February 19, 2025 • 38 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, ingrained lore has it that Parker took advantage of "poor country boy" Elvis to sign the singer who became "The King". For the first time, Colonel Parker's story is told by an insider, Greg McDonald, who worked under Parker and Elvis for years. Greg's never-before-heard stories of Parker's collaboration with Elvis reveal the man behind the legend.
Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib, and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
Up next, we have an insider's look at the most
legendary partnership in show business history. I'm talking about the
relationship between Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley. If you've
see in the movie or read about this at all,
(00:31):
Colonel Tom Parker is always the bad guy. Here to
tell the true story is an insider who knew both men.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
My name is Greg McDonald. I was a longtime friend
and associate and employee of Colonel Tom Parker, and after
Elvis passed away, I was coming home to Palm Springs,
where the Colonel and I live, and i'd been out
on the road with Ricky Nelson for a tour well
(01:05):
after Elvistide. People would come into the dress Ricky's dressing
room and really give us a hard time about the
colonel because they knew that we were close to him,
and it caused many many fights and a lot of trouble.
So I got home and I'd say to the colonel, Colonel,
you got to write a book, man, You've got to
(01:26):
get this out as the truth, because this story is
becoming a folklore. And we really got to stop it
because we are actually getting in shout outs and almost
fis fights on the road, all of us, not just
Rick and I but all the other guys. And Colonel
wouldn't do it. And I was backstage at Leon Russell
shows in Nashville and Minnie Pearl, who was a dear
(01:50):
friend of the colonel's, and she came and said, you've
got to write a book. You'll have to do it
because he'll never do it. It just not his way.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
For the time Als died to today, I've turned.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
On and were booked for big money. It was my
story any war.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
I'm out of print, He said, no, we want the dirt.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
All I know is.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
I sleep very good at night, and Als and ioware friends.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
The Colonel was born in brad to Holland and from
a very very very poor working family, living in an apartment,
and his apartment was over a horse stall and the
horses were to pull the big boats along the canals
in Holland. And the Colonel used to say from time
(02:46):
to time he didn't like his father. They didn't get
along at all. He said he was a bad, bad man.
Told me several times. He was a bad guy, and
I never really knew exactly why. It was years before
I was born. But he loved his mother and he
supported his mother till the end of fur line. Right
(03:09):
before the Depression, things were very tough and he got
out of town. He really went to work on a boat.
He wasn't coming to America. It wasn't his plan. It
just happened that the boat turned out to be running
illegal liquor on the boat. The captain did so when
they pulled up near America, the coastguard brought him into
(03:31):
mobile and they arrested the captain when they got him
inside the limits, and they put the colonel and the
rest of the crew out on a pier, and they
didn't speak English. And that's how the colonel got to America.
The Colonel got his name. He was up in Virginia's
(03:55):
and he met a family called the Parkers, and they
had a pony circus. So that's where the colonel started
in the colonival world with the Parker pony Service. It
was a family of nice people that fed him and
took him in and after a while they adopted him.
The Colonel was actually adopted by the Parkers, and he
(04:16):
changed his name to Tom Parker. He took the name
Tom from his uncle in Holland, who was a famous
circus town in Holland. His name was Tom and he
loved him, so he named himself Tom and Parker from
the Parker Pony Service. Well, colonel went out and joined
(04:37):
the army because it was that time. He didn't have
much choice. He joined the army twice and he was
twice honorably discharged. I have his honorable discharges. So he
didn't become a colonel until he became a music promoter,
and two different governors and two states made him an
honorary Coloneljimmy Davis, the singing governor You Are My Sunshine,
(05:05):
wrote that song and sang it. He made the colonel
the current in the state militia. So we're working at
MGM Studios and all of us work over this partition.
You know. The colonel had one whole half of this
small studio that gave him elvis as an office, and
(05:25):
then we worked on the other side. There was a
series of desks for me and Tom Discin and Eddie
Bonja and Jim O'Brien, all of the Colonel's guys. So
one day Eddie Bonja picks up the phone. Who's Tom
Diskin's nephew, And somebody was very angry on the phone
(05:45):
that Elvis had showed up for a recording session. So
they were just raising hell with us on the phone.
The colonel could hear the problem. So the Colonel told
Eddie and I to tell those guys that we forgot
to tell Elvis about the session. We're sorry, we'll get
him there immediately. We hang out. So one of the
(06:09):
only times that I ever popped up and said anything,
I said, Colonel, we told Joe Esposito yesterday what time
this session was. Why do we have to take the lane.
So the Colonel walks out to our part of the
office and looks at me. He says, mister McDonald, how
many records did you sell last year? And I said, well, none, sir,
(06:34):
And he said, the artist always wears the white hat.
Our job is to wear the black hat and take
the blame. Don't ever forget it. He must have said
that to me ten times. The artist always wears the
white hat, no matter what. So the rest of his
career and after Elvis passed, the Colonel kept his word
(06:57):
on that baby Elvis had done some things that weren't
the right thing to do. The Colonel would never ever
give him the ever told. The day the colonel died,
he never stood up and said what he maybe could
have said. And that's why the artist wears the white hat.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
And you've been listening to Greg McDonald tell the story
of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley, and it's quite
a different story from the mythology. When we come back
more of this remarkable partnership and the real story of
Colonel Tom Parker here on Our American Stories. Lihabibe here
the host of our American Stories. Every day on this show,
(07:37):
we're bringing inspiring stories from across this great country, stories
from our big cities and small towns. But we truly
can't do the show without you. Our stories are free
to listen to, but they're not free to make. If
you love what you hear, go to Ouramerican Stories dot
com and click the donate button. Go to Ouramerican Stories
dot com and give. And we returned to our American
(08:10):
Stories and with Greg McDonald, an insider who has written
a remarkable book called Elvis and the Colonel and insiders
look at the most legendary partnership in show business. And
he's co author on that book was Marshall Terrell. Let's
pick up where Greg last left off.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
You've got to remember that in those days there hadn't
been a hundred books written about Elvis with a lot
of bad things in the books. They all wanted to
say something bad about Colonel Parker because it must be
the colonel's fault. Whatever the issue was, it couldn't be Elvis.
Even through those years where they started to straighten the
(08:50):
story out a little bit, which it has over the years.
They straightened out the story about the colonel being the
bad guy. They straightened it out a little until the
boz Lerman movie.
Speaker 4 (09:03):
I always knew I was destined for greatness. As an orphan,
I ran away to the carnival, where I learned the
art of the snow job. I'm emptying a roobs or
wallet while leaving. There was nothing but a smile on
their face, but the kindival act that would get you
the most money, the most snow at great costumes, and
(09:25):
a unique trick that gave the audience feelings they weren't
sure they should enjoy, but they do and I knew
if I could find such an act, I could create
the greatest show on.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Earth. He used to say, what are we going to do?
We're with Elvis Presley for twenty two years, and we
promoted him every day of those twenty two years. He
was our friend and he was our employer. We're going
to go out and beat him up now that he's
dead and he's not here to protect himself. He said
(10:08):
that a lot. He says he's not here to protect himself.
