Alanna Nash Talks To EIN
By: Nigel Patterson - August 1, 2003
Source: EIN
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Alanna
Nash is the critically acclaimed author of biographies of
Dolly Parton and Jessica Savitch. Alanna also authored:
Elvis Aaron Presley: Revelations of the Memphis Mafia and
collaborated with Alan Fortas on his book: My Friend Elvis.
Buy
The
Colonel: The Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker and
Elvis Presley
Alanna's new book, The Colonel: The
Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley
was recently published and has gained significant media and
fan attention with its sensational new revelations about the
Colonel and insights into his psychological make-up. Having
now read The Colonel we can confirm that there is no doubt
it lives up to its pre-publication publicity.
EIN: Alanna, we really appreciate you taking time
out of your busy schedule to talk to us today.
AN: Nigel, it is an honor to be able to
talk with you and to be on the EIN. Thank you
for having me.
EIN: I'll start with a few
questions about your new book, The Colonel: The
Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley.
You really put some work into this project - meticulous
research and writing over nearly six years and a finished
book with 50 pages of acknowledgements and notes. Please
tell us about your experiences in completing The Colonel.
AN: Thank you for those compliments.
This was an incredibly difficult project for many reasons.
First, the Colonel had a certain power, even from the
grave. There were people such as Eddy Arnold and Hank Snow
who still wouldn’t talk much about him. Eddy
refused to speak with me, and while he had given a few
comments about the Colonel previously, some of which had
been published and some not (these appear in my book,
collected from various journalists and their transcripts),
he always seemed almost afraid to talk about the Colonel,
even to his own biographers. I asked him if he would simply
relate positive anecdotes, then, even those that simply
reflected his gratitude for the way the Colonel had directed
his career. And he wrote me a letter saying
no. That’s very strange. You’d think he’d
want to preserve that part of history, if nothing else. I
did end up with much more Hank Snow material than appears in
the book, but I lost half of the first half of the book to
editing. I had lots and lots more material
about the Colonel’s involvement with country music stars
between Eddy and Elvis.
My editor kept saying, “Get to Elvis.”
So that material got short shrift in the final
version of the manuscript. I hope to be able to use it
elsewhere, or on my website,
www.colonelparker.com
. But the book was also difficult because it was so
expensive to research. I am in deep debt
because of that. Unless I get a film deal, I will never
recoup it. Very few people make any money on
books. You have to do it for the love of the project—or of
solving the riddle, which is what I was trying to do.
I wanted to know who this man really was, and why he
made some of the decisions he did in managing Elvis
Presley. A lot of them didn’t make sense on the surface.
EIN: The principal issue being focused on by critics
and readers is the possibility that the Colonel (aka Andreas
Cornelis van Kuijk) fled his native Holland after brutally
murdering a woman. You are very clear in The Colonel that
there is no direct evidence linking him to the murder but
you deftly present a case based on circumstantial evidence.
Do you have a personal view on this particular incident?
AN: I wholeheartedly believe that the Colonel had a secret
that was far more sinister than simply that of being an
illegal alien. He had numerous opportunities
to fix that little problem, and he never did. I have no
idea whether he killed that woman or not, but a situation of
this magnitude certainly would explain why he behaved as he
did, and why he wouldn’t risk a background check or becoming
a citizen. My guess is that he was involved in
some way, and that it was an accident. In the book, I quote
a letter he wrote to his nephew in Holland, in which he
alludes to missing his family, and not getting in touch with
them as to protect them, almost, from something in his past,
or as he puts it, “mistakes some-one may have made.”
It’s
interesting: After I finished the manuscript, I spoke with
an English medium, Jennifer MacKenzie. She
“saw” the Colonel by my using only his Dutch name. She
didn’t know who he was. She said, “Was he a
politician?” I said, “No, but people have likened him to
one.” She was quiet, and then she said, “Was
he a murderer? Because I’m seeing something beneath a
kitchen floor.” As you’ll remember from the
book, Anna van den Enden was killed in front of the kitchen
sink. Well, that just flabbergasted me. I
spoke to Jennifer again later and she “channeled” him. I
asked point blank if he had killed Anna. Jennifer said he
put his finger to the side of his nose (which was a habit of
his when he was having fun with you) and said, “That’s for
me to know and for you to find out.” I said,
“Ask him if he’s mad at me--if he’s going to give me a hard
time in the hereafter.” She said no, that he felt fatherly
toward me, and then she added, “He says no one can hurt
him now.”
Whether
you believe in that kind of stuff or not (and, of course,
it’s all for entertainment and you can’t base research on
it), it’s pretty fascinating. But here’s the bottom line to
all of this. I cannot prove he did the deed, but I can
prove he was capable of it. That army
discharge paper is incontrovertible proof of that.
“Constitutional psychopathic state” is 1933 language for
what we now call Anti-Social Personality Disorder.
Which is how we classify most murderers.
EIN: The genesis for a case against the Colonel lies
in the anonymous letter received by Dirk Vellenga in 1980.
I find it interesting that despite having received the
letter, and having knowledge of the murder, Vellenga did not
include reference to it in his 1988 book (written with Mick
Farren), Elvis and the Colonel. Are you able to shed any
light on this?
