colonel tom parker interview

Other than the tremendous pains Baz has taken to make this story seem woke, the liberties are essentially fair except to Parker. In a way, sure. Yeah, thats true. ", The Colonel just shrugged at the perception around Hollywood that Elvis was falling off at the box office due to over exposure. Finally they asked her to do Joey Bishops show, and she said, Ill do it if I can do this song. She did, and boom, everybody responded. 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. Charlie Lamb, who was present that day, told me that Parker got up from the lunch table and got in his car that minute and drove to find him. Yes and no. There's no substitute for going there. The article then turned to a lengthy interview with Colonel Parker, who Fessier called the commander-in-chief of the Presley forces. Parker started out by explaining how Elvis earnings were divided in those movie-making days. I mean, Big Mamas song was a woman singing it to a no-good guy, and the original lyric in the first verse was, You can wag your tail, but I aint gonna feed you no more. And the Presley version almost sounds like hes singing it to a dog: You aint never caught a rabbit, and you aint no friend of mine. I dont know where that came from. Paul Shirey is a senior news writer for Screen Rant. And that is the yin and the yang to his diabolical genius status. What I do remember is that the New York Times gave it, as the producer said, not a money review and that they were very, very nice to Leiber and Stoller, but said that the show didnt rise to the level of our work, more or less. In 1969, she was an employee of the International Hotel when Elvis made his record-breaking performances there. And heres a guy who carries his pictures by himself the rest of the guys on the list have three or four stars to back them up., Fessier pointed out that the Presley-Parker partnership was one of the few in Hollywood that confined its demands to money. 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. 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'. It's like you have a record, you have an album by your favorite artist. 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 . Instead, the focus here will be on sharing some interesting information about Colonel Parker that appeared in a rather obscure source. So who knows, maybe someday well just decide to release the album of a show that didnt happen. But I thought the next one was pretty good, King Creole. It was a better script, better story. I told him pay us our regular fee and if Elvis gets the Oscar well give him his money back. After Elvis' death in 1977, the Elvis Presley manager continued on as if The King were still alive. 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). She could be difficult. "I had the luxury of essentially recreating somebody who no one really knew. The Colonel was upset with us because we got friendly with Elvis, and he didnt like that. Yes. 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. Tom Hank's Col Tom Parker accent . We were in the studio with her for Im a Woman [later in 62], and it worked out great. 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. No, all that stuff was rehearsed and rehearsed. "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. He cared about the reaction of the audience. He cited several reasons primarily security and not big enough venues, or said the money wasnt right. But hey, its generational, I think. Which I thought was weird, at the time. 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. 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. That potential is what interests him. 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. And there's the fault that I think also has to land in both of them because Elvis could have said no. I tried to put together, and it was tricky, this story of There was a guy named Dean Reed. . 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. Making a splash: A deep dive into the live-action, Baz Luhrmann clarifies not casting Harry Styles as Elvis, hopes to work with him in the future. "We ended up talking for well over an hour," Hanks recalls. 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? Only then did the Presley-Parker partnership make a triumphant return to television and, soon after that, to the concert stage. 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. Variety and the Flying V logos are trademarks of Variety Media, LLC. Presley had other ways of making money that they could fall back on. The article in question appeared inVarietyon January 15, 1964. I Want to Be Free had a kind of special meaning, because we wanted to get out of the goddamn hotel room! 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. Hanks says Luhrmann's approach to the work also helped push him to new heights. Born in the Netherlands, Parker entered the United States illegally when he was 20 years old. 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. "You hear the Colonel literally lay out the foundation for how he was going to make Elvis immortal over the course of the next 30 years," marvels Hanks. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and Tom Hanks during Tuesday's July 14, 2020 show. Is it fantasy that he was constantly seeing or meeting up with all these important artists? 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 . Variety spoke with her about how much rings true about both of the movies primary subjects, point by point. HANKS: He was a promoter and not a manager. One of the offers he turned down was for Elvis to appear on the small screen for $150,000. Interview with Colonel Parker (Elvis Presley's Manager) (1993) Elvis Australia 28.6K subscribers Subscribe 635 163K views 4 years ago Interview with Colonel Parker Elvis Presley's Manager. Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis Presley's Manager : 1993 As Presley's fame grew, people became interested in Parker as well. I say, 'Oh, here I was worried about geography and logic and the timeline, and Baz saw all those three very specific physical forces as rules that do not need to obeyed.' 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 can get Singer sewing machines as long as you sing a song about Christmas, that's all we need. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google. Were Elvis primary music influences almost all Black artists, as portrayed in the movie? But before that he did have another big hit with a cover of one of your tunes, the ballad Love Me. Although Elvis sang it more seriously, It was surprising to read in your memoir that you had originally written Love Me as a country parody song a spoof of a subservient hillbilly who doesnt put up any objections to his lover treating him like garbage. 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." I'm just going to say, sir, it is always a pleasure to talk with you. Anyway, whats Elvis need? ", Another guy says he has a script which would cinch an Oscar for Elvis and wouldnt we do it for less money. I dont think the band is great. More: Does Elvis Have An After Credits Scene? The Black-white divide didnt mean much to the Presleys. Tom Hanks will be playing Colonel Tom Parker, the infamous music manager who discovered Elvis and landed him his contract with RCA. 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.. Colonel Tom Parker absolutely did diabolical things. Colonel Tom Parker managed Elvis Presley 's career from 1955 to 1977, overseeing almost every aspect of the star's life. Thank you so much for your work. 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. So far as the wider world knew, the Colonel was Thomas Andrew Parker, born in Huntingdon, West Virginia, some time shortly after 1900. Of course, we werent in the studio when she did Kansas City [in 1962]; there was a Quincy Jones chart on that. In making him such an antagonist, they have robbed him of his many accomplishments with his client. "Because I don't know what Colonel Tom Parker looks like. And so things resumed as they had been. And I don't think it had been done the most righteous justice in order to capture why Elvis was this bend in the river of American culture. Smokey Joes Caf, a revue using 39 of your songs, ran for 2,036 performances on Broadway starting in 1995. 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. And when he said that, I said, 'Oh, well, okay, now that's brand new,'" remembers Hanks. Related: Elvis True Story: Who Was Orion? How did you finally land on the Colonels bad side? "Baz said, 'There would've been no Colonel Tom Parker without Elvis. The first three days of the movies are chaos. I thought the way they used the song Trouble was very effective. Luhrmann hasnt really given him his due by a long shot. "But having seen the movie, I notice something profoundly different every time. Sure, of course. In contrast to Butler, who had to craft a version of a man everyone recognizes, Hanks had the freedom to start from scratch. ", So maybe we never win an Oscar but were going to win a few box office awards. I remember we went out it probably took about 15 minutes and we came back in and performed it for them. Get weekly rundowns straight to your inbox, A daily briefing on what matters in the music industry. That's the standard trope that goes along with Colonel Tom Parker. Once a big crowd saw Elvis perform, there was a demand for his record. 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.] I thought you guys did such a great job. Capitol didnt want to release it, because it didnt have a back beat. Yeah, where the different voices was kind of commedia dellarte. I offer this information without prejudice or comment, leaving it to the reader to judge whether it reflects good or ill on Thomas Parker. What dreams do you have? It sounded like a weird (Southern) regional dialect, and you would know it was Dutch only by listening for certain consonants. Headlines about how lascivious early Elvis was sold concert tickets. The trade paper said, Just buy a boxed set of Phil Spector records instead. The Phil Spector line was the lowest blow of all. And then Jerry added: Screw Variety. I looked up the review, and it wasnt very prophetic, saying that things did not bode well for Smokey Joes Broadway aspirations. So maybe this is a place for you to get some official vindication. Directed by Baz Luhrmann, the movie is not a traditional musician biopic as it's a film that explores Elvis Presley's rise through the eyes of his manager. He didn't care what Elvis sang on stage. I was expecting to hear stories about the distrust she had for Colonel Tom Parker over these many years. But what you're describing there is literally something that happens on movies. 2023 Variety Media, LLC. 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. Carl Gardner was the rube or the straight man. Johnny (Otis) said, Are you familiar with Willie Mae Thornton? I said, no. Elvis wasnt ready for hear all that yet. So it gets complicated, and it probably will never get done. That can be found in detail in two Parker biographies published in recent years . 