Why should I stand up and say something that might
reflect bad on Elvis, that he was our friend and
he wouldn't do it.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
You could promote all you want to, but if the
people don't want to buy a ticket, it doesn't help.
So I did my part. Alvis did his show, and
we were lucky.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
If the Colonel told you he was going to do something,
you could absolutely count on it. He just needed to
shake your hand. He was a rare guy when people
had the opposite feeling about him, and they're so dead wrong.
They don't get it. Everybody knew when people say hard
things about the Colonel, they take their defending Elvis. But
(10:55):
the truth is, if you were up in Elvis's house
here in Palm Springs, and Elvis might have been mad
and cursing the colonel, but if you did, you'd get
thrown out of the house. It's fine for him to
do it, but he didn't let other people say anything
about the colonel. That was his colonel, even if he
(11:15):
was mad at you. You know, in these recent movies,
you know, they have the colonel being a carney when
he meets Elvis, And of course he had been out
of the carnival business for years and years and years
before he ever met Elvis Presley, and he was already
a superstar manager, one of the few that existed, and
(11:39):
he had already managed big stars and had many hit
records and movies before he ever met I always kind
of look at it if you look at the Sun
Records when I really like Sam Phillips was a friend
of them, and I liked the Sun Records. But the
reality of it is Elvis got stars in the rockabilly
(12:01):
world down there at Sun in Memphis, made some great records.
But if you really analyze the colonel's input to Elvis's
career in those early days, was he got Elvis off
of Sun Records. He used to say and he got
Elvis off the Louisiana Hayride. People say, well, why do
(12:22):
you say that? He said, well, look at the next album.
The Colonel bought the contract off of Sam Phillips's son,
and then he got reimbursed by RCA. Then Colonel took
Elvis Presley to New York and what did he find
in New York. Elvis had been singing Loue Moon of
Kentucky by Bill Monroe, and singing all of those really
(12:46):
cool rockabilly songs. But they were just regional and they
were probably never going to be more than regional hits,
even though they were great. They were great, and Scotty
and Bill were great, and all of that stuff is
legend area. But the truth is the Colonel took Elvis
to New York City and introduced him to the Reil Building.
(13:08):
Look at those recordings and the quality and the level
worldwide of hits those were. It's what made Elvison. Of
course the Colonel took him. Of course, they had Sullivan
and the Dorsey Brothers and to those TV shows. None
of those country people had any way to get on
those shows. No way. Eddie Arnold had got on those
(13:31):
shows because he was with the Colonel, Elvis going on
as a sort of a rockabilly country kid that was
unheard of, and it made him a huge star. It
made him a worldwide star. What the Colonel really brought
was the music business to Elvis. Elvis had an incredible talent,
(13:52):
incredible talent, but that music had to come from somebody,
and it came from Colonel. One of the first things
he did formed a publishing company with the Beanstocks, Freddy
Beanstock and Julian Auberbach. Those are the biggest publishers in
the world people in Nashville. I doubt that Elvis knew
(14:13):
what the word publishing meant when he first started. I'm
not sure in day one did he know what a
publisher was. I'm not sure. So the Colonel started his
publishing company, put the biggest publishers in New York City
in the company, and they went from there. The reason
(14:33):
that number of hits it were, they weren't rockabilly hits.
Elvis brought his rockabilly style to them. But you just
look at the songs from Jailhouse Rock, you know, just
one right after another. The great writers at that time
were introduced to Elvis, and Elvis met the publishing world.
(14:56):
They're meeting Elvison coffee shops with hit songs in New
York City. Immediately, the Colonel signs Elvis Presley of the
William Morris Agency. Well, William Morris was the biggest agent
in the world, one of the biggest today and the
owner of the company. Abe Last Vogel was Elvis's agent
(15:17):
from the day he signed until Elvis passed. A Last Vogel.
The biggest agent in the world was Elvis's agent. No
one ever talks about Abe Last Vogue to talk about
Colonel Parker, but he also had the biggest agent history.
They had Marilyn Monroe and Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and
(15:39):
Morris office had everybody. Elvis was the biggest. They made
Elvis the biggest in that stable. Abe Last Fogel brought
Elvis to Hollywood and introduced him to how Wallace and
to all the big producers. So Elvis was in the
top run from day one, from day one in the
music business in New York, in the film business than Hollywood.
(16:02):
Couldn't get any bigger. So the Colonel brought a lot
to the party. Because Abe Last Vogel and William Morris
handled Eddie Arnold. The colonel had already been to Hollywood
and made movies with William Morris before he met Alvis,
so he was already in the game. And what people
don't know is he brought Elvis to that He brought
(16:23):
that talent, that incredible talent. We brought it to all
the right places and it meant a lot. If you're
not in that business, you don't understand how important it
is to get in the door at William Morris Agency
and also be represented by the owner. That's what the
colonel brought. He brought a partnership. The biggest mistake the
(16:46):
colonel ever made was calling himself a manager of Elvis,
because he ended up putting up the original money and
he ended up doing more jobs than a manager does.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
And you're listening to one heck of a story if
you've ever watched the movie with Tom Hanks. Movies can
get it so wrong, and great actors can get it
so wrong. The idea that Colonel Tom Parker had no experience,
that he'd just fallen off a turnip truck and gone
on to manage the greatest star in the world. Where
we're learning a very different story my goodness, the experience
(17:19):
Colonel Tom Parker had the knowledgy brought to the table.
How he set up Elvis with the greatest writers in America,
how he got him out of his record contract and
brought him to RCA, How he pulled him out of
Nashville and doing regional music to New York City and
doing music of the world and of the time, introducing
him to the greatest writers, and the writers being introduced
(17:41):
to Elvis the Ed Sullivan show, Hollywood. You can go
on and on. Colonel Tom Parker's story continues here on
our American Stories, and we continue with our American Stories
(18:10):
and author Greg McDonald telling the story of Elvis and
the Colonel. Let's pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
He really shouldn't have called himself a manager because he
was the publicist. He was the promoter many many, many shows.
The Colonel promoted himself when they needed work. They were
partners at the end of his life, but in the
beginning they should have had a production company as partners.
And one of the issues of that is Elvis wouldn't
(18:40):
let the colonel manage anybody else, and the Colonel and
Elvis had a deal that the Colonel wouldn't manage anyone else,
and Elvis wouldn't work for anyone else, so they weren't just.
I mean, managers don't necessarily do that. A lot of
managers will have ten artists. Elvis wouldn't have it. So
they were really part But the colonel gets called a
(19:01):
manager that charged too much commission. Just not true because
the colonel's partnership deal is the infamous fifty to fifty
deal that was on the net proceeds, that wasn't on
the gross like most managers work on fifteen percent of
the gross. Colonel never had a deal for fifty percent,
(19:23):
but he never got it. He never got He's been
blamed for that deal for the last forty five years.
