colonel tom parker interview

When I was 23, II got a royalty check for about $5,000 a song called Black Denim Trousers and Motorcycle Boots (a No. "Without that, it would be hard to reflect Elvis against it. How about a credit? And Jerry Wexler said, But you wrote the song! Elvis Fact Check: How Accurate Is Baz Luhrmann's New Movie? - TheWrap Colonel Parker Answered Criticism in 1964 Interview - Elvis History Blog It adds a little spice. The purpose here is not to recap the relationship between Parker and Presley. But he was being very respectful and polite. Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis Presley's Manager : 1993 As Presley's fame grew, people became interested in Parker as well. Elvis and the Colonel were associated throughout the musician's entire career, including music, movies, and TV specials. And director Baz Luhrmann has teased how fans . He was also a consultant to the Hilton, where he gambled every day. Peter (2018), So maybe we never win an Oscar but were going to win a few box office awards. Because I made Elvis Presley. Parker was an avid gambler, which is believed to have been the source of many of his "fast money" dealings with Austin Butler's Elvis. The Coasters were different characters. Elvis clearly demonstrates the ways in which Parker was integral in crafting Presley into an icon, but it also doesn't hold back in exposing the abuses and limitations of that relationship a paradox and tragedy that Hanks says became the most intriguing driving force in his portrayal. And when I got to New York and stepped off the gang plank, Jerry ran up to me I hadnt seen him in almost four months and said, Mike, we got a smash hit! I said, Youre kidding. He said, Hound Dog. I said [incredulously], Big Mama Thornton? He said, No, some white kid named Elvis Presley. And thats how I heard about Elvis. Parker adopted the title as if it were part of his identity, frequently being referred to as "The Colonel," despite his military discharge. In the meantime, Colonel Parker had nixed all offers for Elvis to appear on stage, as he had for Presley to appear on TV. They all took little roles, and we wrote for what they could do. We were having brunch one day in the suite, and Jean Aberbach came in and said, Boys, where are the songs? And I think Jerry said, Dont worry, Jean, youll get em. He said, I know I will get them. And then, of course, there was (the film) Jailhouse Rock (also retitled after a song Leiber and Stoller came up with), which was where Elvis heard the demos and wanted to meet us. We had a few run-ins with the Colonel. He was a wonderful man, and I wish he was alive today. That's what makes him so delicious.". That can be found in detail in two Parker biographies published in recent years . nothing., According to Parker, production costs for the average Presley film ran between $1.5 and $2 million, and if the studio lets it maybe a little more., The Colonel didnt seem too concerned that Elvis film popularity would dry up someday. He was astonished to discover Parker was a poorly dressed, slovenly PR hack, rather than the authoritarian, ram-rod image the word "Colonel" summons. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google. Colonel Parker is of course best known as the manager of Elvis . "I had the luxury of essentially recreating somebody who no one really knew. What is it like for you when you are getting ready to step on set for say a big emotional scene on a Monday, can you explain to me, is it weeks in advance you're thinking about that big scene? And I hated the show. Why AI Has Some Viewers Asking Which Film Actors Are Real. continues Hanks. You are aware that this thing is going to be coming up and you corral all the emotional sheep slowly over the course of it. "Because I don't know what Colonel Tom Parker looks like. Does the phrase Thats All Right, Mama apply to the new Elvis movie as in, thats all correct, maam? "But he had no other client than Elvis Presley, and he lacked the imagination to see just how truly a greater social force Elvis could have been.". Im working on another show right now, and I cant divulge the name of it, because the producers, when theyre ready, will want to do that. No. You and Jerry had projects you wanted to do for Broadway with original stories and song scores. "And I told Baz, 'But you're describing Falstaff and Hal,' and Baz said, 'Exactly, except with millions of dollars thrown into it. He would sniff out talent and attempt to milk them for all they were worth, including Elvis, whom he initially saw as an act that wouldn't last more than a few years. And there's the fault that I think also has to land in both of them because Elvis could have said no. Dont call us sir. After all, we were all of two years older than he was! Billboard is a part of Penske Media Corporation. He also says in the film that if he could find an act that gave the audience feelings they werent sure they should enjoy, but did, he could create the greatest show on earth. up to the suite after the shows. Anyway, whats Elvis need? And we finally were called in, and Jean Aberbach, in his Viennese accent, said, Vell, ze Colonel said, if you ever dare try to interfere in the career of Elvis Presley, you will never work anywhere again New York, London, Hollywood nowhere. And I dont think we ever