colonel tom parker interview

Which I thought was weird, at the 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. Look you got a product, you sell it, explained Parker. Parker saw his job as an elevated version of. And I was very happy with the way my songs were used. I hope its a big hit. 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. Mike Stoller on Writing 'Hound Dog,' 'Jailhouse Rock - Variety Hanks on Wednesday (Dec. 16) dropped byThe Late Show With Stephen Colbertto promote his latest film,News of the World, but he also chatted about other topics, such as the upcoming Elvis picture starring Austin Butler in which he plays the late genius and a scoundrel Parker. "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. King, there was a chance meeting at Sun Studios and, in late 1956, at a famous all-Black charity show, where King was the headliner and Elvis, as an invited guest, came out and wiggled his leg, but did not perform. Well, yes and no. Related: Elvis Cast Guide: What The Characters Look Like In Real Life. Its shown as being Parkers idea to get him away for a while to put a lid on the sexual energy and image. Dean Reed was an incredibly handsome guy. Anyway, one of us said, Uh, Big Mama, you know, you could growl it, and she said, Dont be telling me how to sing the blues! [The version Leiber and Stoller relay in their memoir has a little more lewdness to the response.] 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. The complex Elvis/Parker relationship is the glue that holds Elvis together, making it different from yet another musician biopic. Reportedly, Hanks was approached by movie director Baz Luhrmann, and after a short conversation, the actor was hooked. That convinced him this would be an opportunity to truly disappear into a different kind of role. [Laughs.] Born as Andreas Cornelis Dries van Kuijk in the Netherlands, the Tom Hanks Tom Parker portrayal saw him illegally immigrate to the United States, finding employment as a carnival worker before joining the Army, where he was eventually discharged after going AWOL. 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. You guys basically produced those Jailhouse Rock sessions, even though you didnt get credit? He was also a consultant to the Hilton, where he gambled every day. Tom Hanks goes dark: Why our favorite good guy wanted to play the. "I had a different layer of expectations.". Leiber died in 2011 but, creeping up on 90, Stoller remains active still showing up to collect the few accolades he hasnt already received, like the Icon award BMI bestowed upon him at its annual ceremony in May, and also working on a stage musical he doesnt want to say much about at the moment. No. Hanks recalls. Every hero needs a villain, and in the case of Elvis Presley, the man who made him was also the one who destroyed him. 'Elvis' Fact or Fiction: Colonel Tom Parker Biographer on What's Real I tried to put together, and it was tricky, this story of There was a guy named Dean Reed. In the end, playing Parker required Hanks to spend an average of five hours per day in the make-up chair. But they all tended to be the same kind of story. A producer was complaining that an Elvis picture of his didnt do so well. 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. The single record was done with the Jordanaires and with D.J. Never one to miss an opportunity to make money off of his prized client, Colonel Tom Parker jumped on Elvis' death as a marketing cash grab. Parker returned to the carnival (one not-too-dissimilar to the 1950s carnival in American Horror Story thanks to the setting), where he made his living for a time before getting involved in music promotion, working with the likes of Gene Austin, Minnie Pearl, Eddy Arnold, and Hank Snow. Parker struggled with a gambling addiction while keeping Elvis on a short leash, halting the singer from touring overseas and pushing him into cheap projects that were frequently averse to what the artist wanted to be a part of, eventually taking 50% of Elvis' earnings, of which they both agreed upon. 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? HANKS: It's a beast, but you are aware of when that scene is coming. While it sometimes borders on cartoonish parody, with Hanks seemingly becoming a supervillain of sorts, it fits the overall style and narrative of Director Baz Luhrmann's movie. The film has a big focus on Elvis manager Colonel Parker, of course. 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. He probably initially heard about Elvis from his cronies in Texarkana when Elvis was playing little clubs while on the Louisiana Hayride. "We thought we were the only white kids who knew that stuff!" 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. 