It never happened. He got to twenty five percent, and
in the last two he couldn't. There wasn't any money left.
The Elvis spent all the money. It was not the
colonel gambling, had nothing to do. Elvis's money was separate
(19:45):
from Colonel's gambling, so they should have been partners, but
didn't happen, so Colonel gets to be the bad guy.
I talked to Baron Hilton once about the colonel's gambling
because there's so much said about it. But he says
two kinds of gamblers. He says, there's guys that will
(20:06):
gamble until they have to go over to the casino
office and pledge their car. And then there's guys like
the Colonel, who get up and walk away when they're done,
only because they're done. It's not like he ever ran
out of money, and he died a very wealthy man.
People don't get it. He wasn't a broke gambler, not
(20:27):
at all. Also, Elvis and Vernon Pressley needed money generally
so bad. There would have been no way to do
anything funny with Elvis's money because the checking account was
probably overdrawn, and they knew what the money that was
coming in was going to be and when they were
going to get it and when it's going to get deposited.
(20:50):
The whole thing is silly when they talk about the
Colonel doing anything with Elvis's money. Colonel didn't handle Elvis's
money at all. Vernon Presley did, and then later accounting
firm there in Memphis, they handled all of his money.
Colonel wouldn't handle it. Barbar streisand came to the Las
(21:11):
Vegas Hilton pitched Elvis to be her co star in
A Star Is Born, which Chris Christofferson ultimately did, and
Elvis got excited about it for the evening and turned
into a big beef because finally the colonel said, you know,
she's going to be your boss and her boyfriend is
(21:33):
going to be the director, and you may not get
top billing. As soon as Elvis heard all of that,
then the colonel had to wear the black hat. He
told the colonel to get rid of it, but he
didn't want to offend everybody like Barbara Streising, and so
the colonel went in there and made the price too
high for Elvis, made them mad, and Colonel's got blamed
(21:56):
for that movie ever since. When Elvis was drafted and
went into the service, RCA and Colonel Parker re recorded
a lot of singles so that they could be released
intermittently while he was in Germany. Elvis was really worried
(22:17):
about his career going the way while he was in
the army, But the truth is he had consistent hot
hit singles due the whole time. He was hot as
a pistol till the day he got out, and as
soon as he got out he had Elvis appearing on
the Frank Sinatra Special down in Miami, and had movies
coming up, and of course his biggest single of his
(22:39):
career was It's Now or Never, and that was released
just as he was brought out of the army. That
was his biggest single of his career. So they handled
it very well, being that he was gone for two years.
Colonel and Morris office and RCA, they handled it very well.
(23:00):
In nineteen seventy one, RCIA had set up in the
Colonel had set up a session in Nashville at RCA
Studio B, and they wanted a Christmas album. Well, Elvis
wanted to record, but he wanted to do other songs.
He wanted to go in to do some Bob Dylan
(23:22):
covers and some Peter Paul and Mary stuff which was
hotter at that time. And Elvis, of course, his Christmas
album in nineteen fifty eight was the biggest Christmas album ever.
And a lot of people don't realize that. Elvis recorded
his version of White Christmas and they sent the dub
(23:43):
up to New York and they played that dub for
Irving Berlin who wrote that song White Christmas in it.
At that time, it was the biggest Christmas song ever
and been sung by Bing Crosby, and it was huge.
Irving Berlin hates it. He tells them, don't put it out.
(24:04):
It's my song. You can't put it out. Well, of
course they could, and they did so. Irving Berlin hires
a room full of people to call radio stations and
tell them not to play the record. It's sacrilegious. So well,
obviously the album comes out. You know, Blue Christmas is
(24:26):
on it, White Christmas is on it, huge record. At
the end of Irving Berlin's career, disc jockey asking mister Berlin,
what was the biggest royalty check and on what song
was it? During your life? What was your most profitable hit,
and he said, Elvis Presley's version of White Christmas. It's
(24:49):
so you know it was that particular album is the
biggest selling Christmas album, including Mariah Carey and all of those.
It's the biggest selling. Still. You can't get an elevator Christmas.
Not here. Blue Christmas the Colonel it was his idea,
one hundred percent. Elvis didn't want to do it. He
(25:11):
was blowing in the wind. He did some great songs,
but they weren't what was planned for the session, and
the Colonel was almost never went to recording sessions. So
we were in Nashville and that chet Atkins office actually
at RCA, and we could hear what Elvis. There was
a speaker in the conference room and we could hear
(25:33):
what they were recording in the studio. Well, chet Atkins
was calling New York and giving us up and he'd say,
you know, Elvis is in there singing, but he ain't
doing Christmas. And they call the Colonel and go, you
got to have him record. We got it scheduled for
a release at Christmas. Colonel would send his right hand man,
(25:54):
Tom Diskin into the studio to get Elvis, because Colonel
would never walk in there. I was there at separate turfs.
So he bring Elvis out into the parking lot where
I was recently, and you could see them friendly talking
in the Colonel saying you'd got to sing Christmas Elvis,
and Elvis saying yeah, but I want it. He wanted
(26:15):
to do gospel songs.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
And we're listening to Greg McDonald, author of Elvis and
the Colonel and Insiders look at the most legendary partnership
in show business, and his co author was Marshall Terrell
and you can get it at Amazon or wherever you
buy your books. And what a story he's telling, debunking
the mythology that somehow Colonel Tom Parker not only stole
(26:38):
from Elvis, not only ruined his career in his life,
but may indeed have killed him.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
And that's the.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Impression you got when you watch that biopic about Elvis
with Tom Hanks playing Colonel Tom Parker. But oh, what
a different story we're hearing here. I mean the idea
that while he was away in the army, Colonel Tom
Parker made sure the pipeline was filled with song after song, hits,
song after hit song. So when Elvis returned to the States,
(27:05):
his career was not only intact, there was more demand
for Presley And then that story about the Christmas album
Be Still My Heart. If only more talent had more
managers and partners by Colonel Tom Parker. When we come back,
more of the story of Elvis and the Colonel here
on our American stories, and we continue with our American
(27:39):
stories and with Greg MacDonald, author of Elvis and the
Colonel and Insider's look at the most legendary partnership in
show business.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Who's continuing with his.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Story about Elvis's nineteen seventy one Christmas album recording sessions.
We'll also be hearing how a satellite broadcast a President
Nixon's nineteen seventy two visit to China gave Colonel Parker
an idea that would get one quarter of the world's
population to watch an Elvis concert live on television and
the first ever broadcast via satellite. Let's return to Greg.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
So this was going on for a week. It called
it the Marathon, and he cut some of the greatest
songs Alvis ever cut. So he'd sang three Christmas songs,
and then he went back in the studio because he
knew we were listening, and he recorded a song called
He Touched Me, which was one of his biggest records
and became one of his gospel that he got the
(28:35):
only Grammy for. And how great thou art. Anyway to
Colonel didn't mind the gospel stuff, but he wasn't ready
for the Bob Dylan songs. He wanted the Christmas songs.