wrote anything more for him. Carl Gardner was the rube or the straight man. It was craps, roll the dice and see what you get and just keep going.". Would Elvis have gone to Black Pentecostal tent meetings as a kid, as seen in the film? Elvis and the Colonel were associated throughout the musician's entire career, including music, movies, and TV specials. If Hollywood has an everyman, it's Hanks, the affable All-American Guy cut from the same cloth as stars like Gary Cooper, James Stewart, and Henry Fonda. Parker was eventually sued by the Elvis estate over mismanagement, which found his dealings over the years to be unethical and extortionate. From your memoir, it sounds like Peggy Lee might have been the least fun? Cash was split down-the-line of 75% to Elvis and 25% to the Colonel, with the William Morris Agency taking 10% off of the top of film revenues. So far as the wider world knew, the Colonel was Thomas Andrew Parker, born in Huntingdon, West Virginia, some time shortly after 1900. When other songs from the catalog show up in contemporary usage out of nowhere, it must be beyond surprising you. The next day we went into the studio to record, at Radio Recorders Annex (in Hollywood), and as we were walking in, Jerry said, You know, she ought to growl it. And I said, Yeah Why dont you tell her? And he said, Why dont you tell her? [Laughs.] Elvis would invite B.B. All Rights Reserved. Interview with Colonel Tom Parker | Elvis Presley's Manager | 1987 The Truth Behind Elvis' Manager Colonel Tom Parker - TheThings But once Elvis was onstage, controlling the music, he did what he wanted. And you hate the director the first day and he's okay the second. He's never been identified as anything other than this mercurial or puppeteer-like, quasi-evil, greedy manager that took advantage of Elvis from the get-go. Colonel knew what Elvis was doing and going to do. Fortunately I managed to get down a Jacobs ladder into a broken lifeboat. They were hot with Grand Funk Railroad and a variety of things, but that was not what they were looking for in 1969. About Elvis' Movies In 1964 Interview. Check him out. He was a heavier-set man with balding hair and frequently wore a fedora and a suit of some type, sometimes made of gaudy designs to help promote something. He made him. Elvis Cast Guide: What The Characters Look Like In Real Life, illegal immigrant (the theme of the Netflix series, Elvis True Story: Who Was Orion? With writer-director Baz Luhrmanns Elvis opening in theaters this weekend around the world, I recently got to speak with Tom Hanks about playing Colonel Tom Parker in the biopic. "I had the luxury of essentially recreating somebody who no one really knew," the two-time Oscar winner says. Within 30 minutes of their first meeting, Hanks was hooked. Tom Parker Is Dead at 87; Controlled Presley's Career My guess is that, if Elvis had been Black, he wouldnt have been as interested, because it would have been harder to take him to a larger audience, especially in the segregated South, which was Parkers stronghold from his days on the carnival circuit. Was there a late 50s concert riot in which Elvis deliberately disobeyed Parkers orders not to move around or wiggle on stage? Is it fantasy that he was constantly seeing or meeting up with all these important artists? We went back to my house and, in about 10 or 15 minutes, we wrote Hound Dog and took it back. Tom Hanks is playingElvis Presley manager "Colonel Tom" Parker in the upcomingBaz Luhrmann film, and to get a better idea of the infamous character, the actor had dinner withPriscilla Presley. With B.B. Presley had other ways of making money that they could fall back on. Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic. I do know that while researching for my book, The purpose here is not to recap the relationship between Parker and Presley. And then I guess it, obviously, became something else. Did Elvis ever really fire Parker on stage, followed by Parker getting back at him by threatening to demand repayment for every tiny expense item over the years? At the beginning of 57, wed taken a trip to New York and rented a suite and even rented a piano to put in there. You think you're going to get fired and nothing works. Then she was hired on as Elvis' tour secretary and traveled . They keep asking us to do more, he said. He literally never made any artistic suggestion to Elvis. He then did the unthinkable, convincing Elvis' father, Vernon, to sign over control of Elvis' movie and singing "career" to him. The other five nominations were for technical (Editing, Sound, Cinematography) and design (Costume Design, Makeup and Hairstyling). In the film, when the Colonel goes to the Louisiana Hayride and first sees Elvis, hes told backstage that Elvis is on the pop charts and that the country DJs are playing him too, and that Black and white kids are buying Elviss records. "It's possible to be driven mad by it," the actor says. Second, for a movie about a musician, Elvis also didn't receive any music nominations at the Oscars. Elvis Presley's manager Colonel Tom Parker, whose sole client was the King, has long been said to have taken 50 per cent of all the rock 'n' roll icon's earnings.When asked about the deal . And then we hit it off with Elvis, very easily. I mean, he took him away from Sam Phillips, which