by Alanna Nash
As with the classic ant-and-grasshopper tale, the boss Diskin had come to mourn this January afternoon—a man who had earned an estimated $100 million from Elvis Presley alone—left behind only $913,000 in savings bonds, securities, and memorabilia. Much of that would go to Marie’s grandchildren, Parker’s secretary Jim O’Brien, and Mary, Patti, and Tom Diskin—hush money, some would say. The charitable trust disappeared in probate.
“How and where do you begin to celebrate the memories of a man - who’s been so dear to us?” asked Parker’s Las Vegas lawyer and master of ceremonies, John O’Reilly.
Speaker after speaker sobbed in eulogizing “a very emotional man,” whose eyes “were but windows to the world of kindness and love.” Jerry Schilling read a letter from Tommy Sands, who thanked the Colonel for making all his dreams come true, and Henri Lewin remembered that “to work with him was actually working for him.” “You and Elvis are together again,” Lewin mourned in his heavy German accent. “I know you both looked forward to this moment.”
Of those who lauded the man who had promoted his client’s name into the consciousness of two generations, only Priscilla Presley was matter-of-fact. “Elvis and the Colonel made history together, and the world is richer, better, and far more interesting because of their collaboration. And now I need to locate my wallet, because I noticed there was no ticket booth on the way in here, but I’m sure that Colonel must have arranged for some sort of toll on the way out.”
Loanne, who announced she hoped one day to erect a monument to such a great man, had planned carefully for this day, accenting her simple dress with a glittering diamanté brooch fashioned in the shape of a snowman. But Mrs. Colonel had none of her late husband’s power.
The new head potentate was Priscilla Presley, who, in a year’s time, would send her late ex-husband back out on the road to fulfill his dream to tour abroad. “Elvis: The Concert” would pair live performance from fifty of Presley’s former instrumentalists and singers with video of their old boss on stage. For two hours, a virtual Elvis, circa 1970–1973, would sing, strut the stage, show off his karate moves, and mumble to the band, all on a twenty-foot screen.
Colonel Parker’s idea for the satellite-beamed “Aloha from Hawaii” had been brilliant—Presley traveled the world without ever having to leave the States. But now Elvis wasn’t even required to be alive. His jumpsuited specter would sell out shows and earn rave reviews in America, Europe, Australia, and Japan, many fans reporting the event was as good or better than seeing him in the flesh.
Such bodacious sleight of hand was a weird and wonderful bit of humbuggery, a tribute befitting the greatest carny con man of them all.
NOTES
The following abbreviations are used in the notes:
DWC/USC
David Weisbert Collection, University of Southern California Film Library Archives
HWC/MPAS
Hal Wallis Collection, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Library, Beverly Hills
JHC/UM
Jerry Hopkins Collection, Special Collections, University of Memphis
JWC/USC
Jerry Wald Collection, University of Southern California Film Archives
MPAS/OHP
Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, Oral History Project
TCFC/USC
Twentieth Century–Fox Correspondence, University of Southern California Film Archives
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
pagelink “a haunting, an act of deliberate psychological trespass”: New York Times Book Review, October 17, 1999.
pagelink “was waiting for the recognizer—”: New York Times Book Review, October 17, 1999.
PREFACE
pagelink “It’s so strange”: Larry Geller in the documentary Mr. Rock & Roll, 1999.
INTRODUCTION
pagelink “Did you see it?”: Colonel Tom Parker to author, June 18, 1994.
pagelink “Cooked the Colonel’s Way”: Serene Dominic, Phoenix New Times, January 30–February 5, 1997.
pagelink “I want to leave you with just one thought”: Loanne Miller Parker at Colonel Tom Parker’s Memorial Service, Las Vegas, January 25, 1997.
pagelink “He was so immense”: Robert Kotlowitz to author, 1998.
pagelink “the most overrated person”: Dave Marsh, USA Today, January 22, 1997.
pagelink “a nobody who needed a somebody to be anybody”: Constant Meijers to author, 1997.
pagelink “the best manager I ever saw”: Chet Atkins to author, 1998.
pagelink “Whatever he cost Elvis”: Chet Atkins quoted in Tennessean, January 28, 1997.
pagelink “Nobody killed Elvis except Elvis”: Mike Crowley to author, 1998.
pagelink “I sleep good at night”: Colonel Tom Parker to author, 1994.
pagelink “Elvis is my only client and my life”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted in Audrey West, Memphis Press-Scimitar, February 22, 1974.
pagelink “That man’s a mystery”: Bitsy Mott quoted in Goldman, Elvis.
pagelink “when the Colonel’s stepson, Bobby Ross, died”: Sandra Polk Ross to author, 1998.
