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. We did Procol Harum [in 1975]. He had never seen that before. Dont worry about it. I think Jerry said, You cant, were unmanageable. Which was somewhat true. Colonel Tom Parker Facts for Kids - Kiddle How are you preparing for it? He wanted Elvis to go not to Special Services, where the army was happy to put him, but to serve his time as any other soldier. Elvis: The Controversy Behind Colonel Tom Parker Explained - Screen Rant "The Colonel is like Falstaff with a chainsaw. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and Tom Hanks during Tuesday's July 14, 2020 show. 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. Privately, Parker referred to Elviss family as shit and rubbed his thumb and forefinger together. 2023 Variety Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. You could never have predicted the longevity of Smokey Joes Caf, surely. What happened at Atlantic Records was, we said, You know, were making these records. Related: Elvis Cast Guide: What The Characters Look Like In Real Life. He was the American that we all knew." Elvis and the Colonel were associated throughout the musician's entire career, including music, movies, and TV specials. Thats really what he was looking for all along. Before production began, he read music critic Peter Guralnick's two books about the rise and fall of Elvis, 1994's Last Train to Memphis and 1999's Careless Love. Its a wild story. Mike Stoller on Writing 'Hound Dog,' 'Jailhouse Rock - Variety [Laughs.] He dreamed about that. Elvis never knew. For a while he lied about his early years, claiming to have been born in Huntington, West Virginia and that he had run away at an early age to join a circus run by an uncle. ", "Why include the Colonel in all of this?" As you can see in the trailers, Elvis is about the complicated relationship between Colonel Tom Parker (Hanks) and Elvis Presley (Austin Butler). Elvis kind of liked Jimmie. "One reason is because the Elvis story has become a trope. 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. "But having seen the movie, I notice something profoundly different every time. HANKS: He was a promoter and not a manager. Colonel Parker Answered Criticism . Because I made Elvis Presley. Well, they were a lot of fun. King used to visit some in Las Vegas, but that was in the 70s. Its the blues! Sadly, the blues do not sell well. up to the suite after the shows. But a few of them started playing them all the time. There's no substitute for going there. In their rush to denounce him for failing his client in later years, many Elvis fans forget that there may not have been an Elvis Presley were it not for Tom Parkers work in those early days. So then we had to perform it for her, as I played the piano and Jerry sang. 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 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. But the first take was great. But he has since recovered and apparently completed his work on the picture, Hanks told Colbert. 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? I was a fan while my friends and peers were not. I think it was presented to the guys who run Leiber and Stoller stuff, and they had already done it and were gonna put it in the movie. Parker loved it that Elvis was like a male striptease artist like the bally girls on the carnivals. Why not? 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. After the divorce, Elvis and Priscilla had little shared experience other than arranging Lisa Maries visits. Everybody's very familiar with it. I very much like the ballad Dont, which was also written on demand, so to speak, over a weekend. In contrast to Butler, who had to craft a version of a man everyone recognizes, Hanks had the freedom to start from scratch. We bought our stuff back, a lot of it. Were Elvis primary music influences almost all Black artists, as portrayed in the movie? I would say it was in his spiritual DNA, as he grew up with Black playmates and heard that music all around him. and he sounds entirely American to me. Anyway, whats Elvis need? This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google. We were in the studio with her for Im a Woman [later in 62], and it worked out great. Then she was hired on as Elvis' tour secretary and traveled . It was never told to him. 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. You had your share of contact with him during the years you were writing for Elvis. Didnt he ask to become the manager of Leiber and Stoller, too and, as the story goes, he presented you with a completely blank contract? 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. We had a few run-ins with the Colonel. THE ELVIS movie biopic stars Tom Hanks as The King's manager Colonel Tom Parker, who the actor has described as both a 'genius' and a 'scoundrel'. Colonel Parker Managed Elvis' Career, but Was He a Killer on the Lam? Any thoughts on the portrayal early in the film of country star Hank Snow, who first takes Elvis out on the road before becoming disgusted with him, and his son, Jimmie Rodgers Snow, who seems to worship Elvis? The single record was done with the Jordanaires and with D.J. Interview with Colonel Tom Parker | Elvis Presley's Manager | 1987 Theyre doing it in Connecticut now; a young lady who was in the show in London is directing it. How many times do you want your name on the record? He was annoyed! The Elvis manager certainly had some unethical practices when it came to the King of Rock n Roll, and many were shocked upon viewing the film to find out that this was the case. And, yeah, she was very difficult to work with, and very wonderful. Procols Ninth was the name of the album. The Beatles and the Stones both covered your songs (Kansas City and Poison Ivy, respectively). It adds a little spice. 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. 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. Tom Parker wasn't a household name before Elvis, but it's clear that after the biopic, it soon will be. 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. In 1969, she was an employee of the International Hotel when Elvis made his record-breaking performances there. 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. 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. And you hate the director the first day and he's okay the second. So when they call you and tell you Eminem wants to incorporate a song of yours into his, do you just say sure, or ask to hear it? Is it fantasy that he was constantly seeing or meeting up with all these important artists? That's the thought that he had. Parker became known as a shrewd, showy, and manipulative businessman who was able to work out lucrative deals at minimal overhead while making sure his pockets were lined healthily along the way. Hard to do. 