Apr 26 2006
Bill Haley’s Glasses II
I always thought that my picture of Bill Haley was quite rare because of the glasses he wore but while Googling for other Haley pictures I found more pictures of the Father of Rock & Roll wearing (sun)glasses, so I contacted Haley historian Chris Gardner and asked him about it.
Here is his response:
>>That’s a pretty interesting question.
For a start, I reckon you took it in 1979 – he actually lived until February 1981. He was blind in his left eye as a result of an operation when he was only 4, and this set one eye adrift from the other and made him very
sensitive about his looks. He wore glasses from a relatively early age – I can’t be precise when he started, but there are “candid” pictures of him in the recording studio, wearing glasses, from the mid 1950′s. Through the sixties he was often happy to be photographed in sunglasses. I guess this
hid the problem with his eyes, but also made him look “hip”. He would usually be careful to be photographed from the right hand side to disguise the lazy eye. And then from the mid 1970′s, around 1975 to be precise, he appears to have been photographed (when offstage) more with his glasses than without. This may be the point that he moved from just needing reading
glasses to needing glasses all the time.
He also became less worried about being photographed on his “better side”, although I note he gave you a slight lead with the right hand side.
Great photo!
Chris
http://www.billhaleycentral.com/
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His e-mail reminded me of a remark historian Richter Roegholt made during a portrait session in my old studio. “Photographers always annoy me a bit, because they never date their pictures correctly,” he commented.
He was right. Without Chris Gardner’s e-mail I would have definitely dated the portrait of Bill Haley a year later. Luckily today we have cameras that do the time stamping for us.