Well, Parker finally said, Did they spell his name right?. I do know that while researching for my book, The purpose here is not to recap the relationship between Parker and Presley. Billboard is a part of Penske Media Corporation. The Colonel was now looking for the next big thing. He literally never made any artistic suggestion to Elvis. "Baz said, 'There would've been no Colonel Tom Parker without Elvis. Then she was hired on as Elvis' tour secretary and traveled . That potential is what interests him. He was a very disciplined man, but also a guy who you might want to check your wallet to make sure you still have all those fives and 10s. The actual Parker diedJan. 21, 1997, at the age of 87. I love your work so much. But could you talk about that relationship at the beginning, he was instrumental merchandising, getting Elvis off the ground, thinking big. "I had the luxury of essentially recreating somebody who no one really knew. However, it soon became obvious that Elvis had staying power, with the right guidance. Once a big crowd saw Elvis perform, there was a demand for his record. Me Im happy being able to buy the groceries., As for the reports of declining returns on Elvis movies, Parker didnt believe them. Alan Hanson | 2015, Reader Comment:For me, Elvis was quintessentially suited as a blues artist. Parker saw his job as an elevated version of. When I was 23, II got a royalty check for about $5,000 a song called Black Denim Trousers and Motorcycle Boots (a No. Only then did the Presley-Parker partnership make a triumphant return to television and, soon after that, to the concert stage. The new Elvis film is not based on her book, nor did Luhrmann read it, by his account (although he says researchers presented him with notes from that and many other key Presley-related books). While proving to be a frequent challenge for Parker, Elvis and the Colonel stuck together. Parker suffered a stroke in 1997, dying at a hospital in Las Vegas, Nevada after years of declining health, survived only by his second wife. What dreams do you have? To play additional iconic musical artists in the film, Luhrmann cast singer/songwriter Yola as Sister Rosetta Tharpe, model Alton Mason as Little Richard, Gary Clark Jr. as Arthur Crudup, and artist Shonka Dukureh as Willie Mae Big Mama Thornton. Sure, of course. 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. "Elvis is like playing Jesus, and it doesn't really matter who plays Pontius Pilate," says Hanks. 6 pop hit in 1955 for the group the Cheers). How are you preparing for it? [Laughs.] Hanks and his wife, actress Rita Wilson, had dinner with their friend Priscilla Presley in the hopes of getting a better take on the man he was playing. Dean Reed was an incredibly handsome guy. And his son, Jimmie (later Jimmy), envied Elvis and yearned to counsel him on his sinful ways. The Masked Lookalike Explained. 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. He probably initially heard about Elvis from his cronies in Texarkana when Elvis was playing little clubs while on the Louisiana Hayride. You could never have predicted the longevity of Smokey Joes Caf, surely. The Colonel promoted Elviss first big tour with Hank Snow. Look you got a product, you sell it, explained Parker. 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). The second take was perfect. Nash, a veteran music journalist, published The Colonel: The Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley to acclaim in 2010 and her book has just been reissued with a new afterword. Parker returned to the carnival (one not-too-dissimilar to the 1950s carnival in American Horror Story thanks to the setting), where he made his living for a time before getting involved in music promotion, working with the likes of Gene Austin, Minnie Pearl, Eddy Arnold, and Hank Snow. Check the list of the 10 top box office stars Elvis is right there. He said, Dont worry, Ill fill it in later! [Laughs.] As a joke, he formed the. 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. His performance alone is reason to see the film. With the Coasters, who you were just as prolific with, you had a whole style of songwriting going that was based in storytelling, almost like mini-musicals you called them playlets.. Why AI Has Some Viewers Asking Which Film Actors Are Real. "I had a different layer of expectations.". And when I got to New York and stepped off the gang plank, Jerry ran up to me I hadnt seen him in almost four months and said, Mike, we got a smash hit! I said, Youre kidding. He said, Hound Dog. I said [incredulously], Big Mama Thornton? He said, No, some white kid named Elvis Presley. And thats how I heard about Elvis. Austin Butler and Tom Hanks star in this musical biopic about the life of Elvis Presley, specifically his relationship with his manager Colonel Tom Parker. Tom Hanks has questioned his decision to play Colonel Tom Parker who was Elvis Presley's infamous longtime manager in the upcoming biopic "Elvis." The 65-year-old Oscar winner discussed. Colonel