CHAPTER 1: THE LITTLE DUTCH BOY
pagelink “Dries was very keen on his looks”: Marie van Gort–van Kuijk to author, 1997.
pagelink “When they had done serious wrong”: Marie van Gort–van Kuijk to author, 1997.
pagelink “I was never happy at the convent”: Marie van Gort–van Kuijk, to author, 1997.
pagelink “I worked for a gypsy”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted in Merilyn Potters, “Birthday Bash for Colonel Parker,” Las Vegas Sun, June 24, 1994.
pagelink “the orphans stood in a row of twelve”: Engelina Maas– van Kuijk to Mieke Dons-Maas, 1993.
pagelink “He would scheme, but always in a good way”: Mieke Dons-Maas to author, 1997.
pagelink “They all slept in the loft”: Mieke Dons-Maas to author, 1997.
pagelink “He never hurt anyone”: Nel Dankers–van Kuijk quoted in Vellenga, “Breda Family Wants to Get in Touch.”
pagelink “even on the back of the meanest horse”: Mieke Dons-Maas to author, 1997.
pagelink “You could close the drawer”: Engelina Maas–van Kuijk to Mieke Dons-Maas, 1993.
pagelink “our mother was clever”: Marie van Gort–van Kuijk to author, 1997.
pagelink “Possessing money”: Marie van Gort–van Kuijk to author, 1997.
pagelink “he was very conscious about how he looked”: Engelina Maas–van Kuijk to Mieke Dons-Maas, 1993.
pagelink “if Mother didn’t iron his collar properly”: Marie van Gort–van Kuijk to author, 1997.
pagelink “He would never drink a complete beer”: Joe Esposito, Elvis International Forum, February 1997; also Peter Guralnick, Careless Love, p. 272.
pagelink “I’m sure that by the time”: Marie van Gort–van Kuijk to author, 1997.
pagelink “He came to say hello and good-bye”: Marie van Gort–van Kuijk to author, 1997.
CHAPTER 2: BEHAVIOR MOST STRANGE
pagelink “He never told me”: Marie Cornelisse-Ponsie quoted in Vellenga and Farren, Elvis and the Colonel.
pagelink “Dries must have been talking about me”: Marie Cornelisse-Ponsie quoted in Vellenga and Farren, Elvis and the Colonel.
pagelink “I remember it like yesterday”: Adriana van Gurp–van Kuijk quoted in Vellenga, “Breda Family Wants to Get in Touch.”
pagelink “He just changed identity”: Marie van Gort–van Kuijk to author, 1997.
CHAPTER 3: “ALL GREAT NEPTUNE’S OCEAN”
pagelink “We were driving through Hobbs, New Mexico”: Byron Raphael to author, 1998. All quotes from Byron Raphael come from the author’s extensive interviews with Mr. Raphael, 1998–2002.
pagelink Parker himself said he gained entry: Lloyd Shearer, “Presley vs. Parker,” Parade, August 1, 1982.
pagelink “The Smith Act, or the Alien Registration Act”: M
arian Smith to author, 1998.
pagelink “And I am curious”: Smith to author, 1998.
pagelink “knifing a man to death in a fairgrounds brawl”: The People, January 26, 1997.
pagelink “no recollection of such a story”: Chris Hutchins to author, 1998.
pagelink “Do you know that Colonel Tom Parker comes from Breda?”: Dirk Vellenga, De Stem, September 20, 1977.
pagelink “Did something serious happen”: Dirk Vellenga, De Stem, October 15, 1981.
pagelink “Gentlemen: At last, I want to say”: De Stem, August 9, 1997.
pagelink “fancy costume . . . a dark fantasy jacket costume”: Breda Police Report: The Murder of Anna van den Enden.
pagelink “in a gray-colored overcoat”: Breda Police Report: The Murder of Anna van den Enden.
pagelink “conflict of words”: Breda Police Report: The Murder of Anna van den Enden.
pagelink “pretty chubby around the hips”: Breda Police Report: The Murder of Anna van den Enden.
pagelink “very thin layer”: Breda Police Report: The Murder of Anna van den Enden.
pagelink “part of the brain”: Breda Police Report: The Murder of Anna van den Enden.
pagelink “I really don’t think there was a murder in him”: Todd Slaughter to author, 2002.
pagelink “I don’t think there’s any doubt”: Lamar Fike to author, 2001.
