He also strongly opposed to Elvis recording songs in West Germany (where his garrison was stationed) and fought to maintain public interest in Elvis throughout his time in the army. This is Luhrmann showing us Elviss influences. The Colonel always was a mystery. Baz Luhrmanns movie has drawn Elvis back into the limelight, and along with him, his manager, Colonel Tom Parker. King used to visit some in Las Vegas, but that was in the 70s. When he was discharged, the papers stated he was He liked B.B. Alanna Nash has written four books about Elvis, including The Colonel: The Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley. Hes always Tom Hanks, cladded up in a fat suit, prosthetic jowls, and an exaggerated nose drooping from a boiled egg of a face and pate, sometimes resembling his pal LBJ. And he had what sounded like a slight lisp or speech impediment. Music critics, journalists, academics and fans have long debated the idea of Elvis as a white thief of Black art. Over the course of their long relationship, he exerted a remarkable level of control over the star, who put up with him until his death in 1977. But things started to fall apart as the pressures of fame caught up to him. Why was Colonel Tom Parker never arrested for impersonating an Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic. The hold that Parker had over Presley did not extend to Presleys family. Its both sanitized and expanded. To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. ), Elvis didnt steal Black music simply by performing it. A Complete Guide 2022-2023, Copyright 2023 list23.com [Breaking U.S. News & Latest World News] Media LLC | But the snippets on the talking only album had no context and were a jumbled mess. (Despite his unofficial title, he was never a colonel: Louisiana governor Jimmie Davis granted him an honorary colonelcy in 1948, and Parker clung to it for life.). Yes and no. No, Elvis Didn't Fire Colonel Tom Parker From the Stage at Las Vegas In the later years of his life Elvis performed several Las Vegas residency shows after the Colonel Aside from arguably being the father of American popular culture through the marketing and merchandising of his client, the Colonel negotiated one of the first $1 million-a-picture deals for a Hollywood actor, landed Elvis the highest-paying Vegas contract for the time, and protected the exploitation rights for dead celebrities through his swift actions for the Presley estate in 1977. Honorably discharged for psychopathy in 1933, it wasnt through the military, but rather a carny connection, that Parker received the honorary title of colonel from the Louisiana state government. Yes. The Truth About Elvis Presley's Relationship With His Manager, In making him such an antagonist, they have robbed him of his many accomplishments with his client. The world was not prepared for Elvis Presley, proclaimed music writer Peter Guralnick in The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll. Listen, this guy was no fool! Parker Shes also one of our great actorsand is at last getting her showcase. Tom Hanks plays this villainy broadly with cartoonish gusto, veering somewhere between Snidely Whiplash and Sydney Greenstreet. Whatever served Elvis interests served Parkers, too: He contractually took a 25 percent cut on all of his clients earnings (50 percent for licensing and merchandise). Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. Elvis picked all his own songs and picturesthe scripts were sent directly to his house. Some people have said the movie undersells Elvis country and crooner influences to make him look like almost solely the product of blues and R&B. Did Colonel Parker Steal get from Elvis? By Shireen Hollier. In fairness, the rock star was pretty entertaining on stage. Whats the real origin story of Parker hearing about and going to discover Elvis? Though his triumphant 1973 Aloha From Hawaii broadcast kept his myth alive, it wasnt enough for the man himself. Elvis Was Near To Penniless At The Time Of His Death. [He] was not a warm and fuzzy guy, says Nash. First of all, when Colonel Parker enlisted in the U.S. Army, he declared himself a Dutch citizen, with parents born in Holland. One of Parkers biggest missteps came in 1974 when the manager devised a plan to make money outside of Elvis contract with RCA Records. Although Parker successfully landed Arnold performances in Las Vegas and acting roles in movies, Arnold evidently found his management style claustrophobic, because he fired him in 1953. I would say it was in his spiritual DNA, as he grew up with Black playmates and heard that music all around him. Stowing away on a cruise liner to the States in 1929, the Colonel lived for decades in fear of being discovered as an illegal alien. Parker used Jimmie to sidle up to Elvis and form a friendship to get Elvis to sign with Parker and the elder Snow, who were then business partners. But its gone now.. Colonel Parker is seen as under pressure from secretive governmental forces who want to keep Elvis from corrupting youth and to try to get him to tamp down The Colonels Scandalous Treatment Of Elvis. What about Presleys entrance into the Army? He sat there so engrossed that he never moved, though God knows how many times hed seen it. While managing Elvis and traveling the country in the late 50s, the Colonel was accompanied by William Morris agent-in-training Byron Raphael, who remembered, He often took me to these little carnivals that were so small they didnt even have a big tent. And while Remembered Alan Fortas, a member of Elviss Memphis Mafia entourage: He performed a wedding ceremony on a Ferris wheel. The Colonel encouraged anything that grabbed headlines and created controversy for his boy. Others believe that Parker was a shrewd businessman who helped Elvis become one of The time he got so mad at me, hammering his cane in the floorboard of his Buick on that ominous ride through the Sin City desert, was when I asked him why he didnt give Elvis better movie scripts and songs. In his frenetic, dazzling, exhilarating mess of a movie, Elvis, Baz Luhrmann has done much the same when it comes to Colonel Parker, showing us only one side of a highly complex and intensely fascinating and mysterious character. I mean, music, movies, stylehe was a sponge. Elvis Presley was many things. Hanks gives Parker a pan-European-cum-Nazi accent, but in real life, most people bought his story of hailing from Huntington, West Virginia, a relatively isolated area in the 50s. The film has it wrong: Parker likely didnt blanch when Elviss hips summoned the vice squad. He was 42 years old. Did the Colonel live out his later years being sickly in casinos, as portrayed in the movies framing device? He also grew estranged from his family: The South Florida Sun-Sentinel writes that his mother did not hear from him between 1933 and her death in 1958, while The Smithsonian describes his sister Nel Dankers-van Kuijk discovering that he was Elvis Presleys manager after seeing them together in a magazine in 1960. In 1935, he married Marie Mott, and they made their home in Tampa, Florida. From cover songs originated by Black artists like Big Mama Thornton (Hound Dog) and Little Richard (Tutti Frutti) to his hip shakes (a 1969 New York Times headline described him as A White Boy With Black Hips), Elvis borrowed heavily from Black culture.