first kids on the block to know about Elvis Presley, and the Colonel made sure that they had all his records, photos and souvenirs. It was in June of 1964, while working for the Colonel, that Ed Bonja first met Elvis at a surprise birthday party Elvis gave for the Colonel at MGM Studios.
When Elvis and the Colonel made the decision to start doing live concert tours again in 1970, the Colonel asked Ed, his brother, Ron, and a couple cousins to come along on the tours and “help out” in any way needed to assure the tours ran smoothly – from loading and unloading equipment from trucks and planes, to selling Elvis Souvenirs at the concerts. The Colonel knew that Ed Bonja had just begun studying photography , and he suggested that Ed bring his camera on that first tour in September of 1970 and feel free to take all the pictures he wanted. Ed did bring his camera on that tour, and that was the start of his taking several thousand photographs of Elvis Presley over the next five years. Ed Bonja would take off from school for a couple weeks for a tour, then return to his studies.
After completing his college post-graduate work in 1971, Ed Bonja went to work on a full- time basis as an assistant to the Colonel and as the Elvis Presley Show Tour Manager and Photographer until April of 1977. During the 1970’s, Ed’s photographs were used for all the souvenir books, posters, buttons and publicity shots that were seen and sold at Elvis Concerts and Las Vegas/Lake Tahoe Engagements. Ed’s first record album cover was ELVIS As Recorded Live At Madison Square Garden, released in June of 1972. His photos appear on the covers of dozens of Elvis’ LP Albums, Single Sleeves and CD’s. In the booklet with the 1970’s Box Set (THE ESSENTIAL 70’S MASTERS) RCA/BMG used twenty-six of Ed’s photographs; and four of the five cover shots used for the individual CD’s for that set were also Ed’s work. Both the original cover and the more recent remake of the Elvis’ MOODY BLUE CD by RCA/BMG featured seven of Ed Bonja’s photographs
