Procols Ninth was the name of the album. He was a very disciplined man, but also a guy who you might want to check your wallet to make sure you still have all those fives and 10s. The actual Parker diedJan. 21, 1997, at the age of 87. Baz Luhrmann's musical biopic Elvis explores the eponymous singer's career, leading up to his tragic death, and one of the characters that has caused a fair amount of controversy is Elvis and the Colonel, Tom Parker. 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. Oh, Parker instigated that whole thing, but it wasnt to put a lid on the sexual energy. As a producer/director/actor, if you could get the financing to make anything you want, what would you make and why? Having been a staple in The King's life for so long, he was well known to Elvis' ex-wife, Priscilla Presley, who humored his appearances at such venues, regarding him as a family friend despite their clashes over the estate. Parker suffered a stroke in 1997, dying at a hospital in Las Vegas, Nevada after years of declining health, survived only by his second wife. But that gets telescoped in the movie. We went back to my house and, in about 10 or 15 minutes, we wrote Hound Dog and took it back. The timeline well, what timeline? One thing he did with me was to say, I want you to remember this. And then he launched into this carny double-speak that sounded kind of like pig Latin. Elvis kind of liked Jimmie. And when I got to New York and stepped off the gang plank, Jerry ran up to me I hadnt seen him in almost four months and said, Mike, we got a smash hit! I said, Youre kidding. He said, Hound Dog. I said [incredulously], Big Mama Thornton? He said, No, some white kid named Elvis Presley. And thats how I heard about Elvis. Does it veer off in ways that seem unnecessary? Near the end of his life, Parker is said to have been speaking with two promoters about this, since Elvis was so deeply unhappy about never getting to go tour Europe, but it never happened. Related: Every Baz Luhrmann Movie, Ranked According To Box Office Mojo. Thats Luhrmann being the showman. He began negotiating it all with the Pentagon in 1956. As long as the studios come up with the loot well make the deal. I dont remember that precisely. It sounded like a weird (Southern) regional dialect, and you would know it was Dutch only by listening for certain consonants. 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 . Related: Elvis True Story: Who Was Orion? If youd like to follow Steven on Twitter or Instagram, you can expect plenty of breaking news, exclusive interviews, and pictures of cats doing stupid things. And when he went down there, he was celebrated as though he himself was Elvis Presley. Scene is from the set of the Presley movie, Love Me Tender.. I dont like the story. There was a precursor to [Smokey Joes Cafe] that was done up in Seattle. Colonel Tom Parker wasn't afraid to meddle in his client's personal affairs. Parker had no passport and couldnt go and didnt trust any other promoter to take him. Check him out. How are you preparing for it? They call it The King and I, which is a good title. But this is Lurhmann telling us Elvis didnt steal Black music, as he has been accused of doing, but performed it in homage. It was the pre-Broadway run in Los Angeles. The one where EW follows up with the cast. Tom Hanks On Colonel Tom Parker Role: Watch - Billboard Parker realized early on the bigger potential of Austin Butler's Elvis and transitioned to managing him full-time. I made sure that he was always in the public eye, and we had a lot of fun.'". 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? 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. 6 pop hit in 1955 for the group the Cheers). I Want to Be Free had a kind of special meaning, because we wanted to get out of the goddamn hotel room! Elvis movie: Tom Hanks' 'thrilling' take on Colonel Tom Parker teased Well, yes and no. In making him such an antagonist, they have robbed him of his many accomplishments with his client. "The question was, 'Why are we still talking about Elvis Presley?'" Colonel Parker tells how the money was split. 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. Colonel Parker Managed Elvis' Career, but Was He a Killer on the Lam? 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. I do know that while researching for my bookElvis 57: The Final Fifties Tours, I became increasingly impressed with how the Colonel managed Elvis during the 1956-57 period. Now hes after us for two more., The Colonel went on to tell a story about a producer who wanted to trim down Elvis film fee. 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. Any thoughts on that? '", 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. Parker became known as a shrewd, showy, and manipulative businessman who was able to work out lucrative deals at minimal overhead while making sure his pockets were lined healthily along the way. And then, of course, there was (the film) Jailhouse Rock (also retitled after a song Leiber and Stoller came up with), which was where Elvis heard the demos and wanted to meet us. Parker was an avid gambler, which is believed to have been the source of many of his "fast money" dealings with Austin Butler's Elvis. 