AN: Yes, I spoke with both Dirk and Mick, though more with
Mick about the decision not to include it. The Colonel was
still alive in ’88, and the publisher’s lawyers advised
against reporting the murder theory or the anonymous note.
Mick was so unconvinced as to the validity of it all that he
was happy to oblige, even as he told me that true or false,
his actual feeling was that Parker was quite happy to let a
nebulous story about killing someone circulate just to give
himself an edge, or a bit of mystique. But
Mick recently also said, in a review of my book, that I was
able to gather many more details about the murder and
Parker’s possible involvement than what he and Dirk had.
Now he says I all but nailed it. That’s very gracious of
him, actually. He’s a wonderful guy.
EIN: In The Colonel you cite several amazing offers
made to the Colonel for Elvis to appear in concert outside
the USA. The US$10m offer by Saudi billionaires, Adnan and
Essam Khashoggi, for an Elvis concert at the Pyramids in
Egypt is one we hadn't read of before and one that we can
only dream about how good it might have been. How did you
discover this offer?
AN:
Several of the Memphis Mafia were there when the offer came
down and Elvis was so excited about the possibility of
going. What a pity it is that that never
happened.
EIN: Following on from our last question, to what extent do
you think Elvis should have taken more responsibility for
his career options rather than allowing the Colonel to
largely dictate what contracts were signed?
AN: A lot more, obviously. But artists are not usually
assertive and confrontational people, and the Colonel
counted on this. Parker also counted on Vernon
going along with him, and he usually did. Until I did this
book, however, I hadn’t grasped what a force field Parker
was. There was no bucking this man, unless, of
course, Vernon and Elvis had simply paid him an exorbitant
amount of money to leave. Even then, I imagine he would
have found a way to stick around. There was
something pathologically predatory about him.
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Alanna Nash |
EIN: Alanna, were there any
things you learned when researching The Colonel that you
didn't include in the finished book. And if yes, can you
give us any insights into what they are about?
AN: I lost a lot of material from all the pre-Elvis
chapters. I also lost a terrific interview
with Hugh O’Brian about the time Elvis was in the army and
Parker promoted O’Brian’s tours across the country. He was
a big hit on TV with “Wyatt Earp” then, and he wanted to go
on the road as a singer. Things didn’t work
out. I hope to use this whole thing somewhere else, but the
great kicker to it is this. O’Brian said
Parker always insisted on dealing in cash. He asked Parker
one time, “Why do you pay everybody in cash?”
And he said, “Because, boy, there ain’t nothin’ like cash.
If there was, God woulda named it cash.”
EIN: Alanna, you met the Colonel on a number of
occasions. What were your impressions of him as a person?
AN: I was
very fond of him. He liked to brag about himself, which I
took as a sign of insecurity, and he was very generous.
Always picked up the check, and refused my offers to
pay for his meal and that of his wife, Loanne. He took time
for me on three occasions, and answered my letters.
Now, he was always testing you, of course, and he got
quite cross me with me when I attempted to quiz him on the
quality of Elvis’s movies and songs. But I have to say it
was an honor to be allowed to just be around him.
As someone in the book says, “He had it from the
eyebrows up.”
EIN: The Colonel seems to have had an almost Jekyll
and Hyde personality. What positives and negatives did you
perceive in his character?
AN: That’s right. Kindness and cruelty,
intimacy and secretiveness, generosity and stinginess.
You’d see all of these things in a matter of moments.
He was quite a study.
EIN: And the Colonel's relationships with his two
wives. How would you characterise those?
AN: Well, I can only tell you my impressions. I believe he
was really devoted to his first wife in many, many ways.
But I am mystified as to why he didn’t get the care
for her brain tumor that he should have. He accepted the
word of a team of doctors who weren’t qualified to treat her
condition that she was beyond help, that she was suffering
from age-related dementia. In fact, if she had
had a brain scan and been treated early on, she probably
could have recovered. As it was, he kept her at home, away
from the kind of care she needed. She was a
prisoner inside her house and her body for nearly 20 years
until she died. Why he didn’t take her to some place like
Mayo’s really perplexes me. As for his second
wife, Loanne, I would not want to speculate on that
relationship other than what appears in the book. I will
say that she took extraordinary care of him, and was his
protector in many ways. It was obvious to me
that she cared a great deal about him, and still does.
EIN: Why do you think the Colonel refused to
acknowledge his Dutch heritage and his family even after
they made contact with him?
AN: I think there was something in his past that was too
painful for him to admit, perhaps even to himself.
He was capable of compartmentalizing his feelings,
and he tried to put his emotions about his Dutch family in
the most remote drawer of his mind.
EIN: Do you think the Colonel was 'good' or 'bad' for Elvis'
career?
AN: He
was the promoter of promoters, but not such a great manager,
in that his own needs always superceded those of his client.
However, you have to admit that he always found a way
to keep his star on top, in one way or another.
EIN: Alanna, on a related issue, the Colonel's
massive gambling debt in Las Vegas. How significant do you
think this was in decisions about the contracts that Elvis
would sign?
