But what exactly was Tom Parker hiding? London: Aurum 2003; Dirk Vellenga with Mick Farran. Rian Johnson, Halle Berry, and More Share Their Inspiration, From the Archive: The Man Who Kept Marilyns Secrets (1991), Listen toVFsLittle Gold MenPodcast for Unrivaled Awards-Season Coverage, 2023 Cond Nast. Elvis Presleys daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, inherited his entire estate. Though rumors and allegations of Colonel Parker taking advantage of Elvis money have been circulating for years, no evidence has been found to suggest that he stole any money from the King of Rock n Roll. The man had aged and grown grotesquely fat. In addition, she has various other investments, including music publishing rights and royalties, which provide additional financial returns to the estate. Parker arranged for Elvis to give a series of concerts in Las Vegas, but these were unsuccessful in a city with a crowd that was certainly wealthy but middle-aged and barely fond of rock and roll, before which Parker contacted Paramount Pictures for Elvis to participate in a total of seven films (considering that in those years, one of Presleys main interests was acting). Sources Is there a difference between regular HDMI cable and 4K cable? Their manager, Brian Epstein, was dedicated to them. Tom Hanks plays this villainy broadly with cartoonish gusto, veering somewhere between Snidely Whiplash and Sydney Greenstreet. In many cases, he stopped Elvis from touring and even kept him from working in blockbuster films. The estate is managed by the Presley familys trust, and it primarily provides income to Lisa Marie through the lucrative use of her fathers name and likeness. What Baz tantalized me with, right off the bat, was heres a guy who saw the opportunity to manifest a once-in-a-lifetime talent into a cultural force.. It was arguably the first marketing campaign aimed squarely at the teen demographic. So far as the wider world knew, the Colonel was Thomas Andrew Parker, born in Huntingdon, West Virginia, some time shortly after 1900. The Colonel: The Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley. Your Privacy Rights It was arguably the first marketing campaign aimed squarely at the teen demographic. Who benefits from Elvis Presleys estate? He takes 50 per cent of everything I earn. However, in an exclusive interview with Express.co.uk, Todd Slaughter, who appeared in the last footage of Elvis before his death and has been the president of the largest Elvis fan club in the world for over 50 years, shed some light on the situation and relationship. Reports from the IRS and other sources estimate that Presley made an estimated $20 million from his music career, $1. But all that success in the kitchen belied the double life he was leading as a rank-and-file member of the Mob. He even put additional posters up, even if the venues were sold out, because what he was doing was selling Elvis. The 42 Best Romantic Comedies of All Time, The 25 Best Shows on Netflix to Watch Right Now, Scene Stealer: The True Lies of Elisabeth Finch, Part 2. Near the end of the film, Elvis learns that Parker is not an American, and doesnt have a passport, which means Elvis will never fulfill his dream of playing in Europe. 2 million from his investments, bringing the grand total to over $28 million. That's amazing for anyone let alone a smoker and someone who was borderline obese. Ill Let the Chips Fall Where They May: The Life and Confessions of Mob Chef David Ruggerio. Gladys didnt trust Parker but agreed to advise Elvis to sign because she thought he was also signing with Snow. But in Luhrmanns treatment, hes Satan in a snowman sweater. For the most part that was not a problem, because Parker had showmans instincts and enjoyed publicity. It is unclear whether or not Priscilla actually received the full $100,000 stipulated in the prenuptial agreement, as records related to the settlement are not public. He sold the rights to Presleys early recordings, gave away the rights to the master recordings, lost royalties after he negotiated Elvis seven-year contract with RCA Records in 1973, and squandered his own fortune to a gambling habit. But the Colonel trusted no one. He talked about it all the time, for years.. Probably he had known the woman; perhaps he had even desired herand then been angered by her recent marriage. The time he got so mad at me, hammering his cane in the floorboard of his Buick on that ominous ride through the Sin City desert, was when I asked him why he didnt give Elvis better movie scripts and songs. The Colonel never made it past the rank of private when he served in the military, his discharge papers labeled him a psychopath. With the passage of the Music Modernization Act, the independent administrator, the Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC), was created and given access to Gracelands Elvis Presley Enterprises and Sony/ATV Musics music library to oversee mechanical licensing. The Presley estate also has a charitable