Parker is the devil to many Elvis Presley fans. HANKS: It's a beast, but you are aware of when that scene is coming. Snow eventually led Parker to Elvis Presley. We had no contract and we were not compensated, but it turned out OK. Entertainment Weekly may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. If youd like to follow Steven on Twitter or Instagram, you can expect plenty of breaking news, exclusive interviews, and pictures of cats doing stupid things. And when he said that, I said, 'Oh, well, okay, now that's brand new,'" remembers Hanks. Is it true, as portrayed, that Parker was consistently trying to pressure Elvis to tone down his sex appeal? I dont like the story. and he sounds entirely American to me. Variety fried it. The branding. Thats Luhrmann being the showman. The actor wore a fat suit and heavy make-up to appear more like Parker, but the real performance came in the mannerisms, accent, and presence of Hanks embodying Elvis' manager. I was expecting to hear stories about the distrust she had for Colonel Tom Parker over these many years. 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. Jimmie later went to Graceland in 1958 to talk to him about how he had given up drinking and doing pills on the road and had turned his life over to Jesus. But in 1964 both men seemed content with the steady and dependable flow of money provided them by the Hollywood studios. One was a 1956 radio interview that basically contains Parker's master plan for Presley's career. Jumping into why I get to talk to you.The thing that's interesting about Tom, is that he was really good for Elvis at the beginning. 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. It was sad. In contrast to Butler, who had to craft a version of a man everyone recognizes, Hanks had the freedom to start from scratch. I dont think the band is great. Making a splash: A deep dive into the live-action, Baz Luhrmann clarifies not casting Harry Styles as Elvis, hopes to work with him in the future. I tried to put together, and it was tricky, this story of There was a guy named Dean Reed. "We ended up talking for well over an hour," Hanks recalls. [Stoller adds that the rabbit lyric might have been added by a lounge act Presley was believed to have seen and liked covering the song in Vegas prior to his taking it on.]. Hanks explained that he was days away from shooting the film in March when he contracted COVID-19. Col Parker is talking from 16:45---16:55(ish) and that last bit is 20:04---you get a clear shot of Parker talking and good audio . They all took little roles, and we wrote for what they could do. Of course, I had no idea what he was saying, much less remembered it. Remember, he entered a talent contest as a child singing Old Shep warbling about dead dogs is about as country as it gets. So I went to Europe for three or four months with my first wife, who I had just married a year before. But she got it. What about Presleys entrance into the Army? He could turn down scripts. 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. Colonel Parker is the devil to many Elvis Presley fans. So that started a little bit of discomfort on the part of the Colonel. Never one to miss an opportunity to make money off of his prized client, Colonel Tom Parker jumped on Elvis' death as a marketing cash grab. 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. He then did the unthinkable, convincing Elvis' father, Vernon, to sign over control of Elvis' movie and singing "career" to him. About Elvis' Movies In 1964 Interview. But you ought to see it, because theres something happening with these songs in this theater. You know, there wasnt much rock n roll or rhythm and blues in these theatrical productions that I knew of at that time. Every hero needs a villain, and in the case of Elvis Presley, the man who made him was also the one who destroyed him. Elvis picked up an impressive seven Oscar nominations. 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. 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? Finally, Tom Hanks wasn't nominated for Best Supporting Actor. 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. The pattern that Parker would traditionally follow was affordability and profit over quality, which would eventually help to torpedo Elvis' career for a time. But living in a colored neighborhood, as he did, he certainly heard early R&B, jump-blues and swing tunes pulsating through the walls at the nearby juke joints, and he loved it, as he did both Black and white gospel. Johnny (Otis) said, Are you familiar with Willie Mae Thornton? I said, no. Procols Ninth was the name of the album. The Beatles and the Stones both covered your songs (Kansas City and Poison Ivy, respectively). I dont like the choice of all the songs. Because I made Elvis Presley. There's a number of thematic elements there that All right. But we were having too much of a ball, going to jazz clubs and going to the theater, and hanging out with Ahmet Ertegun and Jerry Wexler. And he continued to go see Black performers, such as Jackie Wilson, throughout his life. 