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?" Yeah. He cared about the reaction of the audience. He was the American that we all knew." Elvis never knew how many shows he played free to satisfy Parkers enslavement to the roulette wheel and the craps table. Are you kidding? In the same interview, Hanks also hinted that he is connected to the upcoming Disney+rebootof the classicTurner & Hooch, but seemed a little confused as to how it was going to play out. I played on one of the songs from those sessions (Treat Me Nice), but I wasnt that good of a player. Hanks said he was taken aback by her reaction. Elvis Presley: TRUTH about Colonel Parker and '50 per cent' cut We could write pretty fast, but that was an unusual situation. Washburn, etc. 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. When I was 23, II got a royalty check for about $5,000 a song called Black Denim Trousers and Motorcycle Boots (a No. Which is not the one in the film, because the one in the film was blown out and had a bigger orchestra. How about a credit? And Jerry Wexler said, But you wrote the song! 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. Its great. How did you finally land on the Colonels bad side? Baz Luhrmann is much like Colonel Parker. He was both a genius and a scoundrel, Hanks said of Parker, Elvis only manager. He attended Elvis funeral dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and baseball cap, avoiding any display of emotion. It was sad. It became a big hit. Well, wed had it pulled over already, a few times. The article in question appeared inVarietyon January 15, 1964. I thought you guys did such a great job. Tom Hanks Was Surprised By Priscilla Presley's Feelings About Elvis As a matter of fact, when we were in Paris, I heard Edith Piaf at LOlympia doing a French translation of Black Denim Trousers and Motorcycle Boots, called LHomme a la Moto The Man on the Motor Scooter which was a big thrill. The bass was either the father or the heavy. In the memoir you worked on with Jerry and David Ritz some years back, Ritz quotes you as saying: Variety called it a loser. The music publishers for Elvis were there. Arizona monument. In 1969, she was an employee of the International Hotel when Elvis made his record-breaking performances there. And Cornell Gunter was either the female role or some other such role. Read Next: Pink Performs Acoustic Set for No Kid Hungry, Talks Why Her Upcoming Arena Tour Will Feel Intimate. But Im happy to have a show like Smokey Joes Caf in existence. Yeah, I think it was Ghost of a Chance. (The Hard Way is also on record as a temporary title.) HANKS: There's a YouTube, one was named Comrade Rockstar and another movie called Red Elvis. Tom Hank's Col Tom Parker accent : r/Elvis - Reddit The Coasters were different characters. All in all, the manager was known for some appalling behavior towards his star client, and Elvis tries its best to portray that accurately. To what extent Parker was guilty of such sins against Elvis, Im not qualified to say. 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. There was a precursor to [Smokey Joes Cafe] that was done up in Seattle. Is it bittersweet that you had your theatrical success with a revue? 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. I think we maybe killed them! 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. The Tom Hanks Tom Parker portrayal was a shocking one. You and Jerry had projects you wanted to do for Broadway with original stories and song scores. The Tom Hanks Tom Parker portrayal was certainly a different type of role for the actor, who is known for taking on characters like the sunny Mr. Rogers in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. I am curious though, I like throwing a curve ball at the beginning, something, hopefully you haven't been asked. We went back to my house and, in about 10 or 15 minutes, we wrote Hound Dog and took it back. We thought we were the only white kids who knew all that stuff! Parker saw his job as an elevated version of the carnival barker, the person who ensured Elvis was always in people's hearts and minds. But Gladys was a big Grand Ole Opry fan, and it was in part the Colonels introducing her to Hank Snow that got her to let her boy go with the Colonel. Get weekly rundowns straight to your inbox, A daily briefing on what matters in the music industry. No, Luhrmann has really framed this through a present-day lens. First of all, when Colonel Parker enlisted in the U.S. Army, he declared himself a Dutch citizen, with parents born in Holland. HANKS: He was a promoter and not a manager. "It's possible to be driven mad by it," the actor says. You and Jerry started producing more things that you didnt write, including some rock albums of the 70s that people dont associate with you because they arent the old-school Leiber-Stoller sound like Stealers Wheel and Stuck in the Middle With You.. I dont think the band is great. It was never a well-organized hand of poker. That's the standard trope that goes along with Colonel Tom Parker. Well, Parker finally said, Did they spell his name right?. Elvis wasnt ready for hear all that yet. Or were there things he did right that he merits credit for? And there's the fault that I think also has to land in both of them because Elvis could have said no. This is Luhrmann