Tom Parker
Tom Parker was a Dutch carnival hand who entered the United States illegally, called himself Colonel, managed Elvis Presley for twenty-one years, and took half of everything. He was born Andreas van Kuijk in Breda in 1909, the son of a livery-stable keeper, worked the fairs of the Netherlands as a boy, and in 1929 disappeared from Rotterdam and turned up in the American army under a name taken from the officer who enlisted him; a Dutch policeman's unexplained death in Breda that year has been connected to his leaving and never proven. The army discharged him in 1933 after a spell in a psychiatric ward for desertion. He went back to carnivals, ran a pet cemetery and a dancing-chicken act, promoted country singers in Tampa, and by the 1940s was managing the biggest country act in America, Eddy Arnold, and then Hank Snow. The governor of Louisiana, a country singer himself, made him an honorary colonel in 1948 and he used nothing else afterwards. He saw Presley in 1955, eased out the boy's first manager and Snow, sold the Sun contract to RCA for thirty-five thousand dollars and had merchandise on sale before the first album was out: lipstick, charm bracelets, and buttons reading I Hate Elvis for the other market. His fee started at a quarter and reached half. He never held a passport, since to apply for one was to explain 1929, so the most popular singer in the world never played outside North America apart from three shows in Canada; the stories about security were his. He put Presley in the army in full view, then in thirty-one films at a fee that rose with each one, and kept him off the stage for seven years. The 1968 television special was made against his wishes, the Las Vegas residency from 1969 was made to his, and the hotel that hosted it also carried his gambling debts, which ran into the millions and which the contracts he signed for his client covered. A court-appointed report in 1980 found he had dealt unfairly with the estate and he settled for a lump sum. He died in Las Vegas in January 1997 at eighty-seven.
- Lived: 1909 CE – 1997 CE
- Nationality: Dutch-American
- Roles: manager, promoter
