That was amazing because you still see the twinkle in his eyes. 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. Elvis Information Network, May-June 2022). Instead, the focus here will be on sharing some interesting information about Colonel Parker that appeared in a rather obscure source. How about a credit? And Jerry Wexler said, But you wrote the song! He was a fabulous singer, fabulous performer, and very special and hes very hot, again, still. You seem right.' You are aware that this thing is going to be coming up and you corral all the emotional sheep slowly over the course of it. Baz Luhrmann is much like . First of all, when Colonel Parker enlisted in the U.S. Army, he declared himself a Dutch citizen, with parents born in Holland. He might have gone to Black churches with his friend, Sam Bell, in Tupelo, as a kid. THE ELVIS movie biopic stars Tom Hanks as The King's manager Colonel Tom Parker, who the actor has described as both a 'genius' and a 'scoundrel'. They hurl a litany of accusations at Presleys former manager he took too much of Elvis money, he mismanaged Elvis movie career, he pressured Elvis to work when he was in poor health, he even tried to capitalize on Elvis name after he died. 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. So when they call you and tell you Eminem wants to incorporate a song of yours into his, do you just say sure, or ask to hear it? "But having seen the movie, I notice something profoundly different every time. Colonel knew what Elvis was doing and going to do. Elvis also stars Helen Thomson as Elviss mother, Gladys, Richard Roxburgh as Elviss father, Vernon, Olivia DeJonge as Priscilla Presley, Luke Bracey as Jerry Schilling, Natasha Bassett as Dixie Locke, David Wenham as Hank Snow, Kelvin Harrison Jr. as B.B. Parker had no passport and couldnt go and didnt trust any other promoter to take him. Colonel Parker is the devil to many Elvis Presley fans. 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. All in all, the manager was known for some appalling behavior towards his star client, and Elvis tries its best to portray that accurately. 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. HANKS: He was a promoter and not a manager. 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. Parker struggled with a gambling addiction while keeping Elvis on a short leash, halting the singer from touring overseas and pushing him into cheap projects that were frequently averse to what the artist wanted to be a part of, eventually taking 50% of Elvis' earnings, of which they both agreed upon. When Parker crony Gabe Tucker threw a magazine piece on the Colonels desk that insinuated that Elvis was gay, Parker didnt say a word until his friend stopped sputtering. But Im happy to have a show like Smokey Joes Caf in existence. In their rush to denounce him for failing his client in later years, many Elvis fans forget that there may not have been an Elvis Presley were it not for Tom Parkers work in those early days. The film has a big focus on Elvis manager Colonel Parker, of course. A nice thing is that the characters names are the real names of the first cast, and its kind of sweet those first members of the cast have been immortalized. Coupled with the fact that the character of Tom Hanks' Tom Parker isn't his usual role, and Hanks was eager to play the part. Anything can happen during those first three days. She could be difficult. 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. How many times do you want your name on the record? He was annoyed! Within 30 minutes of their first meeting, Hanks was hooked. I mean, even the 1968 comeback special, he said, "Hey, great. Presley had other ways of making money that they could fall back on. 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. Which is not the one in the film, because the one in the film was blown out and had a bigger orchestra. "I had a different layer of expectations.". 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. So we went to dinner with the Colonel, and we had to laugh at his jokes, and then I guess we passed muster, so it was all right. But that was in the 70s. 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. He was a heavier-set man with balding hair and frequently wore a fedora and a suit of some type, sometimes made of gaudy designs to help promote something. Why AI Has Some Viewers Asking Which Film Actors Are Real. The other five nominations were for technical (Editing, Sound, Cinematography) and design (Costume Design, Makeup and Hairstyling). Acclaimed author of several books about Elvis including the recently re-issued, 'The Colonel: The Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley' (Interview by Kees Mouwen, Nigel Patterson and Paul Belard. That sold tickets! Why dont you wait outside? So we waited, trying to imagine how we were going to be rewarded for bringing this great plumb. Get weekly rundowns straight to your inbox, A daily briefing on what matters in the music industry. 