So the battle between the two super egos was going on,
and that was a real it was friendly. That was
in the real friendly days. Those two, but they were
(28:58):
nose to nose over what he was going to record,
and they ended up recording thirty forty songs and I
think they all became chart records. The Colonel and I
used to eat at a restaurant called the Jolly Roger
in Hollywood, and we were one day eating in there
with all of the RCA executives. So they're telling the
(29:20):
Colonel at lunch about this new satellite and Telstone, and
they're telling the Colonel that they'd just done that Nixon
nick and we heard the Nixon promo. But they were
talking about how many people he reached from the satellite,
and the Colonel was really interested. So on the way home,
(29:42):
I'm driving, we're going to Palm Springs. He's got a
cigar and he said, you know, if OURCA would let us,
he called it borrow that thing. He didn't realize that
I was more involved than that. He wanted to borrow
that thing. He says, you know, I think Elvis would
like that he could sing his fans all around the
(30:04):
world all at once. So this goes on. He's chewing
his cigar and talking about the angles and where we
would have to for time zones, where we'd have to
broadcast from he was in it. It was his idea
one hundred percent. When we got back to Palm Springs,
he went right in his office. There were no cell
phones jet, so he went right in his office and
(30:25):
I could hear him Claire down the hall. He's obviously
got Elvis really excited about this, which and ultimately it
became Elvis's in the biggest show at that time of
any sort of music performer. You know, Nixon had been
a big deal, but no music artist had ever done it,
and the Colonel did that from scratch, so that was
(30:47):
a huge success. The Colonel, who was a consummate concert showman,
always traveled ahead on the road. He usually they had
a Leer jet, maybe a Layer twenty three. He worked
on security, He met with the building managers. He was
(31:08):
in charge of tickets. As soon as Elvis came into
that town and walked on the stage, the Colonel would
leave and go to the next town and he would
arrange hotels. He would do so many things that a
modern day manager wouldn't even talk about. Colonel sort of
supervised everything and Elvis knew it. He was also wrote
and placed all the advertising, always bought all the advertising.
(31:32):
There was no real promoter. Even though Concerts West was
officially the promoter of the tour, the Colonel was the promoter.
Modern day managers from Hollywood, they would no more go
out into the middle of this country a promoter show
for anything. They wouldn't do that. They'd sell the show
to the local promoter or the big nationwide promote. In
(31:52):
those latter years, Elvis was having a lot of problems
with various usually prescription metaal, but he was in some
real trouble. There was no Betty Ford Center at that time.
Even though we lived here in Palm Springs, Coachella Valley
where Betty Ford was, it wasn't here yet, and people
didn't understand a celebrity would never do that. It appeared
(32:17):
that when Elvis would get away from Graceland and get
out of his bedroom, he would clean up, and when
he went on the road, he was so busy that
he would straighten out. And so the Colonel and everyone
around thought, and Elvis wanted to work. He'd suspending money.
Every time he'd get to Memphis. He'd start buying Cadillacs,
and they all thought if he got out on the
(32:38):
road from time to time he'd get on the road
and that would straighten him out, and then other times
it wouldn't. So that was the only answer colonel had
was just to keep him busy so that he wouldn't
have that problem, but it obviously didn't work. The colonel
(33:01):
loved Elvis like his son, and Elvis would avoid the
colonel because I believe that Elvis didn't want the colonel
to see him in bad shape, and I think that's
what caused most of their beefs When they get the bus.
It was Elvis smiths some shows and Elvis did some
shows that weren't worthy of Elvis Presley, and the colonel
(33:25):
would Colonel was all business and that's what would cause
the issues, and Elvis was going to do what Elvis
was going to do. People think that people had control
over him. The colonel had control or vernon. Everybody around
him would know that that wasn't true. Elvis told people
(33:45):
from time to time that if they didn't get him drugs,
he'd buy a drug store, and he wasn't kidding and
he could do it. Surprised that he didn't. So the
colonel just didn't live inside of Elvis's personal life like
that he just didn't. People think he did. But Colonel
(34:05):
lived in Palm Springs, California, and Elvis lived in Memphis,
Tennessee most of the time. And the problems in the
last years. The Colonel was a consummate showman and he
was a serious businessman, and when Elvis would miss a
show or do a show that was really shouldn't have happened,
(34:27):
they'd have trouble and that's what caused it. And they
still loved each other, but Colonel was determined to get
him straightened out. It was hard. People think you could
control Elvis Presley, and that's just a joke. He knew
he was the king. He was Elvis Presley, and no
one was going to tell him what to do. He
(34:50):
was a good guy too. He was a great guy, actually,
but he was He knew who he was.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
I didn't know what he knew all of it, but
he knew that he could do whatever he wanted to do.
Nobody told Elvis prest they want to do because you
were a very strong person and we had a great relationship.
But I took care of mine. He'd taking her of
his honey, didn't let anybody tell him what to do.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
The day Elvis died, I was at Ricky and Nelson's
house in Hollywood, and rick Elson's maid came into the
music room and said, mister McDonald, Elvis Presley died, and
Ricky and I didn't believe her. Then the phone rang
immediately and it was the colonel. So the colonel wanted
(35:36):
me to go to Palm Springs immediately. He told me
Elvis died. So Ricky and I went together to Palm
Springs and we pulled up to Elvis's house first, and
there's a few hundred people in the street and they've
pushed the gate open, and they pushed the door open,
and they're taking everything out of the house that they
could care. So I run up into the house and
(35:58):
chased the people out. We're all in trying to get
the cops there, and it's really funny. I'm chasing these
people out the gate, and Ricky Nelson's holding the gate
so they can't come back in, and they're all looking
for autographs and rick won't do it because Elvis just died.
So Rick's holding the gate and every time bring the
group down, throw them out. This went on forever, and
then the police showed up, and then we went down
(36:21):
to the Colonel's house down the street. There was an
incredible number of press trucks and press people out in
front of the house, so you know, it took several
days for them to pull away from the house. But
we had to look out for Marie, Colonel Colonel Parker's wife, Marie.
Bad day, very bad day. You know, as I now
(36:45):
get older, I there's nobody from All Star Shows was
the name of Colonel Parker's company in Madison, Tennessee. And
unfortunately everybody from All Star Shows has passed way. I'm
the last guy left from All Star Shows and I'm
no kid. So you hear often about the Memphis Mafia
(37:09):
guys constantly, so I kind of think it's my obligation
let him know that the Colonel Ridley didn't wear the
black hat. He wore a white hat.
Speaker 3 (37:20):
It's unexplainable. They say, anybody else could have done it.
Perhaps so, but I was happy to be the one
that was with him. He did his part, I did mine,
and we were lucky, great talent and we had a
great show and a lot of.