component. For example, Blue Hawaii, his 1961 romantic comedy, grossed a total of $7. And the spot where the murder had occurred was only a few yards away from what had been, in 1929, Parkers family home. Parker and Presley's estate squared off in another legal battle . Elvis: Thats The Way It Is is re-released in cinemas August 13 and celebrates 85 years of the King and 50 years since the films original release. Did Elvis make a lot of money in his movies? Graceland is the former home of Elvis Presley, located in Memphis, Tennessee. He was ruthless and heartless. Parker signed a contract with RCA Records to buy Presley the recording rights to his songs for $40,000 (which included $5,000 going directly to Elvis as a premium), a considerable sum at the time. If there was, God woulda named it cash. He was also fond of saying, Spend it nowyou dont see any hearses with luggage racks on them., But in Luhrmanns film, Hanks plays it hammy and over the top. Elvis Presley was one of the most successful and popular recording artists of all time and during his lifetime he was said to have made an incredible amount of money. The Colonel always was a mystery. Theyre one of Hollywoods brightest starsand most troubled actors. The other remained in its dilapidated state. In the rest of this article, we are going to bring you everything you need to know about the story of Colonel Parkers handling of Elvis estate and income. The Colonels exposure as an illegal immigrant makes it easier to understand his deep reluctance to leave the Statesor even, as he once confided to a trusted assistant, to pick up the check he had earned while working his passage from the Netherlands. In general, fans of the icon think that Colonel Parker never let Elvis fully shine. Parker kept Presley on a leash from the very beginning. The author with the real Colonel Tom Parker, in 1992. if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[250,250],'coalitionbrewing_com-leader-3','ezslot_10',155,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-coalitionbrewing_com-leader-3-0');Additionally, she regularly gives tours of the property, permitting guests to view the home, Presleys grave, and the rest of the estate. When in January 1960 Elvis finished his military service and returned from Germany, Parker had prepared a special television program on ABC to welcome him; the show was entitled Welcome Home Elvis and featured the participation of Frank Sinatra, with Parker seeing to it that Sinatra was paid much less than Elvis, in retaliation for Sinatras earlier views against rock and roll. I'm sure that MGM also took the money back from Elvis' record sales. Country singer Eddy Arnold was the first to sign in 1938 and found himself giving the Colonel 25 percent of his take-home pay. The Beatles were also a cultural force. He did not give 2 shits about Elvis. The majority of Elviss reported net worth at the time of his death was comprised of royalties from record sales, publishing, film and concert tickets. When the band faced death threats after the 1966 bigger than Jesus controversy, his first reaction was to cancel their American tour and take it out of his own money. Far from being born in West Virginia, Tom Parker was in fact a native of the city of Breda, in the southern part of the Netherlands. And while Colonel Parker did not technically steal any money from Elvis, the deals he had with him were so unfair that they are certainly exploitative in nature. Her other sources of income come from royalties, endorsement deals, and investments in films, production companies, and real estate. Elvis accepted the idea and married Priscilla Beaulieu in the spring of 1967. | READ MORE. After Elviss death in 1977, the Presley family continued to own and live in the mansion. Simultaneously, Parker had decided for many years to cut costs for his client by preventing Elvis from embarking on concert tours or mass contact with his fans. For what its worth, the film has it right when Elvis gets suggestive with a plaster Nipper, the RCA dog, in concert. After the firing, did Colonel Parker send Elvis an itemized bill for $8 million? As Parker confesses at the beginning of the movie, There are some whod make me out to be the villain of this here story. And it can be said that the Colonel was the antagonist of Elvis true life as well. With his first contract with RCA, Presley recorded the song Heartbreak Hotel in January 1956 and went from being a promising singer to a true rock star. In October 1956 Elvis released his fourth single, called Love Me Tender, and secured a new best-seller for the entire year of 1957, in parallel with the films made with Paramount; even so, Parker still doubted if Elviss fame would last long, having seen, over the years, many artists rise to stardom for a year or two and then be forgotten. More still went to RCA records, sole owner of all of Elvis' music before 1973, thanks to a $5.4-million deal Parker arranged in that year. Elvis Presley: SURPRISING revelation from Vernons