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. I made sure that he was always in the public eye, and we had a lot of fun.'". An early hero in Tupelo was a hillbilly singer named Mississippi Slim. So we hit it off and we had a great relationship. As opposed to the more methodical camera coverage Hanks is accustomed to, Luhrmann is more free-wheeling. The promises. Mike Stoller plays the pianist in the film Jailhouse Rock with Elvis Presley. Sadly, the blues do not sell well. The only time Parker got critical is when the shows began to falter with drugs or erratic behavior on stage. The Elvis Presley manager did a lot of controversial things during his time in show business, and the Baz Luhrmann movie reveals just how much of a monster he really was. How about a credit? And Jerry Wexler said, But you wrote the song! Is it true that Colonel Parkers reason for being attracted to Elvis was that he thought a white singer who sounded Black was bound to be a star and accomplish what a Black singer could not? Presley had other ways of making money that they could fall back on. Scene is from the set of the Presley movie, Love Me Tender.. What I do remember is that the New York Times gave it, as the producer said, not a money review and that they were very, very nice to Leiber and Stoller, but said that the show didnt rise to the level of our work, more or less. Yes and no. It was supposed to be a Christmas show in the sense that it would air in December, and Parker wanted it to be a family show with Elvis as a 60s-era Bing Crosby or Perry Como. We had a few run-ins with the Colonel. In Elvis, out June 24, we get a portrait not only of the rise and fall of Elvis (Austin Butler), but also of his manager, Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks), and the co-dependent relationship between the two. The Tom Hanks Tom Parker portrayal was a shocking one. As you can see in the trailers, Elvis is about the complicated relationship between Colonel Tom Parker (Hanks) and Elvis Presley (Austin Butler). Thats total and unequivocal bunk, a complete invention in the movie. I don't know what he sounds like. But we had recorded it with a Black duo, who were out of a gospel group, that we got to do a secular song we called em Willy & Ruth on our own little Spark Records label that we had with Lester Sill. I mean, if youve heard Big Mamas record and the rhythm and the whole structure of the music, as compared to this kind of rockabilly [he claps out the differences in the two versions rhythms] But as Ive said: After it sold 7 million singles, I began to see some merit in it. But he was being very respectful and polite. The past, present and future are all shook up like a 50s milkshake and served with a thousand straws! 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. Didnt he ask to become the manager of Leiber and Stoller, too and, as the story goes, he presented you with a completely blank contract? "You can see Colonel Parker as despicable, but when it's Tom, he's such an incredible actor, that he can justify everything and he's not playing a bad guy in his mind," says Butler. "The Colonel is like Falstaff with a chainsaw. Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic. And they'll say, "Oh yeah, Dean Reed. I think it was presented to the guys who run Leiber and Stoller stuff, and they had already done it and were gonna put it in the movie. My favorite rap was Grandmaster Flash on The Message, which goes back a whole bunch of years; thats the only one that I was really taken with. He says, "I said he should sing this kind of thing." Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller (on piano bench) with the Coasters, Lester Sill and Ahmet Ertegun (far right), Willie Nelsons 90th Birthday Is Smoking, With Snoop Dogg, George Strait and Neil Young Among the Party Favorites at the Hollywood Bowl, How Wynonna Judds Judds Final Tour Resulted in a Celebratory, All-Star Concert Special and a Doc That Deals With Grief, Billy Strings and Willie Nelson Commit to Going California Sober in Duet Released for Willies Birthday, Jock Zonfrillo, MasterChef Australia Judge, Dies at 46, Only Murders in the Building Season 3 Premiere Date Revealed by Steve Martin and Martin Short at Comedy Show (EXCLUSIVE), Matthew Lawrence: 'My Agency Fired Me' After I Refused to Take My Clothes Off for an Award-Winning Director, Netflixs Saudi Arabian Psychological Thriller The Matchmaker Tackles Controversial Subject of Temporary Marriages, Says, Super Mario Bros. Movie Officially Smashes $1 Billion Globally, Bill Hader Is Open to Playing Stefon Again, One Year After Saying He Might Retire the Character Due to Being Seen as a Stereotype, The Morning Show Renewed for Season 4 on Apple TV+ Ahead of Season 3 Debut, The Late Late Show With James Corden Series Finale Scores 1.43 Million Viewers, That Old Jack Black Magic: As the Villain of 'The Super Mario Bros. Movie,' the Actor Gives His Peachiest