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. There may be no one better to go to who can provide the truth on both Presley and the Colonel, in tandem, than the latters biographer, Alanna Nash. Why AI Has Some Viewers Asking Which Film Actors Are Real. Tom Hanks is playingElvis Presley manager "Colonel Tom" Parker in the upcomingBaz Luhrmann film, and to get a better idea of the infamous character, the actor had dinner withPriscilla Presley. When other songs from the catalog show up in contemporary usage out of nowhere, it must be beyond surprising you. Col. Tom Parker, the strict, unorthodox and controversial manager who orchestrated Elvis Presley's career from 1955 until the singer's death in 1977, died yesterday at Valley Hospital in Las Vegas . Luhrmann describes another story in the aftermath of Presley's death where the Colonel immediately called RCA and instructed them to produce more records, knowing demand would skyrocket. 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. Then after that, you just have to have this faith in your own individual process and the power of the script. That was amazing because you still see the twinkle in his eyes. By the third day, you're in love with him. RELATED: Austin Butler on Elvis and Why it Took Months After Filming to Find Himself Again. Offers may be subject to change without notice. This article originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter. 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. However, the tide wasn't actually changed until a 1968 TV special, produced by Scott Binder, put Elvis the singer back on top, while simultaneously showing the Colonel how close he was to losing the singer to another producer. After the divorce, Elvis and Priscilla had little shared experience other than arranging Lisa Maries visits. I've never seen a photograph of him. Tom Parker wasn't a household name before Elvis, but it's clear that after the biopic, it soon will be. 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. In addition, he revealed. 2023 Billboard Media, LLC. Copyright 2023 Meredith Corporation. Its all a Baz Luhrmann fever dream. Anyway, whats Elvis need? Elvis influences were so diverse. And Cornell Gunter was either the female role or some other such role. 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. He wanted us to write the score for it, and for us to help get Elvis to play the lead. But that was in the 70s. Its (Eminem performing) over the background sound of Elvis recording of Jailhouse Rock, which Jerry and I virtually produced as well as wrote not the movie version, but the single version that Jerry and I were in the studio with Elvis working on back in 1957. But then Colonel cheated Hank out of half of Elvis and that was that. Marty Lacker told me that Elvis and B.B. In the carnival, he had painted sparrows yellow and sold them as canaries. MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- A judge says Col. Tom Parker made so much money by molding truck driver Elvis Presley into an international singing phenomenon that it 'shocks the conscience of the court . ", "Why include the Colonel in all of this?" 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. The band was cracking up, to hear Jerry singing as if he were a blues singer, lets put it that way. In the end, they'd become dependent on one another and were in too deep to even know how to start over. Variety is a part of Penske Media Corporation. And I hated the show. If there were an award to bestow for the most accomplished living American pop songwriter who never doubled as a recording artist, the frontrunner would almost definitely be Mike Stoller, 89, half of one of the most famous writing duos of all time, Leiber & Stoller. Which is not the one in the film, because the one in the film was blown out and had a bigger orchestra. But he was being very respectful and polite. And the Colonel said, What took you so long?. The Coasters were different characters. And maybe its a given that a director who puts hip-hop and hard rock on his period-film soundtracks, as Baz Luhrmann does, might favor effect over total verisimilitude. But he has since recovered and apparently completed his work on the picture, Hanks told Colbert. I recently spoke with Baz Luhrmann to discuss the 20th . But Elvis gives us Hanks as we've never seen him before: trussed up under layers of costuming and make-up, bloated and reptilian, with a strange, slightly Dutch accent, pulling the strings as the carnival barker-turned-talent manager who made Elvis into a star. But yes, adolescent Elvis listened to all kinds of music, from the Ink Spots to Dean Martin. 