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In Parker's version of his life story, he had run away from home to join a circus, where he worked with elephants and horses. "And the Colonel says, 'Because of me. Then we worked with her seven years later after she was no longer at Capitol [on the critically hailed, little heard A&M concept album Mirrors). 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. The first three days of the movies are chaos. But what you're describing there is literally something that happens on movies. That was in our minds (during the initial writing). He had never seen that before. Billboard is a part of Penske Media Corporation. "But the challenge for me, as well as the freedom, was having this engineered look every day. Related: Elvis True Story: Who Was Orion? In particular, Hanks was looking forward to taking part in a fresh look at the story, as the tale of Elvis is well-known enough to garner fatigue. 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 . I've never seen a photograph of him. Its great. The Colonel seized on the moment and put Elvis back on tour, eventually settling on a residency in Las Vegas and a non-stop barrage of venues and recordings that took the singer to the brink, as he deteriorated into a mockery of his former self. I thought you guys did such a great job. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member (class of 1987) told us about everything from why he never much liked Presleys version of Hound Dog Big Mama Thornton was a hard act to follow to how he realized a Broadway musical rooted in the duos songs, Smokey Joes Cafe, could be a smash if they just dispensed with a storyline and script. ", Hanks immersed himself in research about who the Colonel really was. I remember we went out it probably took about 15 minutes and we came back in and performed it for them. Well, wed had it pulled over already, a few times. From your memoir, it sounds like Peggy Lee might have been the least fun? We were picked up by a freighter, and I had to pay cash to send a wire to Atlantic Records that we were arriving. While it sometimes borders on cartoonish parody, with Hanks seemingly becoming a supervillain of sorts, it fits the overall style and narrative of Director Baz Luhrmann's movie. And there's the fault that I think also has to land in both of them because Elvis could have said no. Why not? Hanks also reveals his dream project and its not what youre expecting. Im not a super rap fan. "And I told Baz, 'But you're describing Falstaff and Hal,' and Baz said, 'Exactly, except with millions of dollars thrown into it. The Coasters were different characters. [A movie version of Walk on the Wild Side was eventually produced in the 60s, with none of the same talent attached, and flopped.]. Related: Why Elvis' Reviews Are So Positive. Colonel Tom Parker managed Elvis Presley 's career from 1955 to 1977, overseeing almost every aspect of the star's life. This article originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter. You had your share of contact with him during the years you were writing for Elvis. However, as he always does, Hanks shone as Tom Parker in Elvis, and the Colonel proved to the world that he could play a complex villain. Oh, Parker instigated that whole thing, but it wasnt to put a lid on the sexual energy. Eddy Arnold, whom Parker had built into a household name, had fired him as his manager over failing to honor their exclusive contract, though Parker continued to book him. Anyway, one of us said, Uh, Big Mama, you know, you could growl it, and she said, Dont be telling me how to sing the blues! [The version Leiber and Stoller relay in their memoir has a little more lewdness to the response.] He would sniff out talent and attempt to milk them for all they were worth, including Elvis, whom he initially saw as an act that wouldn't last more than a few years. There's a number of thematic elements there that All right. But the first take was great. That can be found in detail in two Parker biographies published in recent years . No. It's one of only a very few villainous roles that Hanks has taken in his long career in movies, making it a relatively rare departure for the actor. But Nashs work is considered by many to be the authoritative word on Parker, a former carnie who made his fortune off the King, and whose pros and cons as a very, very controlling manager continue to be debated to this day. He began negotiating it all with the Pentagon in 1956. I recently spoke with Baz Luhrmann to discuss the 20th . Before production began, he read music critic Peter Guralnick's two books about the rise and fall of Elvis, 1994's Last Train to Memphis and 1999's Careless Love. Born as Andreas Cornelis Dries van Kuijk in the Netherlands, the Tom Hanks Tom Parker portrayal saw him illegally immigrate to the United States, finding employment as a carnival worker before joining the Army, where he was eventually discharged after going AWOL. But Baz wanted to make him seem more other. Or as Baz told me in an interview, I thought it was very important that Tom present the audience with a strangeness, a sort of What is going on with this guy?. ", So maybe we never win an Oscar but were going to win a few box office awards. They were hot with Grand Funk Railroad and a variety of things, but that was not what they were looking for in 1969. Only then did the Presley-Parker partnership make a triumphant return to television and, soon after that, to the concert stage. He was in for a surprise. And I mean, we enjoyed being in the studio with Elvis; we enjoyed being in the studio with the Drifters, with Ben E. King, with Peggy Lee. 