The Truth Behind Elvis' Manager Colonel Tom Parker
The film showcases the dating between ‘The King’ and his manager, and a new generation of fans who can't get enough Elvis content have been fascinated by what they’ve realized about the guy who formed Elvis and made him one of the biggest stars of all time. It’s for sure a captivating tale.
It's interesting that Elvis's ex-wife, Priscilla, speaking on the subject of how the star would have reacted to the biopic, has staunchly defended Parker, slamming a few of the tales doing the rounds after the film's free up.
Thomas Andrew Parker’s affiliation with Presley made him an overly wealthy man, even supposing his gambling habit saw him losing maximum of his fortune. Audiences grew acquainted with seeing him at the singer’s facet, an it appears outstanding Colonel who have been born in Huntingdon, West Virginia, around 1900.
Elvis Fans Are Suspicious Of Colonel Parker
As Elvis grew in stature, inevitably folks turned into desirous about those who made up his interior circle. That incorporated his manager.
And the knowledge that was once dug up about the Colonel didn’t paint a gorgeous photograph.
In Parker’s version of his life tale, he had run clear of house to sign up for a circus, the place he worked with elephants and horses. In actuality, he labored the carnival circuit, presenting acts like Colonel Tom Parker and His Dancing Chickens, which saw the fowls jumping because they had been on a sizzling plate hidden under sawdust. He also ran a palm-reading sales space.
So Who Was Colonel Parker Really?
Among others, he used to be an illegal immigrant, who had never been naturalized as an American. Although he informed tales about having worked as a sailor on Holland America Cruise Line, he used to be much more likely on board as a stowaway.
In fact, Elvis’s manager was Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk. Born in June 1909, in Breda in The Netherlands, he used to be the 7th kid of a supply driving force and his wife. At the age of 18, he simply disappeared without a hint, He hadn’t taken his id papers, clothes, or any cash.
It was once handiest in 1960 that Parker’s sister, Nel Dankers-van Kuijk, learned he used to be nonetheless very a lot alive and used to be running as the manager of one among the most famed other people in the global. Reading an article about Elvis, she recognized the singer’s manager as her long-lost brother. Despite his family seeking to re-establish touch with him, he resisted all makes an attempt.
After his time on the carnivals, Parker had modified direction. By the late Thirties, he used to be running as a tune promoter, managing crooner Gene Austin, and nation singers Minnie Pearl, Hank Snow, and Tommy Sands.
Under Parker’s exclusive control, any other country singer, Eddy Arnold became a famous person together with his personal radio display, bookings in Las Vegas, and a string of number one records which noticed him changing into one in every of the maximum prolific hitmakers in history.
Did Parker Take Advantage Of Elvis?
Many of the main points only made information in 1980, when enthusiasts had been surprised to be informed that Parker had taken a huge 50% of Elvis’s income. A pass judgement on found that his control was unethical and that he had price his shopper thousands and thousands.
Parker had additionally discovered many different ways to get money out of the legend of Elvis. In what was in all probability the first advertising and marketing campaign geared toward the youngster market, he bought Elvis lipstick, appeal bracelets, sneakers, record players, and teddy endure fragrance. He even sold “I Hate Elvis” buttons for many who didn’t like the singer. By 1957, he had grossed over $22 million thru vending alone.
Despite the obvious exploitation of Elvis, some critics argue that Parker was a groundbreaking manager and a grasp promoter: He negotiated one in every of the first $1 million-a-picture offers for a Hollywood actor and ensured that by means of his films, Elvis stayed in the public eye all through his time in the army.
He additionally landed the singer the highest-paying Vegas contract for the time, plus he staged the first are living international solo live performance by the use of satellite for Elvis’s Aloha from Hawaii special in 1973.
The Colonel encouraged anything else that grabbed headlines. He even used the controversy to get coverage.
Was Colonel Parker Really A Colonel?
Not truly. Although he used an esteemed army rank, it was once an honorary name bestowed on him by means of the governor of Louisiana. His time in the U.S. Army had, in fact, ended in disgrace, and the handiest rank he accomplished used to be that of a personal. After going absent without leave, he spent a number of months in military prison for desertion, where he suffered a fearful breakdown, leading to his discharge from the Army.
His uneasy dating with the army didn’t end there, on the other hand. Drafted to serve throughout World War II, Parker adopted an alarming routine to ensure he didn’t must do accountability: He ate till he weighed more than three hundred pounds, getting himself declared not worthy for further carrier because of this.
The eighteen-year-old Van Kuijk had vanished in May 1929 with out telling any of his family or friends the place he used to be heading. Later, investigations lead to the surprising revelation that his disappearance had coincided with an unsolved murder in the town of his start.
A 23-year-old woman have been battered to demise in her house behind the greengrocer store she and her husband ran. After ransacking the space, the killer scattered a layer of pepper around the frame sooner than fleeing, to stop police canine from picking up his odor. The murder came about on the identical evening Van Kuijk disappeared.
Whether he was involved in the murder has never been established, leaving enthusiasts wondering if Colonel Tom Parker was once truly that dangerous. It’s simply another link in the chain of dark secrets and techniques around the manager of the icon.
Colonel Parker died in 1997. Despite residing his life as someone else, his death certificates is made out in his real identify, Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk.
Meanwhile, Elvis Presley is still the biggest-selling solo artist of all time.
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