'Reconsider Baby' is one example I always remember. Teenage Elvis, living in Memphis, certainly went to West Memphis, Arkansas and to Beale Street to hear Black performers. Is it true that Colonel Parkers reason for being attracted to Elvis was that he thought a white singer who sounded Black was bound to be a star and accomplish what a Black singer could not? He says, "I said he should sing this kind of thing." So its a perfect chance to catch up with Stoller,who wrote the music to Jerry Leibers lyrics on two dozen Presley songs, including the classics Hound Dog, Jailhouse Rock, Trouble, Treat Me Nice, Love Me, Loving You, Santa Claus Is Back in Town, Bossa Nova Baby and (Youre So Square) Baby I Dont Care. No other writers are so closely associated with the King, even if their run of collaborations with Elvis was ultimately cut short by want to hazard a guess? What turned Colonels head, though, was a report from his old friend Oscar Davis, who went to Memphis in October 1954 to advance an Arnold appearance at Ellis Auditorium, and saw how Elvis packed a local dive, the Eagles Nest, night after night with screaming women. "I had the luxury of essentially recreating somebody who no one really knew. ", Another guy says he has a script which would cinch an Oscar for Elvis and wouldnt we do it for less money. In fact, in my book I included a chapter entitled, The Parker Propaganda Machine. It outlines how Parker promoted, marketed, and booked Elvis in ways that undeniably made possible Presleys meteoric rise in show business. 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. A producer was complaining that an Elvis picture of his didnt do so well. He dreamed about that. Elvis never knew. 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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. We found that a lot of the blues singers that we knew, he knew them also, which was a surprise to us. All Rights Reserved. Tom Hanks' portrayal of Elvis' manager Colonel Tom Parker in the 2022 biopic created controversy - here's the true story behind Hanks' Tom Parker. We told him this story, and he said, Elvis would have given his left arm to be in a movie like that with those people. 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. What Elvis Gets RightAnd WrongAbout the Real Colonel Tom Parker King, Xavier Samuel as Scotty Moore, and Kodi Smit-McPhee as Jimmie Rodgers Snow. And then I said, Well, we did also a few songs that we didnt write. They finally decided that we were producers. COLONEL TOM PARKER - Interview on "ABC Nightline" (Aug 15, 1987) - YouTube 0:00 / 7:03 COLONEL TOM PARKER - Interview on "ABC Nightline" (Aug 15, 1987) waylonvids 20.1K subscribers Subscribe. 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. You always preferred Big Mamas version, right? 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. . 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. Finally, Tom Hanks wasn't nominated for Best Supporting Actor. "They made some of the most brilliant moves in the history of show business," he reflects. 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? So we hit it off and we had a great relationship. 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. 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. A lot of the young Brits, the rockers, they were big fans of American rock n roll or rhythm and blues records. "The Colonel is like Falstaff with a chainsaw. That urge to write for the theater never went away, if youre doing it now. But he also did extraordinarily genius things. He was in for a surprise. 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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. 2023 Variety Media, LLC. And the movies I mean, naturally I liked Jailhouse Rock, but I dont think it was a great movie. 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. Over the next four years, Elvis movie career would indeed play out. Other than the tremendous pains Baz has taken to make this story seem woke, the liberties are essentially fair except to Parker. 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. But he worked closely with the Pentagon, planning Elvis army career and post-army concert to raise money for the U.S.S. I think thats what we sent to (Presley), and he loved it. 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. 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. [Leslie Uggams released a version a year earlier.] Because I made Elvis Presley. And heres a guy who carries his pictures by himself ., Colonel Parker Answered Criticism About Elvis' Movies In 1964 Interview, To what extent Parker was guilty of such sins against Elvis, Im not qualified to say. Yes, it was manager Colonel Tom Parker who had his reasons for finally cutting Leiber and Stoller out of Presleys creative camp after 1963, none of them good. No. However, Hanks, who has six prior nominations and won twice, was snubbed for his role as Colonel Tom Parker. Colonel Parker is of course best known as the manager of Elvis . No, all that stuff was rehearsed and rehearsed. But Im happy to have a show like Smokey Joes Caf in existence. All in all, the manager was known for some appalling behavior towards his star client, and Elvis tries its best to portray that accurately. 