Speaker 1 (37:37):
Fun and a terrific job on the production editing and
storytelling by our own Greg Hengler and his special thanks
to Greg McDonald. He's the author of Elvis and the
Colonel and Insiders look at the most legendary partnership in
show business and he's co author on that book was
Marshall Terrell. And what a story we heard Elvis was
(38:00):
going to do? What Elvis was going to do? The
real story of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley here
on our American Stories
This is Lee Habib, and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
Up next, we have an insider's look at the most
legendary partnership in show business history. I'm talking about the
relationship between Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley. If you've
see in the movie or read about this at all,
(00:31):
Colonel Tom Parker is always the bad guy. Here to
tell the true story is an insider who knew both men.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
My name is Greg McDonald. I was a longtime friend
and associate and employee of Colonel Tom Parker, and after
Elvis passed away, I was coming home to Palm Springs,
where the Colonel and I live, and i'd been out
on the road with Ricky Nelson for a tour well
(01:05):
after Elvistide. People would come into the dress Ricky's dressing
room and really give us a hard time about the
colonel because they knew that we were close to him,
and it caused many many fights and a lot of trouble.
So I got home and I'd say to the colonel, Colonel,
you got to write a book, man, You've got to
(01:26):
get this out as the truth, because this story is
becoming a folklore. And we really got to stop it
because we are actually getting in shout outs and almost
fis fights on the road, all of us, not just
Rick and I but all the other guys. And Colonel
wouldn't do it. And I was backstage at Leon Russell
shows in Nashville and Minnie Pearl, who was a dear
(01:50):
friend of the colonel's, and she came and said, you've
got to write a book. You'll have to do it
because he'll never do it. It just not his way.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
For the time Als died to today, I've turned.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
On and were booked for big money. It was my
story any war.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
I'm out of print, He said, no, we want the dirt.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
All I know is.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
I sleep very good at night, and Als and ioware friends.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
The Colonel was born in brad to Holland and from
a very very very poor working family, living in an apartment,
and his apartment was over a horse stall and the
horses were to pull the big boats along the canals
in Holland. And the Colonel used to say from time
(02:46):
to time he didn't like his father. They didn't get
along at all. He said he was a bad, bad man.
Told me several times. He was a bad guy, and
I never really knew exactly why. It was years before
I was born. But he loved his mother and he
supported his mother till the end of fur line. Right
(03:09):
before the Depression, things were very tough and he got
out of town. He really went to work on a boat.
He wasn't coming to America. It wasn't his plan. It
just happened that the boat turned out to be running
illegal liquor on the boat. The captain did so when
they pulled up near America, the coastguard brought him into
(03:31):
mobile and they arrested the captain when they got him
inside the limits, and they put the colonel and the
rest of the crew out on a pier, and they
didn't speak English. And that's how the colonel got to America.
The Colonel got his name. He was up in Virginia's
(03:55):
and he met a family called the Parkers, and they
had a pony circus. So that's where the colonel started
in the colonival world with the Parker pony Service. It
was a family of nice people that fed him and
took him in and after a while they adopted him.
The Colonel was actually adopted by the Parkers, and he
(04:16):
changed his name to Tom Parker. He took the name
Tom from his uncle in Holland, who was a famous
circus town in Holland. His name was Tom and he
loved him, so he named himself Tom and Parker from
the Parker Pony Service. Well, colonel went out and joined
(04:37):
the army because it was that time. He didn't have
much choice. He joined the army twice and he was
twice honorably discharged. I have his honorable discharges. So he
didn't become a colonel until he became a music promoter,
and two different governors and two states made him an
honorary Coloneljimmy Davis, the singing governor You Are My Sunshine,
(05:05):
wrote that song and sang it. He made the colonel
the current in the state militia. So we're working at
MGM Studios and all of us work over this partition.
You know. The colonel had one whole half of this
small studio that gave him elvis as an office, and
(05:25):
then we worked on the other side. There was a
series of desks for me and Tom Discin and Eddie
Bonja and Jim O'Brien, all of the Colonel's guys. So
one day Eddie Bonja picks up the phone. Who's Tom
Diskin's nephew, And somebody was very angry on the phone
(05:45):
that Elvis had showed up for a recording session. So
they were just raising hell with us on the phone.
The colonel could hear the problem. So the Colonel told
Eddie and I to tell those guys that we forgot
to tell Elvis about the session. We're sorry, we'll get
him there immediately. We hang out. So one of the
(06:09):
only times that I ever popped up and said anything,
I said, Colonel, we told Joe Esposito yesterday what time
this session was. Why do we have to take the lane.
So the Colonel walks out to our part of the
office and looks at me. He says, mister McDonald, how
many records did you sell last year? And I said, well, none, sir,
(06:34):
And he said, the artist always wears the white hat.
Our job is to wear the black hat and take
the blame. Don't ever forget it. He must have said
that to me ten times. The artist always wears the
white hat, no matter what. So the rest of his
career and after Elvis passed, the Colonel kept his word
(06:57):
on that baby Elvis had done some things that weren't
the right thing to do. The Colonel would never ever
give him the ever told. The day the colonel died,
he never stood up and said what he maybe could
have said. And that's why the artist wears the white hat.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
And you've been listening to Greg McDonald tell the story
of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley, and it's quite
a different story from the mythology. When we come back
more of this remarkable partnership and the real story of
Colonel Tom Parker here on Our American Stories. Lihabibe here
the host of our American Stories. Every day on this show,
(07:37):
we're bringing inspiring stories from across this great country, stories
from our big cities and small towns. But we truly
can't do the show without you. Our stories are free
to listen to, but they're not free to make. If
you love what you hear, go to Ouramerican Stories dot
com and click the donate button. Go to Ouramerican Stories
dot com and give. And we returned to our American
(08:10):
Stories and with Greg McDonald, an insider who has written
a remarkable book called Elvis and the Colonel and insiders
look at the most legendary partnership in show business. And
he's co author on that book was Marshall Terrell. Let's
pick up where Greg last left off.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
You've got to remember that in those days there hadn't
been a hundred books written about Elvis with a lot
of bad things in the books. They all wanted to
say something bad about Colonel Parker because it must be
the colonel's fault. Whatever the issue was, it couldn't be Elvis.
Even through those years where they started to straighten the
(08:50):
story out a little bit, which it has over the years.
They straightened out the story about the colonel being the
bad guy. They straightened it out a little until the
boz Lerman movie.
Speaker 4 (09:03):
I always knew I was destined for greatness. As an orphan,
I ran away to the carnival, where I learned the
art of the snow job. I'm emptying a roobs or
wallet while leaving. There was nothing but a smile on
their face, but the kindival act that would get you
the most money, the most snow at great costumes, and
(09:25):
a unique trick that gave the audience feelings they weren't
sure they should enjoy, but they do and I knew
if I could find such an act, I could create
the greatest show on.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Earth. He used to say, what are we going to do?
We're with Elvis Presley for twenty two years, and we
promoted him every day of those twenty two years. He
was our friend and he was our employer. We're going
to go out and beat him up now that he's
dead and he's not here to protect himself. He said
(10:08):
that a lot. He says he's not here to protect himself.