CHAPTER 4: MISSING IN ACTION
pagelink “When he got off that boat”: Gabe Tucker to author, 1997.
pagelink “working in a circus”: Ad van Kuijk quoted in It’s Elvis Time, April 1967, May 1968, and June 1968.
pagelink “about two years when I was sixteen years old”: Colonel Tom Parker on private audiotape recording of Elvis Presley Birthday Banquet, Memphis, January 8, 1988.
pagelink “Please tell [Garth]”: Colonel Tom Parker in letter to Pam Lewis, 1994.
pagelink “Colonel never invited questions”: Byron Raphael to author, 1998.
pagelink “The story I heard”: Mac Wiseman to Beverly Keel for author, 1998.
pagelink “Colonel was very loyal”: Sandra Polk Ross to author, 1997.
pagelink “He was like a giant elephant”: Beecher Smith quoted in Soocher, They Fought the Law.
pagelink “The place looked like a carnival midway”: Alan Fortas to author, 1985.
pagelink “After I left the Netherlands”: Thomas A. Parker, affidavit in response to lawsuit, RCA Records v. Joseph A. Hanks, National Bank of Commerce of Memphis, and Priscilla Presley, co-executors of the Estate of Elvis A. Presley, Thomas A. Parker, individually and d/b/a All Star Shows, and Blanchard E. Tual, Jr., guardian ad litem for Lisa Marie Presley, May 18, 1982.
During Elvis’s movie days, he routinely obtained costumes from Western Costumers and in them struck dramatic poses for photographs of himself wearing everything from a Confederate colonel’s uniform and fake mustache to elaborate women’s garb and wig.
“The Colonel was always disguising himself with props—a hat, a costume, or buttons—so people would look at the prop instead of the man,” says Al Wertheimer, who photographed Elvis extensively at the outset of his career.
pagelink “I had ten or twelve pictures”: Cees Frijters quoted in Vellenga and Farren, Elvis and the Colonel.
pagelink Parker never reminisced: “I never have heard Colonel speaking of his army activities.” Bitsy Mott to Dirk Vellenga, raw interview transcript, 1983.
pagelink “Looking back from 1982”: Constant Meijers to author, 1997.
pagelink “We didn’t have much to do”: Earl Kilgus to author, 1998.
pagelink Yet Jerry Goodson: “There’s just no reference for this guy.” Jerry Goodson to author, 1998.
pagelink “We should also be entitled”: Peter A. Herbert in letter to Dirk Vellenga, 1982.
pagelink “We were never successful”: Blanchard E. Tual to author, 1998.
pagelink “The men who served here”: David Ogden to author, 1999.
pagelink A week later: Based on information in official U.S. Army unit rosters and morning reports.
pagelink “50 big and little elephants”: “ ‘Greatest Show’ Here,” Pensacola Journal, September 27, 1932.
pagelink when he returned: Based on information in official U.S. Army unit rosters and finance statements.
pagelink Records show that: Based on official U.S. Army finance statements.
pagelink “Psychosis, Psychogenic Depression”: Discharge on certificate of disability, official U.S. Army records, Army Medical Center, Office of the Detachment Commander.
pagelink On August 19, 1933: Based on official U.S. Army records, Army Medical Center, Office of the Detachment Commander.
In its manic form, bipolar disorder is a cyclical disease occurring in spontaneous episodes with periods of remission or depression in between. Mood disturbances severe enough to damage job or social functioning, or requiring almost continual supervision or hospitalization to prevent suicidal actions or violence to others are also common, as are outbursts of suspicion and persecutory delusions.
Today, several avenues of therapy are available to the bipolar patient, primarily with controlling drugs such as lithium. But in 1933, the severely disturbed were treated with nonsensical methods that ranged from barbaric to violent—placing the straightjacketed patient in a spinning chair for lengthy periods, for example, or dunking him in ice water baths for extensive hydrotherapy.