was not nice, but proved to be an amazing boon to his career and popularity. It became a big hit. Privately, Parker referred to Elviss family as shit and rubbed his thumb and forefinger together. The Beatles and the Stones both covered your songs (Kansas City and Poison Ivy, respectively). It was more American, more rural. That convinced him this would be an opportunity to truly disappear into a different kind of role. He did make him by 1961 a talent that would reign eternally, probably a career that could be of import for 20 years. A couple of songs, a little story and some nice people with him. He cared about the reaction of the audience. And when he went down there, he was celebrated as though he himself was Elvis Presley. It was all to make him into a beloved pop idol, not a dangerous, lugubrious rock n roller. In fact, in my book I included a chapter entitled, The Parker Propaganda Machine. It outlines how Parker promoted, marketed, and booked Elvis in ways that undeniably made possible Presleys meteoric rise in show business. Of course, we werent in the studio when she did Kansas City [in 1962]; there was a Quincy Jones chart on that. Instead, the focus here will be on sharing some interesting information about Colonel Parker that appeared in a rather obscure source. The film has a big focus on Elvis manager Colonel Parker, of course. And so things resumed as they had been. 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 Presley, they threaten to expose. He probably initially heard about Elvis from his cronies in Texarkana when Elvis was playing little clubs while on the Louisiana Hayride. You had your first R&B No. Steven Weintraub launched Collider in the summer of 2005. Over the next four years, Elvis movie career would indeed play out. The Tom Hanks Tom Parker portrayal was a shocking one. In the carnival, he had painted sparrows yellow and sold them as canaries. But we had recorded it with a Black duo, who were out of a gospel group, that we got to do a secular song we called em Willy & Ruth on our own little Spark Records label that we had with Lester Sill. Only then did the Presley-Parker partnership make a triumphant return to television and, soon after that, to the concert stage. Jerry actually hadnt gone up to see it, but I went up with Corky,. Gaining or losing weight, taking on accents, and experimenting in a variety of genres that pushed his limits as an actor, Hanks has built a career out of challenging roles. He was in for a surprise. Vernon needed something to do, and he was always willing to take money under the table, and Parker saw how malleable he was, and would have suggested Vernon be the so-called business manager. The actor has talked about the project, what drew him to it, and how he felt about the overall story. Parker wanted to make Elvis clean-cut after he came back from the army in part because when Elvis went into the army, neither Elvis nor Parker thought rock n roll would last. We had no contract and we were not compensated, but it turned out OK. So we developed some protective mechanisms. However, as he always does, Hanks shone as Tom Parker in Elvis, and the Colonel proved to the world that he could play a complex villain. Were Elvis primary music influences almost all Black artists, as portrayed in the movie? Anything can happen during those first three days. COLONEL TOM PARKER - Interview on "ABC Nightline" (Aug 15, 1987 In an. The 89-year-old co-writer of "Jailhouse Rock," "Hound Dog," "Trouble" and 20 more Presley tracks recalls hitting it off with Presley and alienating his manager as well as successes like the Broadway smash "Smokey Joe's Cafe. Anytime we want $75-100,000 a week.. Copyright 2023 Meredith Corporation. Watch what Tom Hanks had to say in the player above, or you can read our conversation below. Yeah, I think it was Ghost of a Chance. (The Hard Way is also on record as a temporary title.) Its kind of like Priscilla letting Baz make Parker out to be such a villain, but is now having Hanks and Baz say they toned down the Colonels evilness once they met with her, because Parker was a good guy. Elvis, especially, thought that it might even be over by the time he got out. Jailhouse Rock had another name until your song came along and demanded to become the title tune, right? Country radio stations said Elvis sounded too Black to play, and the stations that played rhythm and blues said he sounded too much like a hillbilly. He attended Elvis funeral dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and baseball cap, avoiding any display of emotion. Theres about three different uses of Hound Dog, including the original Big Mama Thornton version, and of course theres some Jailhouse Rock in there. Tom Hanks is playing Elvis Presley manager "Colonel Tom" Parker in the upcoming Baz Luhrmann film, and to get a better idea of the infamous character, the actor had dinner with Priscilla. The Tom Hanks Tom Parker portrayal is certainly one of the highlights of the movie, giving audiences something they aren't used to seeing from the actor. Variety fried it. How did you finally land on the Colonels bad side? Elvis also stars Helen Thomson as Elviss mother, Gladys, Richard Roxburgh as Elviss father, Vernon, Olivia DeJonge as Priscilla Presley, Luke Bracey as Jerry Schilling, Natasha Bassett as