Why should I stand up and say something that might
reflect bad on Elvis, that he was our friend and
he wouldn't do it.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
You could promote all you want to, but if the
people don't want to buy a ticket, it doesn't help.
So I did my part. Alvis did his show, and
we were lucky.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
If the Colonel told you he was going to do something,
you could absolutely count on it. He just needed to
shake your hand. He was a rare guy when people
had the opposite feeling about him, and they're so dead wrong.
They don't get it. Everybody knew when people say hard
things about the Colonel, they take their defending Elvis. But
(10:55):
the truth is, if you were up in Elvis's house
here in Palm Springs, and Elvis might have been mad
and cursing the colonel, but if you did, you'd get
thrown out of the house. It's fine for him to
do it, but he didn't let other people say anything
about the colonel. That was his colonel, even if he
(11:15):
was mad at you. You know, in these recent movies,
you know, they have the colonel being a carney when
he meets Elvis, And of course he had been out
of the carnival business for years and years and years
before he ever met Elvis Presley, and he was already
a superstar manager, one of the few that existed, and
(11:39):
he had already managed big stars and had many hit
records and movies before he ever met I always kind
of look at it if you look at the Sun
Records when I really like Sam Phillips was a friend
of them, and I liked the Sun Records. But the
reality of it is Elvis got stars in the rockabilly
(12:01):
world down there at Sun in Memphis, made some great records.
But if you really analyze the colonel's input to Elvis's
career in those early days, was he got Elvis off
of Sun Records. He used to say and he got
Elvis off the Louisiana Hayride. People say, well, why do
(12:22):
you say that? He said, well, look at the next album.
The Colonel bought the contract off of Sam Phillips's son,
and then he got reimbursed by RCA. Then Colonel took
Elvis Presley to New York and what did he find
in New York. Elvis had been singing Loue Moon of
Kentucky by Bill Monroe, and singing all of those really
(12:46):
cool rockabilly songs. But they were just regional and they
were probably never going to be more than regional hits,
even though they were great. They were great, and Scotty
and Bill were great, and all of that stuff is
legend area. But the truth is the Colonel took Elvis
to New York City and introduced him to the Reil Building.
(13:08):
Look at those recordings and the quality and the level
worldwide of hits those were. It's what made Elvison. Of
course the Colonel took him. Of course, they had Sullivan
and the Dorsey Brothers and to those TV shows. None
of those country people had any way to get on
those shows. No way. Eddie Arnold had got on those
(13:31):
shows because he was with the Colonel, Elvis going on
as a sort of a rockabilly country kid that was
unheard of, and it made him a huge star. It
made him a worldwide star. What the Colonel really brought
was the music business to Elvis. Elvis had an incredible talent,
(13:52):
incredible talent, but that music had to come from somebody,
and it came from Colonel. One of the first things
he did formed a publishing company with the Beanstocks, Freddy
Beanstock and Julian Auberbach. Those are the biggest publishers in
the world people in Nashville. I doubt that Elvis knew
(14:13):
what the word publishing meant when he first started. I'm
not sure in day one did he know what a
publisher was. I'm not sure. So the Colonel started his
publishing company, put the biggest publishers in New York City
in the company, and they went from there. The reason
(14:33):
that number of hits it were, they weren't rockabilly hits.
Elvis brought his rockabilly style to them. But you just
look at the songs from Jailhouse Rock, you know, just
one right after another. The great writers at that time
were introduced to Elvis, and Elvis met the publishing world.
(14:56):
They're meeting Elvison coffee shops with hit songs in New
York City. Immediately, the Colonel signs Elvis Presley of the
William Morris Agency. Well, William Morris was the biggest agent
in the world, one of the biggest today and the
owner of the company. Abe Last Vogel was Elvis's agent
(15:17):
from the day he signed until Elvis passed. A Last Vogel.
The biggest agent in the world was Elvis's agent. No
one ever talks about Abe Last Vogue to talk about
Colonel Parker, but he also had the biggest agent history.
They had Marilyn Monroe and Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and
(15:39):
Morris office had everybody. Elvis was the biggest. They made
Elvis the biggest in that stable. Abe Last Fogel brought
Elvis to Hollywood and introduced him to how Wallace and
to all the big producers. So Elvis was in the
top run from day one, from day one in the
music business in New York, in the film business than Hollywood.
(16:02):
Couldn't get any bigger. So the Colonel brought a lot
to the party. Because Abe Last Vogel and William Morris
handled Eddie Arnold. The colonel had already been to Hollywood
and made movies with William Morris before he met Alvis,
so he was already in the game. And what people
don't know is he brought Elvis to that He brought
(16:23):
that talent, that incredible talent. We brought it to all
the right places and it meant a lot. If you're
not in that business, you don't understand how important it
is to get in the door at William Morris Agency
and also be represented by the owner. That's what the
colonel brought. He brought a partnership. The biggest mistake the
(16:46):
colonel ever made was calling himself a manager of Elvis,
because he ended up putting up the original money and
he ended up doing more jobs than a manager does.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
And you're listening to one heck of a story if
you've ever watched the movie with Tom Hanks. Movies can
get it so wrong, and great actors can get it
so wrong. The idea that Colonel Tom Parker had no experience,
that he'd just fallen off a turnip truck and gone
on to manage the greatest star in the world. Where
we're learning a very different story my goodness, the experience
(17:19):
Colonel Tom Parker had the knowledgy brought to the table.
How he set up Elvis with the greatest writers in America,
how he got him out of his record contract and
brought him to RCA, How he pulled him out of
Nashville and doing regional music to New York City and
doing music of the world and of the time, introducing
him to the greatest writers, and the writers being introduced
(17:41):
to Elvis the Ed Sullivan show, Hollywood. You can go
on and on. Colonel Tom Parker's story continues here on
our American Stories, and we continue with our American Stories
(18:10):
and author Greg McDonald telling the story of Elvis and
the Colonel. Let's pick up where we last left off.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
He really shouldn't have called himself a manager because he
was the publicist. He was the promoter many many, many shows.
The Colonel promoted himself when they needed work. They were
partners at the end of his life, but in the
beginning they should have had a production company as partners.
And one of the issues of that is Elvis wouldn't
(18:40):
let the colonel manage anybody else, and the Colonel and
Elvis had a deal that the Colonel wouldn't manage anyone else,
and Elvis wouldn't work for anyone else, so they weren't just.
I mean, managers don't necessarily do that. A lot of
managers will have ten artists. Elvis wouldn't have it. So
they were really part But the colonel gets called a
(19:01):
manager that charged too much commission. Just not true because
the colonel's partnership deal is the infamous fifty to fifty
deal that was on the net proceeds, that wasn't on
the gross like most managers work on fifteen percent of
the gross. Colonel never had a deal for fifty percent,
(19:23):
but he never got it. He never got He's been
blamed for that deal for the last forty five years.
It never happened. He got to twenty five percent, and
in the last two he couldn't. There wasn't any money left.
