ELVIS PRESLEY and COLONEL TOM PARKER - Elvis Presley -- Colonel Tom Parker The King and his Manager In wich version do YOU believe? Songs: I'm Counting On You It's Easy For You NO COPYRIGHT INTENDED "Colonel" Thomas Andrew "Tom" Parker (June 26, 1909 - January 21, 1997), born Andreas Cornelis ("Dries") van Kuijk, was a Dutch-born entertainment impresario known best as the manager of Elvis... [more...]

ELVIS PRESLEY and COLONEL TOM PARKER - Elvis Presley -- Colonel Tom Parker

The King and his Manager

In wich version do YOU believe?

Songs:

I'm Counting On You

It's Easy For You

NO COPYRIGHT INTENDED

"Colonel" Thomas Andrew "Tom" Parker (June 26, 1909 - January 21, 1997), born Andreas Cornelis ("Dries") van Kuijk, was a Dutch-born entertainment impresario known best as the manager of Elvis Presley.

His management of Presley re-wrote the role of talent manager and was seen as central to the astonishing success of Presley's career.

He displayed a ruthless devotion to his client's interests, took far more than the traditional 10 percent of his earnings (reaching up to 50 percent by the end of Presley's), and piloted him to global superstardom.

Parker held the reins of Presley's singing and acting career for the rest of Presley's life and was said to be instrumental in virtually every business decision that Presley made — including his decision to cut back on recording and stop touring after returning from his stint in the United States Army in 1960 in favor of a film career (from 1960 to 1967-68) that was lucrative in terms of his bank account but, to many critics and fans, bankrupting in terms of Presley's music quality.

Parker died of a stroke on January 21, 1997, in Las Vegas, Nevada, at the age of 87.

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