showing us Elviss influences. Elvis made a chilling cry for help just months before his death Is the portrayal of the 68 comeback special accurate, with Parker trying desperately to keep it a Christmas special, and resisting the rock n roll throwback elements that everyone loved, because he was kowtowing to a deeply upset TV network? The first three days of the movies are chaos. The Colonel - The Colonel 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. Elvis seemed to evoke a love or hate response in anyone I knew. He was astonished to discover Parker was a poorly dressed, slovenly PR hack, rather than the authoritarian, ram-rod image the word "Colonel" summons. ", We start telling people what to do and they blame us if the picture doesnt go. 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. I offer this information without prejudice or comment, leaving it to the reader to judge whether it reflects good or ill on Thomas Parker. Well, it became a different song. Judge says Elvis' manager's profits were 'excessive' and 'shocking' - UPI 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. When we came in, Steve Sholes was the top guy at RCA Records. During the interview, Hanks talked about the way Parker was a promoter and not a manager, why Elvis never fired him, and how he prepares for a really emotional scene. The actor won his first Oscar for Philadelphia, where he played an AIDs-afflicted lawyer, losing significant weight to portray the character's declining health. That potential is what interests him. Variety is a part of Penske Media Corporation. He could have said, I mean, Priscilla herself told me he could have said no to those movies. "You can see Colonel Parker as despicable, but when it's Tom, he's such an incredible actor, that he can justify everything and he's not playing a bad guy in his mind," says Butler. On top of that, Parker found venue upon venue for Elvis to perform in, be it recording studios, Hollywood films, TV specials, and even satellite broadcasts, immersing the artist into the cultural zeitgeist while keeping him landlocked in North America. Only then did the Presley-Parker partnership make a triumphant return to television and, soon after that, to the concert stage. Elvis Fact Check: How Accurate Is Baz Luhrmann's New Movie? - TheWrap And then we hit it off with Elvis, very easily. I would agree with that. He didn't care what Elvis sang on stage. Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis Presley's Manager : 1993 As Presley's fame grew, people became interested in Parker as well. So far as the wider world knew, the Colonel was Thomas Andrew Parker, born in Huntingdon, West Virginia, some time shortly after 1900. "The promotion. That's the thought that he had. Col Parker is talking from 16:45---16:55(ish) and that last bit is 20:04---you get a clear shot of Parker talking and good audio . Related: Every Baz Luhrmann Movie, Ranked According To Box Office Mojo. Finally, we got on the ship to sail back into New York, and we almost made it before our ship collided with a Swedish ship and sank. 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. Less cash to Elvis, claimed the producer, would allow the use of a great script to get Presleys film career back on the right track. 1 hit in 1953 with Big Mama Thorntons Hound Dog, which you wrote for her. It adds a little spice. Elvis is famously quoted as saying, Down in Tupelo, Miss., I used to hear old Arthur Crudup bang his box the way I do now and I said, if I ever got to the place I could feel all old Arthur felt, Id be a music man like nobody saw. But its unclear whether this was on the radio or in person. And we got to demonstrate the others for him. You had your share of contact with him during the years you were writing for Elvis. He was ascoundrel in his way, Hanks said. Did Parker really do everything in his power to make sure Elvis didnt fulfill his wish of touring internationally? You had your first R&B No. 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. ", Another guy says he has a script which would cinch an Oscar for Elvis and wouldnt we do it for less money. 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. Tom Parker Is Dead at 87; Controlled Presley's Career 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. Anything can happen during those first three days. In an exclusive interview, David E Stanley said his brother's manager Colonel Tom Parker - played by Tom Hanks in a new movie about the star - treated the iconic singer as a "product" and. Tom Hanks will be playing Colonel Tom Parker, the infamous music manager who discovered Elvis and landed him his contract with RCA. Colonel Tom Parker - New Netherland Institute It had a line for our signatures. 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. 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. So then we had to perform it for her, as I played the piano and Jerry sang. Elvis loved it because it was typical of blues, of rhythm and blues songs of that period, or even an earlier period.