Black and white 8 by 10 press photograph of ventriloquist Alex Houston and his dummy Elmer, identified by printed caption along the vertical edge, depicted in close portrait with the dummy's expressive features prominently displayed. Alex Houston was an American ventriloquist who achieved significant fame through his appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show and other major American television programs during the 1950s and 1960s, with his dummy Elmer becoming one of the more recognized ventriloquist figure characters of the television era. The clean studio lighting and bold close composition are characteristic of mid-century American entertainment press photography. Press prints of Alex Houston and Elmer are collectible within the ventriloquism ephemera field, documenting one of the more successful American ventriloquist acts of the television variety era.