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. Tom Hanks will be playing Colonel Tom Parker, the infamous music manager who discovered Elvis and landed him his contract with RCA. 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 toexpose his past, as a non-American native of Holland, which hes desperate to hide. Randy Newman was brought in and did an exquisite chart fabulous and we produced it out here. And we got to demonstrate the others for him. Snow eventually led Parker to Elvis Presley. The Colonel was now looking for the next big thing. In the film, when the Colonel goes to the Louisiana Hayride and first sees Elvis, hes told backstage that Elvis is on the pop charts and that the country DJs are playing him too, and that Black and white kids are buying Elviss records. Because what you get from that is a suit of armor. Parker wanted to make Elvis clean-cut after he came back from the army in part because when Elvis went into the army, neither Elvis nor Parker thought rock n roll would last. About Elvis' Movies In 1964 Interview. Were Elvis primary music influences almost all Black artists, as portrayed in the movie? In 1983, he was paid $2 million dollars in an out-of-court settlement, which had him turn over any and all audio and video recordings he had of Elvis and terminated his involvement in any Elvis-related earnings for five years. 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. Its all a Baz Luhrmann fever dream. '", Luhrmann's instinct was right. Its kind of like Priscilla letting Baz make Parker out to be such a villain, but is now having Hanks and Baz say they toned down the Colonels evilness once they met with her, because Parker was a good guy. Some people have said the movie undersells Elvis country and crooner influences to make him look like almost solely the product of blues and R&B. A producer was complaining that an Elvis picture of his didnt do so well. Parker was ticked that there was initially no Christmas music, though, and (TV producer) Steve Binder and Elvis threw him Blue Christmas as a bone. But hey, its generational, I think. So everything is a paradox and a coin flip. Check the list of the 10 top box office stars Elvis is right there. An early hero in Tupelo was a hillbilly singer named Mississippi Slim. Elvis and the Colonel were associated throughout the musician's entire career, including music, movies, and TV specials. Of course, we werent in the studio when she did Kansas City [in 1962]; there was a Quincy Jones chart on that. Did Parker really install Elvis dad, Vernon, as business manager to make sure he, the Colonel, could really run all things? He claimed that at least 50% of his share went right back into the business of promoting Elvis office expenses, advertising and exploitation, etc. Elvis cut, said Parker, goes straight to the Memphis accountants., "Look you got a product, you sell it. What can I say? In the end, both Elvis and Colonel Parker shared a tragic journey that mirrored their working relationship. He cited several reasons primarily security and not big enough venues, or said the money wasnt right. But before that he did have another big hit with a cover of one of your tunes, the ballad Love Me. Although Elvis sang it more seriously, It was surprising to read in your memoir that you had originally written Love Me as a country parody song a spoof of a subservient hillbilly who doesnt put up any objections to his lover treating him like garbage. It has been my thought that Elvis was afraid that his success would evaporate, and therefore it was business, a formula that worked. Davis went to have a look and went back to tell Colonel Parker all about him and how he wiggled and girls went wild. By the third day, you're in love with him. And they'll say, "Oh yeah, Dean Reed. Colonel Parker called himself "the Snowman" because he loved snowing, or fooling, people. We picked up the script, which we hadnt looked at yet, that was in the corner of the room with the Whats On Broadway magazines. Any thoughts on the portrayal early in the film of country star Hank Snow, who first takes Elvis out on the road before becoming disgusted with him, and his son, Jimmie Rodgers Snow, who seems to worship Elvis? 2023 Billboard Media, LLC. There just werent a lot of other performers who could pull that off. Capitol didnt want to release it, because it didnt have a back beat. But Gladys was a big Grand Ole Opry fan, and it was in part the Colonels introducing her to Hank Snow that got her to let her boy go with the Colonel. 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