Performance in Years, COVER STORY | How a Sex Scandal, Big Egos and Putin Led to Jeff Shells Sudden, No Payout Exit From NBCU, Ryan Goslings Greta Gerwig Barbie Tee and Margot Robbies Pink Two Piece Embrace Barbiecore, The Brilliance of Harry Belafonte in 12 Songs, Bob Odenkirk Joins The Bear Season 2 (EXCLUSIVE), Is This 'Beau Is Afraid' Character a De-Aged Joaquin Phoenix? First of all, have you seen the Elvis movie? Hanks on Wednesday (Dec. 16) dropped byThe Late Show With Stephen Colbertto promote his latest film,News of the World, but he also chatted about other topics, such as the upcoming Elvis picture starring Austin Butler in which he plays the late genius and a scoundrel Parker. What is it like for you when you are getting ready to step on set for say a big emotional scene on a Monday, can you explain to me, is it weeks in advance you're thinking about that big scene? In 1967, Parker pushed Elvis to marry Priscilla Beaulieu, hoping that it would help change the tide of his career. Was there a late 50s concert riot in which Elvis deliberately disobeyed Parkers orders not to move around or wiggle on stage? In the end, playing Parker required Hanks to spend an average of five hours per day in the make-up chair. Paul Shirey is a senior news writer for Screen Rant. And it still gets produced; it played in New York again in 2018 and in London last year. He liked it that Elvis did what brought folks into the big tent. He was ascoundrel in his way, Hanks said. We told him this story, and he said, Elvis would have given his left arm to be in a movie like that with those people. Is it true you two were largely responsible for producer credits starting to be added to records in the mid-50s? And the Colonel said, What took you so long?. He didn't care what Elvis sang on stage. By Ken Sharp "The King" is back in the forefront of popular culture with the new Baz Luhrmann bio pic Elvis starring Austin Butler as the hip-swiveling Memphis fireball of a singing sensation and Tom Hanks as notorious manager Colonel Tom Parker.. On the heels of the film's release comes a new re-pressing of the must-have book The Colonel: The Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker . He had never seen that before. How many times do you want your name on the record? He was annoyed! He is passionate about film, comics, TV and spends way too much on collectibles. Tom Hanks has built a reputation for disappearing into his roles. HANKS: He was a promoter and not a manager. To what extent Parker was guilty of such sins against Elvis, Im not qualified to say. Hanks was particularly intrigued by how little he (and by extension, the audience) knew about the Colonel. The trade paper said, Just buy a boxed set of Phil Spector records instead. The Phil Spector line was the lowest blow of all. And then Jerry added: Screw Variety. I looked up the review, and it wasnt very prophetic, saying that things did not bode well for Smokey Joes Broadway aspirations. So maybe this is a place for you to get some official vindication. I told him that if were doing so badly maybe next year he wouldnt want us at all, said the Colonel, and we better get all we can while we can and I hiked the price. Colonel Parker called himself "the Snowman" because he loved snowing, or fooling, people. Its all a Baz Luhrmann fever dream. 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. Variety spoke with her about how much rings true about both of the movies primary subjects, point by point. Hard to do. I'll tell you specifically. But hey, its generational, I think. We told the music publishers, who were our contact with the Colonel, about this exciting opportunity not only for us, but for Elvis, who wanted to be Marlon Brando or James Dean. Elvis clearly demonstrates the ways in which Parker was integral in crafting Presley into an icon, but it also doesn't hold back in exposing the abuses and limitations of that relationship a paradox and tragedy that Hanks says became the most intriguing driving force in his portrayal. But then Colonel cheated Hank out of half of Elvis and that was that. That was amazing because you still see the twinkle in his eyes. And I hated the show. Snow had a big ego and resented the fact that Elvis quickly became the draw on his shows, not Snow. Colonel knew what Elvis was doing and going to do. We thought we were the only white kids who knew all that stuff! He mentions that church in the film. 2023 Billboard Media, LLC. Are the liberties worth it for creating an artistic picture? And I went, 'I bet Tom Hanks would be into a playing a dark note on his instrument that no one could see coming. So far as the wider world knew, the Colonel was Thomas Andrew Parker, born in Huntingdon, West Virginia, some time shortly after 1900. We did Procol Harum [in 1975]. The 89-year-old co-writer of "Jailhouse Rock," "Hound Dog," "Trouble" and 20 more Presley tracks recalls hitting it off with Presley and alienating his manager as well as successes like the Broadway smash "Smokey Joe's Cafe. RELATED: Austin Butler on Elvis and Why it Took Months After Filming to Find Himself Again. There is the legend of an afternoon where you and Leiber cranked out four classic Elvis film songs in just a few hours Jailhouse Rock, Treat Me Nice, I Want to Be Free and (Youre So Square) Baby I Dont Care pretty much because someone trapped you in a hotel suite and compelled you to be prolific. 