'Elvis' Fact or Fiction: Colonel Tom Parker Biographer on What's Real He didn't care what Elvis sang on stage. The Elvis manager certainly had some unethical practices when it came to the King of Rock n Roll, and many were shocked upon viewing the film to find out that this was the case. Hanks and his wife, actress Rita Wilson, had dinner with their friend Priscilla Presley in the hopes of getting a better take on the man he was playing. Is it fantasy that he was constantly seeing or meeting up with all these important artists? Fontana on drums and Scotty Moore on guitar, and Bill Black, who passed away after that, on the upright bass. 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. "We ended up talking for well over an hour," Hanks recalls. ", We start telling people what to do and they blame us if the picture doesnt go. Colonel Parker is the devil to many Elvis Presley fans. Is it true you two were largely responsible for producer credits starting to be added to records in the mid-50s? Nash, a veteran music journalist, published The Colonel: The Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley to acclaim in 2010 and her book has just been reissued with a new afterword. 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. Of course, I had no idea what he was saying, much less remembered it. One of the offers he turned down was for Elvis to appear on the small screen for $150,000. Snow eventually led Parker to Elvis Presley. "It's possible to be driven mad by it," the actor says. That can be found in detail in two Parker biographies published in recent years . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google. "One reason is because the Elvis story has become a trope. So who knows, maybe someday well just decide to release the album of a show that didnt happen. Making a splash: A deep dive into the live-action Little Mermaid with a new generation's Ariel. But once Elvis was onstage, controlling the music, he did what he wanted. To what extent Parker was guilty of such sins against Elvis, Im not qualified to say. That sold tickets! Which I thought was weird, at the time. It was never told to him. And because he had these socialist inclinations, he went off and became a superstar as an American rockstar who decided to become a communist behind the Iron Curtain. Jailhouse Rock had another name until your song came along and demanded to become the title tune, right? He cared about the reaction of the audience. Elvis Biopic Will Feature A Side Of Tom Hanks We've Never Seen Before Yes and no. Randy Newman was brought in and did an exquisite chart fabulous and we produced it out here. That interview gets at the heart of what both Hanks and Luhrmann wanted to say about the Colonel and the give-and-take between manager and artist. How did you finally land on the Colonels bad side? Is it bittersweet that you had your theatrical success with a revue? Theres about three different uses of Hound Dog, including the original Big Mama Thornton version, and of course theres some Jailhouse Rock in there. Anything can happen during those first three days. 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). No, it never did. We were blown away, and we even had some meetings with Schulberg. 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. Yeah, I think it was Ghost of a Chance. (The Hard Way is also on record as a temporary title.) 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. 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. Privately, Parker referred to Elviss family as shit and rubbed his thumb and forefinger together. One of the first things that we saw was the kid (in the screenplay) was in prison. COLONEL TOM PARKER - Interview on "ABC Nightline" (Aug 15, 1987 After a lifetime of earning well over $100 million managing Elvis, The Colonel's estate was barely worth $1 million upon his death. In addition, he revealed his dream project, which would be about Dean Reed, who was an American actor and singer that decided to become a communist behind the Iron Curtain. He was the American that we all knew." Born in the Netherlands, Parker entered the United States illegally when he was 20 years old. 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. COLLIDER: I want to start with congratulations on the movie. They all took little roles, and we wrote for what they could do. 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. Luhrmann hasnt really given him his due by a long shot. I was a fan while my friends and peers were not. Why AI Has Some Viewers Asking Which Film Actors Are Real. Instead, the focus here will be on sharing some interesting information about Colonel Parker that appeared in a rather obscure source. Hard to do. And it still gets produced; it played in New York again in 2018 and in London last year. 2023 Variety Media, LLC. Thank you so much for your work. 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. Hanks retains all of these qualities in his performance, including the adoption of prosthetics to help look more like the controversial Parker. A couple of songs, a little story and some nice people with him. I do know that while researching for my book, The purpose here is not to recap the relationship between Parker and Presley. 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 complex Elvis/Parker relationship is the glue that holds Elvis together, making it different from yet another musician biopic.
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