office at Graceland, John Lennon: Why Elvis Presley hated The Beatles star, Elvis Thats the Way It Is release date: When is Elvis documentary out. In reality, Parker lacked that document because he had never resolved his illegal immigrant status; this caused the manager to fear traveling outside the US and being arrested upon his return, or deported. Heres more about what the movie gets right and wrong. From the middle of 1973, Elvis began to gain weight rapidly, and began his addiction to tranquilizing drugs, to the point that they prevented his live performances where he was sometimes unable to sing or mumbled the lyrics of his songs. He sat there so engrossed that he never moved, though God knows how many times hed seen it. According to reports, Elvis earned a staggering amount of money and was reported to have been worth over $100 million at one point in his life. Plesley), and with J, which he could pronounce as a Y (you yust missed him), as evident in the phone call he had with Canadian DJ Red Robinson. Not a single witness at the time suggested that Andreas van Kuijk had ever been a suspect. Police Order Presley Clean Up His Pan-Pac Show. Hollywood publicist Gene Schwam recently revealed to Variety the story behind the headline: told that the second show wasnt moving tickets, Schwam, taking a suggestion from Parker, called the police and said hed heard that Elvis was getting too risqu for the kids. Then he told the press what the police said. The evidence, though, remained entirely circumstantial. 2 million, or $79. Yeah, Hanks said at Cannes The amount of ways that Parker cheated people out of nickels and dimes, and dollars is extraordinary. Im not interested in playing a bad guy just for the sake of [it being like], Before I kill you Mr. 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. Only when Elvis died, in 1977, at age 42, did the first hints emerge that something far more unpleasant was lurking in the Colonels past, and once again they did so in the Netherlands. He quickly became the singer's sole representative, and within months he had won Elvis a . Colonel Tom Parker, Elviss manager from 1955 to his death in 1977, earned an estimated $50 million from the singers estate. That harmed his public image and his music. I played along. This means, notes Nash, that he set out in a foreign country literally penniless. In the late 1970s, Vellenga ended one of his newspaper features by posing what seemed to him a reasonable question: Did something serious happen before Parker left that summer in 1929, or maybe in the 1930s when he broke all contact with his family?. Presley only appeared at the Grand Ole Opry once in October 1954. In the late 80s, Lisa Marie Presley, Elviss daughter, began living in the home. Heres The True Story. Certainly the way he lived his life, for the duration of his years, suggests a secret of that kind of gravity. Elvis and Colonel Parker each had a 727. Faced with this problem, Parker could not keep up with the pace of presentations and eventually had to allow Elvis to return to his Graceland residence, dedicating himself only to receiving his royalties from RCA but without returning to recordings. Alanna Nash has written four books about Elvis, including The Colonel: The Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley. Stories of managerial terrorism abound in music history. It wound up being the A-side of what sowed the seeds of a revolution. Gentlemen, it began. For the most part, these details did not emerge until the 1980s, years after Presleys death and well into the Colonels semi-retirement (he eventually died in 1997). Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. Snow didnt notice until 1956. Epstein would never think about stepping into the studio while the Beatles were recording. However, Graceland is open to visitors today and approximately 600,000 tourists visit the property each year to learn about Elvis life and legacy. He saw the Potomac as just another snow job, as he called his art of the con. Then five minutes later, he would be so gentle, telling a nice soft story. The estate also makes money from licensing and merchandising, royalties from his record sales, and other commercial activities related to the estate. Aside from arguably being the father of American popular culture through the marketing and merchandising of his client, the Colonel negotiated one of the first $1 million-a-picture deals for a Hollywood actor, landed Elvis the highest-paying Vegas contract for the time, and protected the exploitation rights for dead celebrities through his swift actions for the Presley estate in 1977. So I saw a different sort of Colonel Parker from how many people possibly believed he behaved. He didn't sing "Trouble" at that show because he didn't know that song yet. He had a catalog of over 600 songs and released over 100 albums throughout his career. Yes, Lisa Marie Presley still owns Graceland, the Memphis, Tennessee home of her father, Elvis Presley. That number is