Dixie Locke, David Wenham as Hank Snow, Kelvin Harrison Jr. as B.B. Luhrmann hasnt really given him his due by a long shot. But the most fun we ever had in the studio working was with the Coasters. . While proving to be a frequent challenge for Parker, Elvis and the Colonel stuck together. Its a wild story. I'm just going to say, sir, it is always a pleasure to talk with you. Baz Luhrmann is much like . Theyre doing it in Connecticut now; a young lady who was in the show in London is directing it. You had your share of contact with him during the years you were writing for Elvis. Every hero needs a villain, and in the case of Elvis Presley, the man who made him was also the one who destroyed him. It's like you have a record, you have an album by your favorite artist. He is passionate about film, comics, TV and spends way too much on collectibles. The actor wore a fat suit and heavy make-up to appear more like Parker, but the real performance came in the mannerisms, accent, and presence of Hanks embodying Elvis' manager. Get weekly rundowns straight to your inbox, A daily briefing on what matters in the music industry. Well, yes and no. Tom Hanks Was Surprised By Priscilla Presley's Feelings About Elvis ", Luhrmann similarly saw the dynamic as one on a grand scale that defied any simple construct of villainy. He never left the carnivals, really. "The question was, 'Why are we still talking about Elvis Presley?'" So it gets complicated, and it probably will never get done. The writer explained, Once a deal is made, the studio takes complete control of a film, the Presley camp having no say so on cast, script or production costs., Colonel Parker confirmed that Elvis had no creative say in his films. As Editor-in-chief, he has taken the site from a small bedroom operation to having millions of readers around the world. Snow had a big ego and resented the fact that Elvis quickly became the draw on his shows, not Snow. Is there anything to that? During the interview, Hanks talked about the way Parker was a promoter and not a manager, why Elvis never fired him, and how he prepares for a really emotional scene. "The Colonel is like Falstaff with a chainsaw. So its a perfect chance to catch up with Stoller,who wrote the music to Jerry Leibers lyrics on two dozen Presley songs, including the classics Hound Dog, Jailhouse Rock, Trouble, Treat Me Nice, Love Me, Loving You, Santa Claus Is Back in Town, Bossa Nova Baby and (Youre So Square) Baby I Dont Care. No other writers are so closely associated with the King, even if their run of collaborations with Elvis was ultimately cut short by want to hazard a guess? Somebody must be making a buck. We were in the studio with her for Im a Woman [later in 62], and it worked out great. And if it's on day 46 of a 68-day shooting schedule, there is a piece of you that is preparing for day 46 every day from one through 45. He could turn down scripts. So everything is a paradox and a coin flip. The film opens on Parker, absolving himself of guilt for the trajectory of Elvis's life, saying, "Some would have me the villain in this story." That interview gets at the heart of what both Hanks and Luhrmann wanted to say about the Colonel and the give-and-take between manager and artist. Which I thought was weird, at the time. But if you have gotten over the fear of making the movie in the first place, which you do I think in the first three days of the movie. It'll blow you out of your mind. Did Parker really have huge gambling debts he was able to pay off by committing Elvis to a single Vegas hotel for years before Presleys death? Did the Colonel live out his later years being sickly in casinos, as portrayed in the movies framing device? And heres a guy who carries his pictures by himself ., Colonel Parker Answered Criticism About Elvis' Movies In 1964 Interview, To what extent Parker was guilty of such sins against Elvis, Im not qualified to say. He didn't care what Elvis (Austin Butler) sang from the. After Elvis' death in 1977, the Elvis Presley manager continued on as if The King were still alive. But we do remember Elvis and are remembering him more universally than we have since his 1977 death, thanks to Baz Luhrmanns new Elvis biopic. We can get Singer sewing machines as long as you sing a song about Christmas, that's all we need. The issue of his choices to include in his repertoire would become important to signify his talent. We dont have approval on scripts only money. Its great. I offer this information without prejudice or comment, leaving it to the reader to judge whether it reflects good or ill on Thomas Parker. He was believed to have been in debt to the Las Vegas Hilton for over $30 million at one point, which led to his eviction from the property after Elvis' death. Tom Hanks was also intrigued by the fact that the wider public knew very little about the Elvis manager, claiming this was another reason he took on the role. But what you're describing there is literally something that happens on movies. The Colonel was well-known as a strong promoter that frequently leaned into exploitation. Most of the songs he cut of yours, you two wrote expressly for him. Its shown as being Parkers idea to get him away for a while to put a lid on the sexual energy and image.

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