The Elvis spent all the money. It was not the
colonel gambling, had nothing to do. Elvis's money was separate
(19:45):
from Colonel's gambling, so they should have been partners, but
didn't happen, so Colonel gets to be the bad guy.
I talked to Baron Hilton once about the colonel's gambling
because there's so much said about it. But he says
two kinds of gamblers. He says, there's guys that will
(20:06):
gamble until they have to go over to the casino
office and pledge their car. And then there's guys like
the Colonel, who get up and walk away when they're done,
only because they're done. It's not like he ever ran
out of money, and he died a very wealthy man.
People don't get it. He wasn't a broke gambler, not
(20:27):
at all. Also, Elvis and Vernon Pressley needed money generally
so bad. There would have been no way to do
anything funny with Elvis's money because the checking account was
probably overdrawn, and they knew what the money that was
coming in was going to be and when they were
going to get it and when it's going to get deposited.
(20:50):
The whole thing is silly when they talk about the
Colonel doing anything with Elvis's money. Colonel didn't handle Elvis's
money at all. Vernon Presley did, and then later accounting
firm there in Memphis, they handled all of his money.
Colonel wouldn't handle it. Barbar streisand came to the Las
(21:11):
Vegas Hilton pitched Elvis to be her co star in
A Star Is Born, which Chris Christofferson ultimately did, and
Elvis got excited about it for the evening and turned
into a big beef because finally the colonel said, you know,
she's going to be your boss and her boyfriend is
(21:33):
going to be the director, and you may not get
top billing. As soon as Elvis heard all of that,
then the colonel had to wear the black hat. He
told the colonel to get rid of it, but he
didn't want to offend everybody like Barbara Streising, and so
the colonel went in there and made the price too
high for Elvis, made them mad, and Colonel's got blamed
(21:56):
for that movie ever since. When Elvis was drafted and
went into the service, RCA and Colonel Parker re recorded
a lot of singles so that they could be released
intermittently while he was in Germany. Elvis was really worried
(22:17):
about his career going the way while he was in
the army, But the truth is he had consistent hot
hit singles due the whole time. He was hot as
a pistol till the day he got out, and as
soon as he got out he had Elvis appearing on
the Frank Sinatra Special down in Miami, and had movies
coming up, and of course his biggest single of his
(22:39):
career was It's Now or Never, and that was released
just as he was brought out of the army. That
was his biggest single of his career. So they handled
it very well, being that he was gone for two years.
Colonel and Morris office and RCA, they handled it very well.
(23:00):
In nineteen seventy one, RCIA had set up in the
Colonel had set up a session in Nashville at RCA
Studio B, and they wanted a Christmas album. Well, Elvis
wanted to record, but he wanted to do other songs.
He wanted to go in to do some Bob Dylan
(23:22):
covers and some Peter Paul and Mary stuff which was
hotter at that time. And Elvis, of course, his Christmas
album in nineteen fifty eight was the biggest Christmas album ever.
And a lot of people don't realize that. Elvis recorded
his version of White Christmas and they sent the dub
(23:43):
up to New York and they played that dub for
Irving Berlin who wrote that song White Christmas in it.
At that time, it was the biggest Christmas song ever
and been sung by Bing Crosby, and it was huge.
Irving Berlin hates it. He tells them, don't put it out.
(24:04):
It's my song. You can't put it out. Well, of
course they could, and they did so. Irving Berlin hires
a room full of people to call radio stations and
tell them not to play the record. It's sacrilegious. So well,
obviously the album comes out. You know, Blue Christmas is
(24:26):
on it, White Christmas is on it, huge record. At
the end of Irving Berlin's career, disc jockey asking mister Berlin,
what was the biggest royalty check and on what song
was it? During your life? What was your most profitable hit,
and he said, Elvis Presley's version of White Christmas. It's
(24:49):
so you know it was that particular album is the
biggest selling Christmas album, including Mariah Carey and all of those.
It's the biggest selling. Still. You can't get an elevator Christmas.
Not here. Blue Christmas the Colonel it was his idea,
one hundred percent. Elvis didn't want to do it. He
(25:11):
was blowing in the wind. He did some great songs,
but they weren't what was planned for the session, and
the Colonel was almost never went to recording sessions. So
we were in Nashville and that chet Atkins office actually
at RCA, and we could hear what Elvis. There was
a speaker in the conference room and we could hear
(25:33):
what they were recording in the studio. Well, chet Atkins
was calling New York and giving us up and he'd say,
you know, Elvis is in there singing, but he ain't
doing Christmas. And they call the Colonel and go, you
got to have him record. We got it scheduled for
a release at Christmas. Colonel would send his right hand man,
(25:54):
Tom Diskin into the studio to get Elvis, because Colonel
would never walk in there. I was there at separate turfs.
So he bring Elvis out into the parking lot where
I was recently, and you could see them friendly talking
in the Colonel saying you'd got to sing Christmas Elvis,
and Elvis saying yeah, but I want it. He wanted
(26:15):
to do gospel songs.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
And we're listening to Greg McDonald, author of Elvis and
the Colonel and Insiders look at the most legendary partnership
in show business, and his co author was Marshall Terrell
and you can get it at Amazon or wherever you
buy your books. And what a story he's telling, debunking
the mythology that somehow Colonel Tom Parker not only stole
(26:38):
from Elvis, not only ruined his career in his life,
but may indeed have killed him.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
And that's the.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
Impression you got when you watch that biopic about Elvis
with Tom Hanks playing Colonel Tom Parker. But oh, what
a different story we're hearing here. I mean the idea
that while he was away in the army, Colonel Tom
Parker made sure the pipeline was filled with song after song, hits,
song after hit song. So when Elvis returned to the States,
(27:05):
his career was not only intact, there was more demand
for Presley And then that story about the Christmas album
Be Still My Heart. If only more talent had more
managers and partners by Colonel Tom Parker. When we come back,
more of the story of Elvis and the Colonel here
on our American stories, and we continue with our American
(27:39):
stories and with Greg MacDonald, author of Elvis and the
Colonel and Insider's look at the most legendary partnership in
show business.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Who's continuing with his.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Story about Elvis's nineteen seventy one Christmas album recording sessions.
We'll also be hearing how a satellite broadcast a President
Nixon's nineteen seventy two visit to China gave Colonel Parker
an idea that would get one quarter of the world's
population to watch an Elvis concert live on television and
the first ever broadcast via satellite. Let's return to Greg.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
So this was going on for a week. It called
it the Marathon, and he cut some of the greatest
songs Alvis ever cut. So he'd sang three Christmas songs,
and then he went back in the studio because he
knew we were listening, and he recorded a song called
He Touched Me, which was one of his biggest records
and became one of his gospel that he got the
(28:35):
only Grammy for. And how great thou art. Anyway to
Colonel didn't mind the gospel stuff, but he wasn't ready
for the Bob Dylan songs. He wanted the Christmas songs.