down significantly from an estimated $100 million . The discovery left Vellenga perplexed. Cookie Policy In 1968, he was asked in an interview if it was true that he took fifty percent of everything Elvis earned. Shes not going to steal it, Colonel, Loanne laughed. In other words, his loyal subjects killed the king. Despite his love of spending, including generous donations and lavish purchases, he was able to maintain his wealth until his death in 1977 at the age of 42. This murder has never been solved. He wanted to inspire them. There a woman by the name of Nel Dankers-van Kuijk flicked through a copy of Rosita, a Belgian womens magazine. He took the name Tom Parker when he enlisted in the Army, christening himself after the officer who interviewed him. Tom Sizemore, 61, dies after aneurysm and stroke: Action star known for Saving Private Ryan, Black Hawk Down and Born on the Fourth of July battled drug addiction At first, all Vellengas inquiries turned up was old tales from the Van Kuijk family, who still remembered how their Dries had been the family storyteller and liked to dress as a dandy. In 1980, a judge ordered an investigation into his practices and found Parkers management was unethical and that he likely cost Elvis (and himself) millions. To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. He then went on to spend a further estimated $500,000 to transform the property, adding a racquetball court, pool and two-story carriage house. He did give a bill to Elvis and his father and business manager, Vernon Presley, for money he had spent or advanced . Presley is quite a homemaker, Priscilla is, and Im sure she would love to have one of the machines so she could knit Elvis [a sweater].. There is some speculation this may be due to the managers hidden status as an illegal immigrant. The first thing the Colonel did was plot to get rid of Presleys original bandmates. He is currently focusing on anime, his childhood love, with special atten Did Colonel Parker Steal from Elvis? Fontana backed Elvis on his TV appearances from January 1956 to January 1957, including the live shows for Milton Berle, Steve Allen, and the nationally star-making Ed Sullivan broadcasts. More still went to RCA records, sole owner of all of Elvis' music before 1973, thanks to a $5.4-million deal Parker arranged in that year. It is a deal that severed the Presley estate from the . Baz Luhrmanns Elvis stars Austin Butler as the hip-swiveling titular hound dog and Tom Hanks as his manager Colonel Tom Parker. Crazy he lived until 97. But according to Alanna Nashwho spent time with the real Colonel in the 90sthere were times when he was just as scary as what you see onscreen. From there, they were picked up in the late 1970s by Elvis biographer Albert Goldman. 5 million today. How much did Elvis pay Priscilla Presley? When Elisabeth Finch met Jennifer Beyer in 2019, the two women forged a fiercely loyal friendship, and eventually got married. In 1992, after Vernons death, Priscilla moved out of Graceland, and Lisa Marie continued to live there. The fact that Parker had Elvis as his only client made the financial situation of the former manager difficult, and in 1981 Parker was brought to trial by Priscilla Presley, accusing him of negligent management. So, in the Elvis movie, there's a scene where Elvis fires Colonel Parker on stage in Las Vegas. Why bother to paint both sides? From her greed is good heyday to her post-divorce denouement cavorting with a series of freaky Italian lovers, it was Ivana, all along, who gilded the Trump name. The Colonel made the comeback deal with NBC because his money dried up at the film studios. The Elvis Presley Trust operates the property and receives 50% of the proceeds of Graceland, while the remaining 50% of the profits are split between Lisa Marie and Priscilla. Details of Van Kuijks childhood in Breda eventually emerged a few years later, but only in Its Elvis Time, a small-circulation Dutch fan magazine. And while Elvis legacy keeps on living, a man behind the shadows Colonel Tom Parker played a role both in Elvis rise to the stars and in his downfall into the pits of drug abuse and suffering. I offer it only as a theory, a possibility. What threatened to give away his Dutch heritage was the word book, which he delivered with three Os, rhyming with fluke.. His father was a stableman for van Gend en Loos on the Vlaszak, he recalled for Alanna Nashand set on what would become a 30-year search for the truth about the Colonel. There is still money to be made even more so that he is dead. It carried a story about Presleys recent discharge from the U.S. Army, illustrated by a photo of the singer standing in the doorway of a train and waving to his fans. The answer to who owns the royalties to Elvis songs largely depends on the individual song. The Colonel made a joke out of both. Parker took notes, cutting out each clause in every contract which robbed him of a percentage, and working them into masterpieces of managerial tyranny.