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. He made him. We'll make a lot of money." Austin Butler won the Golden Globe for Best Actor, beating out favorite Brendan Fraser (The Whale), and he picked up a nomination for the same award at the Oscars. Not a singer-songwriter, Elvis' rep suffered because to do both became prerequisite after the Beatles. I recently spoke with Baz Luhrmann to discuss the 20th . 1 hit in 1953 with Big Mama Thorntons Hound Dog, which you wrote for her. Hanks recalls. Davis went to have a look and went back to tell Colonel Parker all about him and how he wiggled and girls went wild. The music publishers for Elvis were there. shown as being Parkers idea to get him away for a while to put a lid on the sexual energy and image. So we wrote Jailhouse Rock, and then we wrote the others. and B.B. Tom Hanks will be playing Colonel Tom Parker, the infamous music manager who discovered Elvis and landed him his contract with RCA. Parker adopted the title as if it were part of his identity, frequently being referred to as "The Colonel," despite his military discharge. People are so used to hearing it within the polite context of Christmas radio that they dont think about what a down-and-dirty, raw song that is. Thomas Andrew "Colonel Tom" Parker (born Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk; June 26, 1909 - January 21, 1997) was a Dutch-born American talent manager, best known as the manager of Elvis Presley.His management of Presley defined the role of masterminding talent management, which involved every facet of the client's life and was seen as central to the success of Presley's career. He was doing a Christmas album, and we wrote it in another room during the recording session. 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'. Yes, Priscilla invited us to a private screening, and she and Jerry Schilling were there. And then I said, Well, we did also a few songs that we didnt write. They finally decided that we were producers. And when he said that, I said, 'Oh, well, okay, now that's brand new.". 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? 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. Im not a super rap fan. And I don't think it had been done the most righteous justice in order to capture why Elvis was this bend in the river of American culture. And then I guess it, obviously, became something else. Elvis and the Colonel were associated throughout the musician's entire career, including music, movies, and TV specials. A "colonel" in honorary terms only, he was a shrewd, showman-like . Elvis Information Network, May-June 2022). Yes, it was manager Colonel Tom Parker who had his reasons for finally cutting Leiber and Stoller out of Presley's creative camp after 1963, none of them good. He's never been identified as anything other than this mercurial or puppeteer-like, quasi-evil, greedy manager that took advantage of Elvis from the get-go. 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. Carl Gardner was the rube or the straight man. MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- A judge says Col. Tom Parker made so much money by molding truck driver Elvis Presley into an international singing phenomenon that it 'shocks the conscience of the court . But there is some history with Varietys initial bad review that maybe we should bring up. This article originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter. Peter (2018), So maybe we never win an Oscar but were going to win a few box office awards. HANKS: There's a YouTube, one was named Comrade Rockstar and another movie called Red Elvis. But here was a guy that took him from the worst rental apartment in a bad part of town in Memphis and put him in Graceland, which is the mansion that's right there. It'll blow you out of your mind. Colonel Tom Parker absolutely did diabolical things. Fontana on drums and Scotty Moore on guitar, and Bill Black, who passed away after that, on the upright bass. While Elvis and the Colonel carried the movie to several awards, Hanks' omission stands out above most others. Visit Billboard Pro for music business news, Kenny Loggins Talks Danger Zone Return For Top Gun: Maverick, Jim Carrey Says Will Smith Should Have Been Arrested for Chris Rock Oscars Slap, Pam & Tommy Director Lake Bell Explores Personal, Cathartic Episode Four. "It's possible to be driven mad by it," the actor says. But the most fun we ever had in the studio working was with the Coasters.
How To Polish Porcelain Crowns At Home,
Illinois Department Of Revenue Phone Number Springfield,
Why Is Minute Tapioca Out Of Stock Everywhere,
Articles C