What was thought to be the most effective treatment for psychosis in the 1930s was also the most dangerous and controversial—insulin shock. Administered by intravenous injection, insulin shock dropped the patient’s blood sugar low enough to send him into diabetic coma and often convulsions. Intense treatment involved up to ninety tortuous injections and, not surprisingly, resulted in a high mortality rate. While the treatment had some marked therapeutic effect in reducing psychotic behavior, it also created confusion and memory loss in individuals who were already fragmented. After treatment, patients were often left with their same symptoms of delusions, hallucinations, and thought disorders, and were now sometimes brain damaged as well. The treatment was considered so perilous that electric shock—considerably safer—was developed to replace it in the late 1930s. Exactly how Private Parker was treated is unknown.
pagelink In his pocket: Based on official U.S. Army finance statements.
pagelink “She was for me”: Mieke Dons-Maas to author, 1997.
CHAPTER 5: TURNING THE DUKE
pagelink “He started out in a candy stand”: Larry Davis to Constant Meijers, raw interview transcript from the documentary Looking for Colonel Parker, 1999.
pagelink “I knew him”: Joe McKennon to author, 1997.
pagelink “he just didn’t make an impression”: Joe McKennon to author, 1997.
pagelink “I used to know”: Joe McKennon to author, 1997.
pagelink “You could know a guy”: John Campi to author, 1998.
pagelink “in 1933, he was”: Jack Kaplan to Dirk Vellenga, raw interview transcript, 1983.
pagelink “He did a lot”: John Campi to author, 1998.
pagelink “I think that everyone”: Larry Davis to Constant Meijers, raw interview transcript from the documentary Looking for Colonel Parker, 1999.
pagelink “You could say”: Joey Hoffman to author, 1997.
pagelink “He always had quick ideas”: Jack Kaplan to Dirk Vellenga, raw interview transcript, 1983.
CHAPTER 6: DANCING CHICKENS, TOOTHLESS LIONS, AND RODEO COWBOYS
pagelink “The Colonel told me”: Larry Davis to Constant Meijers, raw interview transcript from the documentary Looking for Colonel Parker, 1999.
pagelink As someone who often treated animals with more dignity: “If he saw one hurt, it would really touch him.” Gabe Tucker to author, 1997.
pagelink “I’d start each week”: Hutchins and Thompson, Elvis & Lennon, p. 118.
pagelink “He used to come”: Ernie Wenzik to author, 1998.
pagelink
“Mr. Velare,” he began: Jack Kaplan to Dirk Vellenga, raw interview transcript, 1983.
pagelink “One time, Colonel produced”: Alan Fortas to author, 1988.
pagelink “always intrigued by cowboys and cowboy stars”: Oscar Davis to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
CHAPTER 7: ONE BORN EVERY MINUTE
pagelink “a pussy pulls stronger than an elephant”: Feiler, Under the Big Top.
pagelink “She was a piss cutter”: Sandra Polk Ross to author, 1997.
pagelink “Colonel fell in love with Marie”: Sandra Polk Ross to author, 1997.
pagelink “I knew he had a girl”: Jack Kaplan to Dirk Vellenga, raw interview transcript, 1983.
pagelink “She had two children”: Bitsy Mott to Dirk Vellenga, raw interview transcript, 1983.
pagelink a startlingly beautiful child: “My husband always told me this was the prettiest baby he had ever seen.” Sandra Polk Ross to author, 1997.
pagelink he was adopted two years later: “It took two years for him to be adopted.” Sandra Polk Ross to author, 1997.
pagelink “play toy”: Billy Ross, unpublished manuscript.
pagelink “She said she was”: Official divorce records.
pagelink “willful, continuous and obstinate desertion of the complainant”: Official divorce records.
pagelink “I believe they were in love”: Sandra Polk Ross to author, 1997.
pagelink “I guess they went”: Bitsy Mott to Dirk Vellenga, raw interview transcript, 1983.
pagelink “by morning”: Sandra Polk Ross quoting Bobby Ross to author, 1998.
pagelink “Look what I won!”: Sandra Polk Ross quoting Bobby Ross to author, 1998.
pagelink “He made Mr. Rinaldi rich”: Gabe Tucker to author, 1997.
pagelink “the big, wise white man”: Rosita, 1961.
pagelink “I didn’t want you all to know”: Rosita, 1961.
pagelink sometimes spoke in a foreign language: “Spoke something in a language that sounded foreign to me—could have been Yiddish.” Bitsy Mott to Dirk Vellenga, raw interview transcript, 1983.
