colonel tom parker interview colonel tom parker interview
Elvis and the Colonel were associated throughout the musician's entire career, including music, movies, and TV specials. I told him that if were doing so badly maybe next year he wouldnt want us at all, said the Colonel, and we better get all we can while we can and I hiked the price. 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? The actor has proven time and again that he's up to the challenge of playing a real-world personality and the role of Elvis and the Colonel is no different. That can be found in detail in two Parker biographies published in recent years . Parker returned to the carnival (one not-too-dissimilar to the 1950s carnival in American Horror Story thanks to the setting), where he made his living for a time before getting involved in music promotion, working with the likes of Gene Austin, Minnie Pearl, Eddy Arnold, and Hank Snow. 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Scene is from the set of the Presley movie, Love Me Tender.. Colonel knew what Elvis was doing and going to do. 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. 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. 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. It had a line for our signatures. There is the legend of an afternoon where you and Leiber cranked out four classic Elvis film songs in just a few hours Jailhouse Rock, Treat Me Nice, I Want to Be Free and (Youre So Square) Baby I Dont Care pretty much because someone trapped you in a hotel suite and compelled you to be prolific. And maybe its a given that a director who puts hip-hop and hard rock on his period-film soundtracks, as Baz Luhrmann does, might favor effect over total verisimilitude. We were picked up by a freighter, and I had to pay cash to send a wire to Atlantic Records that we were arriving. Washburn, etc. He did make him by 1961 a talent that would reign eternally, probably a career that could be of import for 20 years. In 1967, Parker pushed Elvis to marry Priscilla Beaulieu, hoping that it would help change the tide of his career. Unfortunately, Jerry and I didnt complete a show we were working on about Oscar Wilde, and its kind of sitting in our back pockets. Near the end of his life, Parker is said to have been speaking with two promoters about this, since Elvis was so deeply unhappy about never getting to go tour Europe, but it never happened. She could be difficult. That led to a colossal shouting match afterwards with Parker and talk of firing and quitting on both their parts, with Colonel ultimately presenting a bill that the Presleys could not pay. 'Reconsider Baby' is one example I always remember. In an interview (via Entertainment Weekly), Hanks broke down why he took the part, "Baz said, 'There would've been no Colonel Tom Parker without Elvis. So then we had to perform it for her, as I played the piano and Jerry sang. 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. 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. The Colonel seized on the moment and put Elvis back on tour, eventually settling on a residency in Las Vegas and a non-stop barrage of venues and recordings that took the singer to the brink, as he deteriorated into a mockery of his former self. All Rights Reserved. The bass was either the father or the heavy. Yes, Priscilla invited us to a private screening, and she and Jerry Schilling were there. The film tells Elvis story from Parkers point of view, and it spans over two decades and includes Presleys rise to fame against the backdrop of the evolving cultural landscape and loss of innocence in America. But the more I read about the Colonel, it was about the sell overwhelming the other side. So that started a little bit of discomfort on the part of the Colonel. From your memoir, it sounds like Peggy Lee might have been the least fun? He was a very disciplined man, but also a guy who you might want to check your wallet to make sure you still have all those fives and 10s. The actual Parker diedJan. 21, 1997, at the age of 87. To what extent Parker was guilty of such sins against Elvis, Im not qualified to say. Presley had other ways of making money that they could fall back on. 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 . Whats your overall feeling on the movies truth-ometer? He mentions that church in the film. Somebody must be making a buck. Variety fried it. Steven Weintraub launched Collider in the summer of 2005. While Elvis and the Colonel carried the movie to several awards, Hanks' omission stands out above most others. We found that a lot of the blues singers that we knew, he knew them also, which was a surprise to us. We were blown away, and we even had some meetings with Schulberg. One thing he did with me was to say, I want you to remember this. And then he launched into this carny double-speak that sounded kind of like pig Latin. Are you kidding? Oh, sure. 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. And it still gets produced; it played in New York again in 2018 and in London last year. As it is, we both take bows and if it doesnt hit maybe they get more blame that us. In an. Colonel Tom Parker, as played by Tom Hanks in Elvis, was the controversial manager of singer Elvis Presley (played by Austin Butler) with a mysterious past who had a key role in both The King's success and downfall. 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. We went back to my house and, in about 10 or 15 minutes, we wrote Hound Dog and took it back. The Colonel, who was neither a colonel nor named Tom Parker, was born Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk in the Netherlands and came to the U.S. without documentation at the age of 20. Was the Variety review of the New York show, or was it the out-of-town tryout in L.A.? Variety is a part of Penske Media Corporation. Butler is superb in the role and actually sings Presleys early songs in the film. Turns out he didnt have an impediment he was just trying to wrap a Dutch tongue around the English language, Southern-style. But I thought the next one was pretty good, King Creole. It was a better script, better story. Billboard is a part of Penske Media Corporation. 