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. As it is, we both take bows and if it doesnt hit maybe they get more blame that us. He was doing a Christmas album, and we wrote it in another room during the recording session. Of course, I had no idea what he was saying, much less remembered it. and he sounds entirely American to me. He said, Dont worry, Ill fill it in later! [Laughs.] First of all, when Colonel Parker enlisted in the U.S. Army, he declared himself a Dutch citizen, with parents born in Holland. Well, they were a lot of fun. Finally, Tom Hanks wasn't nominated for Best Supporting Actor. When we came in, Steve Sholes was the top guy at RCA Records. Jerry actually hadnt gone up to see it, but I went up with Corky,. And Jean Aberbach said, Well, fellas, let me speak to the Colonel. Whats your overall feeling on the movies truth-ometer? The reasons for this are a source of controversy, as it was believed that Parker's status as an illegal immigrant (the theme of the Netflix series Stateless) would prohibit him from traveling as he didn't have a passport, nor could he get one due to his status. I must say, Jean Aberbach was instrumental in us doing that, just by saying, Youre not leaving till I have them., Something else you wrote on the fly, on demand, that has endured well for 65 years: Santa Claus Is Back in Town., Yeah, we did that in a hurry, also. Even so, he continued to sell out shows and hit the Top 10 charts. No, it never did. Mike Stoller plays the pianist in the film Jailhouse Rock with Elvis Presley. But we used to have to say to him, This is Jerry, and Im Mike. Then she was hired on as Elvis' tour secretary and traveled . It was all to make him into a beloved pop idol, not a dangerous, lugubrious rock n roller. In 1967, Parker pushed Elvis to marry Priscilla Beaulieu, hoping that it would help change the tide of his career. 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. When watching the movie, you think about all the what ifs. 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? 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. And when he went down there, he was celebrated as though he himself was Elvis Presley. Elvis never knew how many shows he played free to satisfy Parkers enslavement to the roulette wheel and the craps table. Variety is a part of Penske Media Corporation. Elvis had just as many white influences and announced as early as seventh grade that he was going to sing at the Grand Ole Opry. Austin Butler and Tom Hanks star in this musical biopic about the life of Elvis Presley, specifically his relationship with his manager Colonel Tom Parker. You think you're going to get fired and nothing works. Tom Parker wasn't a household name before Elvis, but it's clear that after the biopic, it soon will be. He did not have an artistic thought in his body. Me Im happy being able to buy the groceries., As for the reports of declining returns on Elvis movies, Parker didnt believe them. And then I guess it, obviously, became something else. We picked up the script, which we hadnt looked at yet, that was in the corner of the room with the Whats On Broadway magazines. It was the pre-Broadway run in Los Angeles. 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. Is there anything to that? 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. 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? Austin Butler won the Golden Globe for Best Actor, beating out favorite Brendan Fraser (The Whale), and he picked up a nomination for the same award at the Oscars. "The Colonel is like Falstaff with a chainsaw. Related: Every Baz Luhrmann Movie, Ranked According To Box Office Mojo. Tom Hanks and Elvis Butler come to an understanding on a ferris wheel in Elvis film, Elvis (Austin Butler) and his parents sign contracts and pose for pictures with Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks) in a scene from Elvis, Willie Nelsons 90th Birthday Is Smoking, With Snoop Dogg, George Strait and Neil Young Among the Party Favorites at the Hollywood Bowl, How Wynonna Judds Judds Final Tour Resulted in a Celebratory, All-Star Concert Special and a Doc That Deals With Grief, Billy Strings and Willie Nelson Commit to Going California Sober in Duet Released for Willies Birthday, The Colonel: The Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley, Jock Zonfrillo, MasterChef Australia Judge, Dies at 46, Only Murders in the Building Season 3 Premiere Date Revealed by Steve Martin and Martin Short at Comedy Show (EXCLUSIVE), Matthew Lawrence: 'My Agency Fired Me' After I Refused to Take My Clothes Off for an Award-Winning Director, Netflixs Saudi Arabian Psychological Thriller The Matchmaker Tackles Controversial Subject of Temporary Marriages, Says, Super Mario Bros. Movie Officially Smashes $1 Billion Globally, Bill Hader Is Open to Playing Stefon Again, One Year After Saying He Might Retire the Character Due to Being Seen as a Stereotype, The Morning Show Renewed for Season 4 on Apple TV+ Ahead of Season 3 Debut, The Late Late Show With James Corden Series Finale Scores 1.43 Million Viewers, That Old Jack Black Magic: As the Villain of 'The Super Mario Bros. Movie,' the Actor Gives His Peachiest Performance in Years, COVER STORY | How a Sex Scandal, Big Egos and Putin Led to Jeff Shells Sudden, No Payout Exit From NBCU, Ryan Goslings Greta Gerwig Barbie Tee and Margot Robbies Pink Two Piece Embrace Barbiecore, The Brilliance of Harry Belafonte in 12 Songs, Bob Odenkirk Joins The Bear Season 2 (EXCLUSIVE), Is This 'Beau Is Afraid' Character a De-Aged Joaquin Phoenix? And you just, you always think about it. Parker had no passport and couldnt go and didnt trust any other promoter to take him. But this is Lurhmann telling us Elvis didnt steal Black music, as he has been accused of doing, but performed it in homage. Parker used Jimmie to sidle up to Elvis and form a friendship to get Elvis to sign with Parker and the elder Snow, who were then business partners. The Colonel was well-known as a strong promoter that frequently leaned into exploitation. 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. Elvis took care of what Elvis did and Colonel took care of what Colonel did. Theyre having it both ways.

Russell Island Dump Opening Hours, Southcoast Behavioral Health Complaints, Steve Pemberton Wife Tonya, Articles C