Author Peter Guralnick wrote the definitive two-volume biography of the King: “Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley” (1994), and “Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley” (2000). And now, his latest is about Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis’ legendary manager. Asked if he found anything surprising, Guralnick replied, “It totally surprised me.”

“The Colonel and the King: Tom Parker, Elvis Presley, and the Partnership that Rocked the World” (Little, Brown & Co.) is the story of a partnership that rocked popular culture, and how Parker’s marketing savvy and enduring loyalty helped the King get his crown.

Guralnick says Parker did not create the template for being the manager of a musician: “It wasn’t original to him, it wasn’t brand new. But he carried it, I think, to a far greater extent than anyone had before.”

In 1955, the 20-year-old Presley was playing the Louisiana Hayride when Parker first caught his act. “It took no more than a few days after seeing him for the first time that he booked Elvis when nobody else was willing to book him,” Guralnick said.

Parker, who was then handling Hank Snow, quickly put Elvis in the show.

Elvis would sell more than 12 million records in 1956. The Colonel negotiated his recording contract, his movie deal, and oversaw all his marketing.  As he would write, “I don’t [just] sit here and smoke cigars hoping for something to happen.”

Guralnick said, “There is so much love in some of his early letters to Elvis. And in one he says, you know, ‘You are just like me. You are sensitive, you’re easily hurt. But only those we love can hurt us.'”

Presley would write back, “I love you like a father.”

Colonel Tom Parker wasn’t actually a colonel; he also wasn’t American. In fact, Andreas van Kuijk was a stowaway from Holland, who arrived in the U.S. in 1926, barely speaking English. The 16-year-old soon invented an origin story. “Once he declared himself to be Tom Parker, born in West Virginia, his identity was never questioned for over 50 years,” said Guralnick. “The only person who may have known it was Elvis Presley.”

The honorary title “Colonel” would be bestowed on him by Louisiana’s Governor. It became his first name. “That was how he signed all of his letters,” said Guralnick.

Before Presley, Parker made a star out of Eddy Arnold, booking him as the first “hillbilly act” in Vegas.

Actor George Hamilton, who befriended the Colonel in his early days in Hollywood, said, “He had all the smarts of a con man, but he wasn’t. He knew how to make the other person want whatever he was selling.”

Asked why Parker was so driven, Hamilton replied, “Emotional stuff from his childhood. I feel like he had some horrible damage done. He didn’t like his father.”

Parker would become notorious for taking a 50% cut of some of Presley’s later deals. “Now, I sat with him one day and I said, ‘Is it right to get half of everything?'” Hamilton recalled. “And he said, ‘Well, you know, 50% of something is better than 100% of nothing.’ And I said, ‘Well, you mean your half, or his?’ He said, ‘Well, if I didn’t have my half, he wouldn’t have his!’ And I got it. I got it.”

The Colonel offered Hamilton an opportunity in Vegas: “He said, ‘And by the way, Elvis has gotta take two weeks off at the Hilton. And I booked you in.’ I said, ‘I can’t do that show. That doesn’t make any sense, Colonel.’ He said, ‘George, you want $50,000 a week?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘It’s two weeks. For that, you can do anything, can’t you?’ I said, ‘Yes, sir!'”

In 1973, after Presley bad-mouthed hotel owner Conrad Hilton on stage in Vegas, Parker confronted him backstage. “Essentially, Elvis and Colonel fired each other,” said Guralnick.

The split didn’t last long. “Neither Colonel nor Elvis could imagine a world without the other,” said Guralnick. “They simply didn’t have the ability to walk away.”

But Parker began to worry about the “instability of [his] artist.” 

Asked how he reacted to Presley’s increasing drug use, Guralnick replied, “I think he was at a loss. I think there was an element of denial. But he was well aware of what was going on. Nobody could miss what was going on.”

In Vegas, Colonel developed his own addiction. George Hamilton saw it firsthand: “He used to get me to go gambling with him. God! He would go all-in on, like, I mean, big money. I saw close to a million dollars lost at a table.”

Guralnick said, “They were caught in a trap – as Elvis sang! I mean, neither one of them could confront the other one with his problem.”

According to the author, the two were locked in a relationship of mutual denial – the twin tragedies of their story. And when Elvis died in 1977, the Colonel, according to Guralnick, “went into shock.”

“I’ll never stop trying to keep nis name alive,” Parker said. He would die in 1997.

While Guralnick was doing research at Elvis’ Memphis mansion Graceland, in what was once the office of Elvis’ father, Vernon Presley, he was told the office telephone was disconnected: “So, one night we were working quite late, and it was 10 o’clock at night. And all of a sudden, the phone rang. And so you know, you’ll have to tell me: Was this Elvis? Was this Vernon? Maybe it was Colonel. 

“We stared at it. Should we answer? Should we not answer? Who knows what would happen if we answered? But we did not answer. We just listened to it ring, until it finally stopped ringing!”

“You wanted the idea that there was one of those three on the other end of the line?” I asked.

“Well, you want to preserve the mystery!”

     
READ AN EXCERPT: “The Colonel and the King” by Peter Guralnick

     
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Story produced by Jon Carras. Editor: Remington Korper.

     
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