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. 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. But Im very proud of its success, nevertheless. Is it bittersweet that you had your theatrical success with a revue? I hope its a big hit. this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines. Im not a super rap fan. Born in the Netherlands, Parker entered the United States illegally when he was 20 years old. Colonel Tom Parker [1909-1997] Colonel Thomas Andrew "Tom" Parker (Born Andreas Cornelis van Kuyk) was an enigma from the day he arrived on a freighter in Tampa Bay, Florida, as an illegal immigrant at about the age of 20 until his death at the advanced age of 87 in 1997. The article in question appeared inVarietyon January 15, 1964. Copyright 2023 Meredith Corporation. When Elvis returned home from the Army, The Colonel focused on more films, TV appearances, and albums, saturating the airwaves with Elvis. "But having seen the movie, I notice something profoundly different every time. The actor has talked about the project, what drew him to it, and how he felt about the overall story. Does it veer off in ways that seem unnecessary? Tom Hanks will be playing Colonel Tom Parker, the infamous music manager who discovered Elvis and landed him his contract with RCA. Your blog on the Colonel is most helpful. Its great. Randy Newman was brought in and did an exquisite chart fabulous and we produced it out here. It was supposed to be a Christmas show in the sense that it would air in December, and Parker wanted it to be a family show with Elvis as a 60s-era Bing Crosby or Perry Como. The single record was done with the Jordanaires and with D.J. You think you're going to get fired and nothing works. It was more American, more rural. Everybody's very familiar with it. I think we maybe killed them! In 1969, she was an employee of the International Hotel when Elvis made his record-breaking performances there. We told him this story, and he said, Elvis would have given his left arm to be in a movie like that with those people. This would sand the rough edges off his image and bring him back as the all-American boy fit for family entertainment with Frank Sinatra. People are so used to hearing it within the polite context of Christmas radio that they dont think about what a down-and-dirty, raw song that is. I ended up being the piano player on screen in the movie Jailhouse Rock. And so (on-set) Elvis asked me, Write me a real pretty ballad. That was on a Friday. To play additional iconic musical artists in the film, Luhrmann cast singer/songwriter Yola as Sister Rosetta Tharpe, model Alton Mason as Little Richard, Gary Clark Jr. as Arthur Crudup, and artist Shonka Dukureh as Willie Mae Big Mama Thornton. What happened at Atlantic Records was, we said, You know, were making these records. And his son, Jimmie (later Jimmy), envied Elvis and yearned to counsel him on his sinful ways. With B.B. "The question was, 'Why are we still talking about Elvis Presley?'" Tom Hanks goes dark: Why our favorite good guy wanted to play the. Of course, we werent in the studio when she did Kansas City [in 1962]; there was a Quincy Jones chart on that. 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. "Without that, it would be hard to reflect Elvis against it. In addition, he revealed his dream project, which would be about Dean Reed, who was an American actor and singer that decided to become a communist behind the Iron Curtain. Then she was hired on as Elvis' tour secretary and traveled . But the thing that really did it for us Jerry went to a party in New York and met a producer, Charlie Feldman, who was going to do a movie of a novel by Nelson Algren called A Walk on the Wild Side. He had (Elia) Kazan to direct, Budd Schulberg to write the thing and James Wong Howe to do the cinematography. He sells! [Laughs.] It was sad. That's the thought that he had. "If Elvis represents the soul and the new in America the possibility in America, the rags and riches in America, all those positive, very American things the Colonel represents the sell," he says. Are the liberties worth it for creating an artistic picture? Other than the tremendous pains Baz has taken to make this story seem woke, the liberties are essentially fair except to Parker. Colonel Tom Parker wasn't afraid to meddle in his client's personal affairs. Years later, I think in the 90s, we all went on a trip to Graceland and were given a private tour by Georgie Klein, who was one of Elvis Memphis mafia guys. Thats total and unequivocal bunk, a complete invention in the movie. And I would love to make a movie about that guy. 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 claimed that at least 50% of his share went right back into the business of promoting Elvis office expenses, advertising and exploitation, etc. Elvis cut, said Parker, goes straight to the Memphis accountants., "Look you got a product, you sell it. 