From the 1950s until he died in 1977, Colonel Tom Parker was Elvis Presley’s first and only manager. Smithsonian Magazine says that without him, the King of Rock and Roll’s legacy might not be what it is today. Parker was born in the Netherlands, and there are almost as many stories and traditions about him as there are about Elvis.
(Could he have killed someone? Most likely, we’ll never know). But one thing is for sure: Parker made a lot of money over the years he was in charge of Elvis Presley’s career. This gave him a good amount of money when he died.
Colonel Tom Parker’s Net Worth?
Colonel Tom Parker was a Dutch-American talent manager and music businessman. At the time of his death in 1997, he was worth $1 million. Colonel Tom Parker was best known as Elvis Presley’s manager. In the 1950s, he helped Elvis Presley become a big star. He also influenced his decisions to join the military and marry Priscilla, among other things. In the early 1980s, a judge ruled that Parker’s way of running Elvis Presley’s business was wrong after an investigation.
Colonel Tom Parker’s Early Years
Colonel Tom Parker was born Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk on June 26, 1909, in Breda, Netherlands. He was the seventh of Adam and Maria’s eleven children. As a child, he worked as a carnival barker in the town where he grew up. Parker moved to Rotterdam when he was 15 and worked on boats there. A few years later, he got into the U.S. without permission by jumping ship from the boat he was working on. Parker then went back to the Netherlands. When he was 19, he went back to the U.S. illegally, but this time he was caught. He worked at carnivals there.
Colonel Tom Parker’s Career
In 1938, Parker got his start in the music business as a music promoter. He worked with the famous singer Gene Austin. Austin’s career was at a low point, even though he had made more than $17 million and sold more than 86 million records since 1924. He spent a lot of his money on parties, cars, houses, and women, so other artists like Bing Crosby became more popular than him.
Parker was given the job of promoting the famous person. He found it easy to switch careers and used his “carny” skills to sell tickets and bring in big crowds. Even though he was a great promoter, his main goal was to become a manager.
In the 1960s and 1970s
After he got out of the Army, Elvis Presley went on Frank Sinatra’s T.V. show. After that, he played at three charity events and stopped playing live until 1968. During this time, Parker got his deals with movie studios that would last for a long time. During the 1960s, Presley starred in 27 movies, including “G.I. Blues,” “Wild in the Country,” “Blue Hawaii,” “Viva Las Vegas,” “Paradise, Hawaiian Style,” “Clambake,” and “Change of Habit.”
Even though the movies made money, Presley complained about how bad the scripts were. As the British Invasion took over the United States, his career started to go nowhere. Parker had Presley marry Priscilla Beaulieu, who had been living with him for four years, to get him more attention and help him control his wild side.
When he was in the NBC TV special “Elvis” in 1968, Presley got a lot of new fans. After that, Parker helped the singer make a successful comeback to live performances, setting up several dates in Las Vegas. Parker then set up some tours for Presley that were very successful. In 1973, Elvis Presley’s “Aloha from Hawaii” concert, which was broadcast all over the world from Hawaii, was one of Parker’s best moves. After that, Presley’s career went downhill quickly as he became increasingly dependent on prescription drugs. Parker didn’t see Elvis much over the next few years, but he was still his manager until he died in 1977.
Personal Life and Death
In 1935, when Parker was still in the circus, he married Marie Francis Mott. Before Parker’s career as a manager took off, the two of them worked together at carnivals. In the 1960s, Mott started to show signs of dementia, which made Parker pull away from her and turn to gamble for comfort. Mott died at the end of 1986 when he was 78 years old. In 1990, Parker married Loanne Miller, who had been his secretary for a long time. By the time Parker made his last public appearances in 1994, he was sick with gout and diabetes, among other things. At 87, he died of a stroke in Las Vegas at the beginning of 1997.
Colonel Tom Parker’s Serve in the military
Parker joined the U.S. Army soon after he got back to the U.S. To hide the fact that he was in the country illegally, he took the name of the officer who interviewed him, Tom Parker. He was in the 64th Coast Artillery at Fort Shafter in Hawaii for two years. Then, at Fort Barrancas in Florida, he joined the Army again. But after re-enlisting, he went missing in action (AWOL) and was charged with deserting. Put Parker in solitary confinement because of this. When he got out, he had a psychosis that put him in a mental hospital for a short time. This earned him kicked out of the Army.