So the battle between the two super egos was going on,
and that was a real it was friendly. That was
in the real friendly days. Those two, but they were
(28:58):
nose to nose over what he was going to record,
and they ended up recording thirty forty songs and I
think they all became chart records. The Colonel and I
used to eat at a restaurant called the Jolly Roger
in Hollywood, and we were one day eating in there
with all of the RCA executives. So they're telling the
(29:20):
Colonel at lunch about this new satellite and Telstone, and
they're telling the Colonel that they'd just done that Nixon
nick and we heard the Nixon promo. But they were
talking about how many people he reached from the satellite,
and the Colonel was really interested. So on the way home,
(29:42):
I'm driving, we're going to Palm Springs. He's got a
cigar and he said, you know, if OURCA would let us,
he called it borrow that thing. He didn't realize that
I was more involved than that. He wanted to borrow
that thing. He says, you know, I think Elvis would
like that he could sing his fans all around the
(30:04):
world all at once. So this goes on. He's chewing
his cigar and talking about the angles and where we
would have to for time zones, where we'd have to
broadcast from he was in it. It was his idea
one hundred percent. When we got back to Palm Springs,
he went right in his office. There were no cell
phones jet, so he went right in his office and
(30:25):
I could hear him Claire down the hall. He's obviously
got Elvis really excited about this, which and ultimately it
became Elvis's in the biggest show at that time of
any sort of music performer. You know, Nixon had been
a big deal, but no music artist had ever done it,
and the Colonel did that from scratch, so that was
(30:47):
a huge success. The Colonel, who was a consummate concert showman,
always traveled ahead on the road. He usually they had
a Leer jet, maybe a Layer twenty three. He worked
on security, He met with the building managers. He was
(31:08):
in charge of tickets. As soon as Elvis came into
that town and walked on the stage, the Colonel would
leave and go to the next town and he would
arrange hotels. He would do so many things that a
modern day manager wouldn't even talk about. Colonel sort of
supervised everything and Elvis knew it. He was also wrote
and placed all the advertising, always bought all the advertising.
(31:32):
There was no real promoter. Even though Concerts West was
officially the promoter of the tour, the Colonel was the promoter.
Modern day managers from Hollywood, they would no more go
out into the middle of this country a promoter show
for anything. They wouldn't do that. They'd sell the show
to the local promoter or the big nationwide promote. In
(31:52):
those latter years, Elvis was having a lot of problems
with various usually prescription metaal, but he was in some
real trouble. There was no Betty Ford Center at that time.
Even though we lived here in Palm Springs, Coachella Valley
where Betty Ford was, it wasn't here yet, and people
didn't understand a celebrity would never do that. It appeared
(32:17):
that when Elvis would get away from Graceland and get
out of his bedroom, he would clean up, and when
he went on the road, he was so busy that
he would straighten out. And so the Colonel and everyone
around thought, and Elvis wanted to work. He'd suspending money.
Every time he'd get to Memphis. He'd start buying Cadillacs,
and they all thought if he got out on the
(32:38):
road from time to time he'd get on the road
and that would straighten him out, and then other times
it wouldn't. So that was the only answer colonel had
was just to keep him busy so that he wouldn't
have that problem, but it obviously didn't work. The colonel
(33:01):
loved Elvis like his son, and Elvis would avoid the
colonel because I believe that Elvis didn't want the colonel
to see him in bad shape, and I think that's
what caused most of their beefs When they get the bus.
It was Elvis smiths some shows and Elvis did some
shows that weren't worthy of Elvis Presley, and the colonel
(33:25):
would Colonel was all business and that's what would cause
the issues, and Elvis was going to do what Elvis
was going to do. People think that people had control
over him. The colonel had control or vernon. Everybody around
him would know that that wasn't true. Elvis told people
(33:45):
from time to time that if they didn't get him drugs,
he'd buy a drug store, and he wasn't kidding and
he could do it. Surprised that he didn't. So the
colonel just didn't live inside of Elvis's personal life like
that he just didn't. People think he did. But Colonel
(34:05):
lived in Palm Springs, California, and Elvis lived in Memphis,
Tennessee most of the time. And the problems in the
last years. The Colonel was a consummate showman and he
was a serious businessman, and when Elvis would miss a
show or do a show that was really shouldn't have happened,
(34:27):
they'd have trouble and that's what caused it. And they
still loved each other, but Colonel was determined to get
him straightened out. It was hard. People think you could
control Elvis Presley, and that's just a joke. He knew
he was the king. He was Elvis Presley, and no
one was going to tell him what to do. He
(34:50):
was a good guy too. He was a great guy, actually,
but he was He knew who he was.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
I didn't know what he knew all of it, but
he knew that he could do whatever he wanted to do.
Nobody told Elvis prest they want to do because you
were a very strong person and we had a great relationship.
But I took care of mine. He'd taking her of
his honey, didn't let anybody tell him what to do.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
The day Elvis died, I was at Ricky and Nelson's
house in Hollywood, and rick Elson's maid came into the
music room and said, mister McDonald, Elvis Presley died, and
Ricky and I didn't believe her. Then the phone rang
immediately and it was the colonel. So the colonel wanted
(35:36):
me to go to Palm Springs immediately. He told me
Elvis died. So Ricky and I went together to Palm
Springs and we pulled up to Elvis's house first, and
there's a few hundred people in the street and they've
pushed the gate open, and they pushed the door open,
and they're taking everything out of the house that they
could care. So I run up into the house and
(35:58):
chased the people out. We're all in trying to get
the cops there, and it's really funny. I'm chasing these
people out the gate, and Ricky Nelson's holding the gate
so they can't come back in, and they're all looking
for autographs and rick won't do it because Elvis just died.
So Rick's holding the gate and every time bring the
group down, throw them out. This went on forever, and
then the police showed up, and then we went down
(36:21):
to the Colonel's house down the street. There was an
incredible number of press trucks and press people out in
front of the house, so you know, it took several
days for them to pull away from the house. But
we had to look out for Marie, Colonel Colonel Parker's wife, Marie.
Bad day, very bad day. You know, as I now
(36:45):
get older, I there's nobody from All Star Shows was
the name of Colonel Parker's company in Madison, Tennessee. And
unfortunately everybody from All Star Shows has passed way. I'm
the last guy left from All Star Shows and I'm
no kid. So you hear often about the Memphis Mafia
(37:09):
guys constantly, so I kind of think it's my obligation
let him know that the Colonel Ridley didn't wear the
black hat. He wore a white hat.
Speaker 3 (37:20):
It's unexplainable. They say, anybody else could have done it.
Perhaps so, but I was happy to be the one
that was with him. He did his part, I did mine,
and we were lucky, great talent and we had a
great show and a lot of.
Speaker 1 (37:37):
Fun and a terrific job on the production editing and
storytelling by our own Greg Hengler and his special thanks
to Greg McDonald. He's the author of Elvis and the
Colonel and Insiders look at the most legendary partnership in
show business and he's co author on that book was
Marshall Terrell. And what a story we heard Elvis was
(38:00):
going to do? What Elvis was going to do? The
real story of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley here
on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy And Charlamagne Tha God!
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.