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. King would be playing in the lounge, and Elvis would be playing in the big room. Would Elvis have gone to Black Pentecostal tent meetings as a kid, as seen in the film? Parker sent Elvis all over the United States, but he would never let him out of North America, leaving Canada as the only other nation to host The King in his long career. "I had the luxury of essentially recreating somebody who no one really knew," the two-time Oscar winner says. MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- A judge says Col. Tom Parker made so much money by molding truck driver Elvis Presley into an international singing phenomenon that it 'shocks the conscience of the court . Arizona monument. And seeing our names on (45 labels), they thought that Leiber-Stoller was a kind of music, like how they used to put Foxtrot on a record. He never left the carnivals, really. Yes. So it gets complicated, and it probably will never get done. Fresh off portraying Sir John Falstaff in a Los Angeles production of Shakespeare's Henry IV, Parts One and Two, Hanks saw something Shakespearian in the dynamic. He had a matter-of-fact method of speaking and didn't suffer fools lightly. Jimmie later went to Graceland in 1958 to talk to him about how he had given up drinking and doing pills on the road and had turned his life over to Jesus. He said, Well, I gotta do a session with her, so you better get Jerry and come over to my place and listen to it, because Im gonna need some songs. So we went over, and she knocked us out. '", Luhrmann's instinct was right. and he sounds entirely American to me. Elvis could sing whatever he wanted. I Want to Be Free had a kind of special meaning, because we wanted to get out of the goddamn hotel room! Yeah, where the different voices was kind of commedia dellarte. Colonel Parker tells how the money was split. He literally never made any artistic suggestion to Elvis. No one is probably expecting that; any practiced watcher of biopics knows virtually any example will take deep liberties with the facts for dramatic purposes. While proving to be a frequent challenge for Parker, Elvis and the Colonel stuck together. So while he was gone (remember, Parker never went to Germany when Elvis was there), Parker set up all these appearances and movies for him, and the idea was to make him appeal to families the all-American boy that would have longevity, and could grow into that role as he aged. Elvis is famously quoted as saying, Down in Tupelo, Miss., I used to hear old Arthur Crudup bang his box the way I do now and I said, if I ever got to the place I could feel all old Arthur felt, Id be a music man like nobody saw. But its unclear whether this was on the radio or in person. Still, Elvis is right on enough counts literally or spiritually that its worth trying to separate fact from fiction in the movies narrative of Elvis Presley (played by Austin Butler) and his nearly career-long manager, Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks). Born as Andreas Cornelis Dries van Kuijk in the Netherlands, the Tom Hanks Tom Parker portrayal saw him illegally immigrate to the United States, finding employment as a carnival worker before joining the Army, where he was eventually discharged after going AWOL. Monday at 10:00, you're going to be on set and you're going to be committing to film forever the emotional spine of the movie. He also paid a visit to Little Richards home in California in the late 50s. They hurl a litany of accusations at Presleys former manager he took too much of Elvis money, he mismanaged Elvis movie career, he pressured Elvis to work when he was in poor health, he even tried to capitalize on Elvis name after he died. But a few of them started playing them all the time. No, no, not at all. Hanks has portrayed real-life people in a number of films, from Jim Lovell in Apollo 13 to Mr. Rogers in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood to Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger in Sully - and many more. In Parker's version of his life story, he had run away from home to join a circus, where he worked with elephants and horses. Austin Butler on Elvis and Why it Took Months After Filming to Find Himself Again, The Best Epic Movies of All Time, According to the AFI, The 25 Best Thrillers of All Time, Ranked, The Legend Behind the Jerry Lewis Holocaust Clown Movie Youll Never See. The band was cracking up, to hear Jerry singing as if he were a blues singer, lets put it that way. Elvis and the Colonel were associated throughout the musician's entire career, including music, movies, and TV specials. Thomas Andrew Parker (born Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk; June 26, 1909 - January 21, 1997), [1] commonly known as Colonel Parker, was a Dutch musical entrepreneur, best known for being Elvis Presley 's manager. Stand by Me is never going away. He never fired him on stage, but there was an incident in Vegas in 1974 where Elvis criticized Barron Hilton from the stage for firing one of Elviss favorite employees. Lets talk about a few of the greats you worked with who were not Elvis Presley. 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. It has been my thought that Elvis was afraid that his success would evaporate, and therefore it was business, a formula that worked. Oh, Parker instigated that whole thing, but it wasnt to put a lid on the sexual energy. Its the blues! He was a wonderful man, and I wish he was alive today. And I called, I think, Jack Viertel, because we had been working on a totally different kind of project a ballet musical which never got finished and I said, Listen, I dont like it. Yes and no. ), Parker admitted he was a bit troubled by the public perception that he was profiting too much from Presleys work. You always preferred Big Mamas version, right? But Elvis gives us Hanks as we've never seen him before: trussed up under layers of costuming and make-up, bloated and reptilian, with a strange, slightly Dutch accent, pulling the strings as the carnival barker-turned-talent manager who made Elvis into a star. Is it true that Colonel Parkers reason for being attracted to Elvis was that he thought a white singer who sounded Black was bound to be a star and accomplish what a Black singer could not? I was a fan while my friends and peers were not. He did not know how to say no to someone who had already made all of his dreams come true. It became a big hit. Although from the Netherlands originally, actor Tom Hanks' Parker had a Southern-style accent due to a huge chunk of his life being spent there, but it was more of a mixture with his native Dutch accent.
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