colonel tom parker interview

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. There's no substitute for going there. 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. I don't know if that's true or not. It adds a little spice. 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When Parker crony Gabe Tucker threw a magazine piece on the Colonels desk that insinuated that Elvis was gay, Parker didnt say a word until his friend stopped sputtering. How about a credit? And Jerry Wexler said, But you wrote the song! We did some that were not quite so successful. ", Another guy says he has a script which would cinch an Oscar for Elvis and wouldnt we do it for less money. The Coasters were different characters. Scene is from the set of the Presley movie, Love Me Tender.. Peter (2018), So maybe we never win an Oscar but were going to win a few box office awards. And we got to demonstrate the others for him. 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. We had no contract and we were not compensated, but it turned out OK. "He's so justified that it made me have to double down and question, 'Wait, maybe he's right in this moment. We could write pretty fast, but that was an unusual situation. I was a fan while my friends and peers were not. "The promotion. He cited several reasons primarily security and not big enough venues, or said the money wasnt right. But we were having too much of a ball, going to jazz clubs and going to the theater, and hanging out with Ahmet Ertegun and Jerry Wexler. 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). To what extent Parker was guilty of such sins against Elvis, Im not qualified to say. 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. And director Baz Luhrmann has teased how fans . He literally never made any artistic suggestion to Elvis. Read Next: Super Mario Bros. Movie Officially Smashes $1 Billion Globally, Shonka Dukureh as Big Mama Thornton in Elvis, Helping Elvis Presley, right, cut a straight furrow is his business manager and confidant, Colonel Tom Parker of Madison, Tenn. on January 7, 1957. With the Coasters, who you were just as prolific with, you had a whole style of songwriting going that was based in storytelling, almost like mini-musicals you called them playlets.. What idea?" And then I guess it, obviously, became something else. So, after a couple dozen songs together, that was it one big strike with Parker and youre out. Having been a staple in The King's life for so long, he was well known to Elvis' ex-wife, Priscilla Presley, who humored his appearances at such venues, regarding him as a family friend despite their clashes over the estate. In the end, playing Parker required Hanks to spend an average of five hours per day in the make-up chair. Thats really what he was looking for all along. Is there a song you wrote for Elvis youre proud of that doesnt get as much attention? A "colonel" in honorary terms only, he was a shrewd, showman-like . 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. But we used to have to say to him, This is Jerry, and Im Mike. And I was very happy with the way my songs were used. 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. 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. We never saw him again. And he continued to go see Black performers, such as Jackie Wilson, throughout his life. And it still gets produced; it played in New York again in 2018 and in London last year. In an. Snow eventually led Parker to Elvis Presley. We'll make a lot of money." And so things resumed as they had been. But he worked closely with the Pentagon, planning Elvis army career and post-army concert to raise money for the U.S.S. He took really great care of us. Alan Hanson | 2015, Reader Comment:For me, Elvis was quintessentially suited as a blues artist. And when he said that, I said, 'Oh, well, okay, now that's brand new,'" remembers Hanks. 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 . But the first take was great. I'm just going to say, sir, it is always a pleasure to talk with you. Anything can happen during those first three days. Is it true you two were largely responsible for producer credits starting to be added to records in the mid-50s? 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. Colonel Parker tells how the money was split. You seem right.' Yes. Elvis kind of liked Jimmie. COLONEL TOM PARKER - Interview on "ABC Nightline" (Aug 15, 1987) - YouTube 0:00 / 7:03 COLONEL TOM PARKER - Interview on "ABC Nightline" (Aug 15, 1987) waylonvids 20.1K subscribers Subscribe. You had your first R&B No. And I mean, we enjoyed being in the studio with Elvis; we enjoyed being in the studio with the Drifters, with Ben E. King, with Peggy Lee. We bought our stuff back, a lot of it. Luhrmann hasnt really given him his due by a long shot. 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. 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. He attended Elvis funeral dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and baseball cap, avoiding any display of emotion. Remember, he entered a talent contest as a child singing Old Shep warbling about dead dogs is about as country as it gets. Visit Billboard Pro for music business news, Kenny Loggins Talks Danger Zone Return For Top Gun: Maverick, Jim Carrey Says Will Smith Should Have Been Arrested for Chris Rock Oscars Slap, Pam & Tommy Director Lake Bell Explores Personal, Cathartic Episode Four. 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. Privately, Parker referred to Elviss family as shit and rubbed his thumb and forefinger together. Variety and the Flying V logos are trademarks of Variety Media, LLC. What he didn't do later on in the 60's and to a degree in the 70's was go to this wickedly, incredibly singular talent, worthy of altering the zeitgeist in the mid-1950s. More: Does Elvis Have An After Credits Scene? Would you say Elvis was growling when he covered Hound Dog three years later, in 1956, becoming the first of the big hits he had with your songs? Variety is a part of Penske Media Corporation. He did not know how to say no to someone who had already made all of his dreams come true. Col. Tom Parker, the strict, unorthodox and controversial manager who orchestrated Elvis Presley's career from 1955 until the singer's death in 1977, died yesterday at Valley Hospital in Las Vegas . As opposed to the more methodical camera coverage Hanks is accustomed to, Luhrmann is more free-wheeling. 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. The Colonel is a complicated character, and while he always took too much of Presleys money, he made some very sound decisions for him. In the carnival, he had painted sparrows yellow and sold them as canaries. You know, it was Big Mama Thornton married to D.W. Washburn with a son named Charlie Brown that kind of inane shoehorning of things. Every hero needs a villain, and in the case of Elvis Presley, the man who made him was also the one who destroyed him. 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. The Elvis version became a smash while you were overseas and blissfully unaware. Are the liberties worth it for creating an artistic picture? 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. So then we had to perform it for her, as I played the piano and Jerry sang. Are you kidding? 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. He didnt care what color he was. This article originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter. The Tom Hanks Tom Parker portrayal was a shocking one. Hanks also reveals his dream project and its not what youre expecting. And his son, Jimmie (later Jimmy), envied Elvis and yearned to counsel him on his sinful ways. Does it veer off in ways that seem unnecessary? The purpose here is not to recap the relationship between Parker and Presley. Stand by Me is never going away. But he was being very respectful and polite. Elvis Presley had his own struggles, particularly in his later years, as his lavish spending, addiction issues, divorce, and declining health took a toll on The King. But here was a guy that took him from the worst rental apartment in a bad part of town in Memphis and put him in Graceland, which is the mansion that's right there. 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. Stand by Me as the song for the royal wedding, where they had the Black choir singing it, that was apparently Meghan Markles choice as the song for their wedding. Why AI Has Some Viewers Asking Which Film Actors Are Real. Parker saw his job as an elevated version of. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member (class of 1987) told us about everything from why he never much liked Presleys version of Hound Dog Big Mama Thornton was a hard act to follow to how he realized a Broadway musical rooted in the duos songs, Smokey Joes Cafe, could be a smash if they just dispensed with a storyline and script. That's what makes him so delicious.". Baz Luhrmann's musical biopic Elvis explores the eponymous singer's career, leading up to his tragic death, and one of the characters that has caused a fair amount of controversy is Elvis and the Colonel, Tom Parker. That's the standard trope that goes along with Colonel Tom Parker. Because Shakespearean villains are never just a bad guy. Elvis influences were so diverse. Parker was ticked that there was initially no Christmas music, though, and (TV producer) Steve Binder and Elvis threw him Blue Christmas as a bone.

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