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. He could turn down scripts. In 1963, Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis Presley's audacious manager who had gotten his start selling candy apples in carnivals, read in the paper that Franklin Delano Roosevelt's presidential. Hanks was particularly intrigued by how little he (and by extension, the audience) knew about the Colonel. Thats Luhrmann being the showman. 'Reconsider Baby' is one example I always remember. And by the 418th time you've listened to it, you know every pause, every word, every lyric, and you have an emotional connection, an image for every one of those songs, every one of the emotional beats that's on the record. When it was just written lyrics on a piece of paper, she started to croon it. Hanks looks almost unrecognizable in the. So we went to dinner with the Colonel, and we had to laugh at his jokes, and then I guess we passed muster, so it was all right. 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. Elvis could sing whatever he wanted. 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. You guys basically produced those Jailhouse Rock sessions, even though you didnt get credit? I think that these days these days meaning going back a couple of decades writers and performers have gotten very hip to protecting their stuff, much more so than we were. But the real insight came via a Nightline interview with Ted Koppel on the 10th anniversary of Elvis's death, in which Parker called himself the architect of Presley's success. It was never a well-organized hand of poker. I mean, if youve heard Big Mamas record and the rhythm and the whole structure of the music, as compared to this kind of rockabilly [he claps out the differences in the two versions rhythms] But as Ive said: After it sold 7 million singles, I began to see some merit in it. Second, for a movie about a musician, Elvis also didn't receive any music nominations at the Oscars. [A movie version of Walk on the Wild Side was eventually produced in the 60s, with none of the same talent attached, and flopped.]. He mentions that church in the film. But you ought to see it, because theres something happening with these songs in this theater. You know, there wasnt much rock n roll or rhythm and blues in these theatrical productions that I knew of at that time. That caused a big to-do, because they didnt want anybody presenting him with a song that they might not own the publishing rights to. It certainly was a big question mark then as to whether people would accept a jukebox musical that had no book at all. When Elvis returned home from the Army, The Colonel focused on more films, TV appearances, and albums, saturating the airwaves with Elvis. One of the first things that we saw was the kid (in the screenplay) was in prison. Then we didnt see her at all for the next five or six years until she was presented with a demo that we had done of Is That All There Is? She said the song was written for her, that it was based on her life which it wasnt, but she said it was her life story. More: Does Elvis Have An After Credits Scene? He never went to Elvis and said, "What would you like to do? Hanks explained that he was days away from shooting the film in March when he contracted COVID-19. Colonel Parker is the devil to many Elvis Presley fans. According to the Colonel, We make no picture deals without the great potentate Abe Lastfogel. (Lastfogel was the long-time president of the Morris agency. 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. 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. Smokey Joes Caf, a revue using 39 of your songs, ran for 2,036 performances on Broadway starting in 1995. 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 has been my thought that Elvis was afraid that his success would evaporate, and therefore it was business, a formula that worked. We did some that were not quite so successful. In actuality, he worked the carnival circuit, presenting acts like Colonel Tom Parker and His Dancing Chickens, which saw the fowls jumping because they were on a hot plate hidden under sawdust. The kid who plays Elvis, Austin Butler, is a knockout as an actor, a dancer and a singer, and I have a feeling hell be nominated for sure for best actor. After Elvis' death in 1977, the Elvis Presley manager continued on as if The King were still alive. No, no, not at all. The Truth About Elvis Presley's Relationship With His Manager, Colonel "I had a different layer of expectations.". In the meantime, Colonel Parker had nixed all offers for Elvis to appear on stage, as he had for Presley to appear on TV. If not the term producer really coming into usage in music? Anything can happen during those first three days. '", Luhrmann's instinct was right. Then we worked with her seven years later after she was no longer at Capitol [on the critically hailed, little heard A&M concept album Mirrors). And I was very happy with the way my songs were used. ", For Butler, doing the heavy lifting as Presley, he saw the casting of Hanks as a stroke of brilliance in complicating the Colonel's villainy. I think thats what we sent to (Presley), and he loved it. And so they came to see it, and I said, Listen, why cant we just do it without a book? And they liked the idea, and thats how it got started. 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. You and Jerry had projects you wanted to do for Broadway with original stories and song scores. We dont have approval on scripts only money. He literally never made any artistic suggestion to Elvis. Still, the odds were heavily in favor that hed be a country singer and his stint on the Louisiana Hayride seemed to point him in that direction. And I have asked people from Russia and Poland and said, "Are you familiar with the American singer, actor by the name of Dean Reed?" Loanne Parker, wife of Colonel Tom Parker, passed away earlier this week.Loanne had a strong connection to Las Vegas, Nevada - even though she was from southern Ohio - and she had an even stronger connection to Elvis. Tom Hanks on controversial 'Elvis' biopic: 'What have I done?' 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. Want to know what everyone in the music business is talking about. Marty Lacker told me that Elvis and B.B. What turned Colonels head, though, was a report from his old friend Oscar Davis, who went to Memphis in October 1954 to advance an Arnold appearance at Ellis Auditorium, and saw how Elvis packed a local dive, the Eagles Nest, night after night with screaming women. Alex Shoofey, the executive VP of the International, testified that Parker was good for $1 million a year in gambling, but others think that number is low. ", We start telling people what to do and they blame us if the picture doesnt go. When watching the movie, you think about all the what ifs. Is the portrayal of Elvis relationship with Priscilla, however briefly that is dramatized, basically accurate? We had no contract and we were not compensated, but it turned out OK. 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