colonel tom parker interview

All Rights Reserved. I am curious though, I like throwing a curve ball at the beginning, something, hopefully you haven't been asked. Born in the Netherlands, Parker entered the United States illegally when he was 20 years old. Are you kidding? 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. You had your share of contact with him during the years you were writing for Elvis. Parker found ways to market Elvis through merchandise, TV appearances, and films, always working in some kind of cross-promotion to make more money off the endeavor. More: Does Elvis Have An After Credits Scene? A "colonel" in honorary terms only, he was a shrewd, showman-like . My favorite rap was Grandmaster Flash on The Message, which goes back a whole bunch of years; thats the only one that I was really taken with. It was the pre-Broadway run in Los Angeles. Check the list of the 10 top box office stars Elvis is right there. Sadly, the blues do not sell well. Variety is a part of Penske Media Corporation. "We ended up talking for well over an hour," Hanks recalls. Elvis wasnt ready for hear all that yet. His performance alone is reason to see the film. And seeing our names on (45 labels), they thought that Leiber-Stoller was a kind of music, like how they used to put Foxtrot on a record. 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. Variety and the Flying V logos are trademarks of Variety Media, LLC. 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. Its shown as being Parkers idea to get him away for a while to put a lid on the sexual energy and image. Colonel Parker tells how the money was split. In 1958, Parker encouraged Elvis to voluntarily enlist in the Army (part of Elvis' true story) after he received a draft notice and serve a two-year stint as a regular soldier, showing the world that he was just like any average American. Me Im happy being able to buy the groceries., As for the reports of declining returns on Elvis movies, Parker didnt believe them. ", "If Shakespeare was looking to take on a historical character now, you couldn't go past the idea of the Colonel and Elvis," Luhrmann adds. So it gets complicated, and it probably will never get done. 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. Theres about three different uses of Hound Dog, including the original Big Mama Thornton version, and of course theres some Jailhouse Rock in there. 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. He says, "I said he should sing this kind of thing." Hanks says Luhrmann's approach to the work also helped push him to new heights. There's a number of thematic elements there that All right. As a joke, he formed the. 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. Elvis: The Controversy Behind Colonel Tom Parker Explained - Screen Rant Well, wed had it pulled over already, a few times. Colonel Tom Parker - Elvis, House & Death - Biography But he also found rare footage of interviews Parker gave, which is how he hit on the accent that is so decidedly un-Hanks-like. If Hollywood has an everyman, it's Hanks, the affable All-American Guy cut from the same cloth as stars like Gary Cooper, James Stewart, and Henry Fonda. That can be found in detail in two Parker biographies published in recent years Colonel Tom Parkerby James Dickerson (2001) andThe Colonelby Alanna Nash (2003). 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. So we developed some protective mechanisms. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google. Hanks recalls. That convinced him this would be an opportunity to truly disappear into a different kind of role. The music publishers for Elvis were there. Baz Luhrmann Talks 'Elvis' With Maureen Dowd - The New York Times Why dont you wait outside? So we waited, trying to imagine how we were going to be rewarded for bringing this great plumb. He mentions that church in the film. I played on one of the songs from those sessions (Treat Me Nice), but I wasnt that good of a player. But there is some history with Varietys initial bad review that maybe we should bring up. And his son, Jimmie (later Jimmy), envied Elvis and yearned to counsel him on his sinful ways. 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? In the meantime, Colonel Parker had nixed all offers for Elvis to appear on stage, as he had for Presley to appear on TV. He literally never made any artistic suggestion to Elvis. It adds a little spice. "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. Colonel Parker is the devil to many Elvis Presley fans. That can be found in detail in two Parker biographies published in recent years . The actor has proven time and again that he's up to the challenge of playing a real-world personality and the role of Elvis and the Colonel is no different. . I don't know if that's true or not. "It's possible to be driven mad by it," the actor says. Per The Express, he was shocked when Elvis Presley became interested in 14-year-old Priscilla Beaulieu in 1959, fearing that the King would ruin his career like Jerry Lee Lewis when the latter married his 13-year-old second cousin in 1958. We dont have approval on scripts only money. "The Colonel is like Falstaff with a chainsaw. No, all that stuff was rehearsed and rehearsed. To play additional iconic musical artists in the film, Luhrmann cast singer/songwriter Yola as Sister Rosetta Tharpe, model Alton Mason as Little Richard, Gary Clark Jr. as Arthur Crudup, and artist Shonka Dukureh as Willie Mae Big Mama Thornton. Yes, he did. 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. up to the suite after the shows. 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. Presleys schedule didnt allow it anyway, according to Parker. There just werent a lot of other performers who could pull that off. It was supposed to be a Christmas show in the sense that it would air in December, and Parker wanted it to be a family show with Elvis as a 60s-era Bing Crosby or Perry Como. Colonel Tom Parker wasn't afraid to meddle in his client's personal affairs. King would be playing in the lounge, and Elvis would be playing in the big room. I mean, he took him away from Sam Phillips, which was not nice, but proved to be an amazing boon to his career and popularity. That sold tickets! 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. Anything can happen during those first three days. 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. The Black-white divide didnt mean much to the Presleys. Colonel Parker is seen as under pressure from secretive governmental forces who want to keep Elvis from corrupting youth and to try to get him to tamp down Presley, they threaten to expose. That's what makes him so delicious.". He. And there certainly would've been no Elvis without Colonel Tom Parker.' And I thought, wow, thats the most money Ill ever see at one time! '", This notion of making Elvis and the Colonel foils to each other was what made Hanks feel like Luhrmann's Elvis would be a fresh take on the story. "But having seen the movie, I notice something profoundly different every time. 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. Everybody's very familiar with it. Colonel knew what Elvis was doing and going to do. No, no, not at all. 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. The attitude towards the work that was Jerrys (lyrics) was, We cant use that, and other people might disagree with what he did or his take. Elvis picked up an impressive seven Oscar nominations. Lets talk about a few of the greats you worked with who were not Elvis Presley. Anyway, whats Elvis need? In fact, Colonel didnt even have to go down to the casino. He could turn down scripts. Known for his keen promotion and merchandising savvy, Parker, or "the Snowman," would help to make Elvis a household name, putting the singer on everything from lunch boxes to board games to trading cards and beyond. And again, he did not advise Elvis on any aspect of his performance. And there certainly would've been no Elvis without Colonel Tom Parker.' Colonel Parker is seen as under pressure from secretive governmental forces who want to keep Elvis from corrupting youth and to try to get him to tamp down Presley, they threaten to expose. Its both sanitized and expanded. Yes and no. What dreams do you have? The timeline well, what timeline? Hard to do. But that gets telescoped in the movie. Only then did the Presley-Parker partnership make a triumphant return to television and, soon after that, to the concert stage. But he also did extraordinarily genius things. 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. A producer was complaining that an Elvis picture of his didnt do so well. Hanks has portrayed real-life people in a number of films, from Jim Lovell in Apollo 13 to Mr. Rogers in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood to Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger in Sully - and many more.

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