AN: Paramount. He used Elvis as a kind of human shield,
especially in Vegas.
EIN: Please tell us about some of the photographs
you managed to secure for inclusion in The Colonel.
AN: Few people outside of publishing realize that an author
has to buy all the pictures for the inside of the book.
(The publisher pays for the cover.) I spent roughly
$6,000 for pictures. Actually more than that,
because I bought pictures that I ended up not being able to
use for space considerations. I’m proud of what I found,
because there are a lot of pictures in there you don’t
normally see. However, I desperately wanted a
really fetching picture I had seen of him with the young
Tommy Sands, and could never get my hands on it. Tommy
didn’t even have it. Nor did Graceland, in the
Colonel’s private collection. Ironically, the “National
Enquirer” had published it, but if they still had it, it was
locked up in their anthrax-ed building, and no one is
allowed to go in there. Oh yes, I also really
wanted a picture of him with Minnie Pearl, and I found it
only after my deadline had passed. It appears in my
“Country Music” magazine story about the Colonel’s Grand Ole
Opry connections. You can read that on my
website.
EIN: What has surprised you the most as you've
researched Elvis over so many years and talked to those who
knew him?
AN: The dichotomy of the greatness of his talent (which
just seemed innate) and the emptiness of his private life.
EIN: Elvis Aaron Presley: Revelations of the Memphis
Mafia gave fans a new insight into Elvis the man and Elvis
the performer. One of the issues discussed was "Elvis the
supercop". Why do you think Elvis had such a fascination
with law enforcement?
AN: I
think it goes back to his father’s stint in prison.
Also to the fact that he couldn’t “police” his own
life. How’s that for psycho-babble? Actually,
I think there’s a lot of truth in that.
EIN: Few fans will be aware that during the mid
1970s undercover FBI agents traveled as part of Elvis'
entourage. What can you tell us about situation?
AN: I don’t think I can add to that in any significant way,
actually.
EIN: Alanna, after writing three books about Elvis
you must have formed a view on who Elvis Presley was. How
would you sum up his personality or character?
AN: That’s too great a task in a small space, at least for
me. I will say he was a deep and true artist who emerged
almost full-blown on his first recordings.
It’s as if he had been dropped in here from another planet,
and that he simply got lost trying to find his way home.
EIN: In Revelations of the
Memphis Mafia, Billy Smith commented that "But at times, I
wonder if he (Elvis) loved any body." Elvis' ability to
love - what is your view on his emotional capability?
AN: I think he got stuck emotionally at about 18.
I think he was capable of great love, but he was
immature about expressing most of it. That wasn’t uncommon
for men of his age group in the ‘50s, ‘60s, and ‘70s.
I also think that’s one reason he was so taken with
the mystics—they opened up a huge window for him on the
greatness of the human condition.
EIN: To what extent, if any, do you think Elvis had
a self-destructive personality?
AN: I’ll quote the poet William Carlos Williams:
“The pure products of America go crazy.”
EIN: What do you think killed Elvis Presley?
Creative apathy or a combination of personal-psychological
factors?
AN: A combination of personal and professional
disappointments coupled with reckless behavior and an
inherited tendency toward addiction. I think
he could not stand what he had become, and numbed the pain
out whenever possible. As Mike Crowley says in the book,
“Nobody killed Elvis except Elvis.” But you have to wonder
why the Colonel did almost nothing to stop him.
EIN: EIN recently published an interview around the
enduring Elvis Is Alive phenomenon. Do you have a view on
this sub-culture in the Elvis world?
AN: Only that some people want him back so desperately that
they will do anything to keep that hope alive.
EIN: Alanna, the first book of yours I ever bought
was the biography Dolly (Parton). Dolly is known to be a
big Elvis fan. Did you and Dolly ever discuss Elvis?
AN: Thank you for buying that book. It came
out first in 1978, and is available again with an updated
final chapter. (“Dolly: The Biography.”)
Alas, I never did ask her about Elvis, but I do know that he
wanted to record one of her songs (variously reported as
either “Coat of Many Colors” or “I Will Always Love You,”
though I’ve heard her reference the latter) and she wouldn’t
give up part of the publishing, as Parker requested.
She said she cried all night over the decision,
particularly as she could have used the money at the time.
EIN: Dolly Parton, the person. What is she like?
AN: She’s like Elvis…at times you think she must have been
dropped in here from some super-evolved nova.
There’s something otherworldly about her, and about her
talent. Something mystical, almost. Of
course, that’s combined with that very human charm and sense
of humor and her extraordinary looks. She’s irresistible.
EIN: Can we talk about Alanna Nash. Who is Alanna
Nash and what does she do in her spare time?
AN:
She’s just a ordinary journalist beguiled by an
extraordinary story, that’s all. Spare time?
What’s that?
EIN: Where do you call home?
AN:
Kentucky.
EIN: How did you get involved in writing/journalism?
AN: I
was a trained musician as a child, and I combined my love of
music with my love of words. If I’d had any
real talent, I would have been a musician. But I didn’t
have, and I was embarrassed by performing. I
was more comfortable behind the scenes.
EIN: Which of your books has given you the most satisfaction
and why?
AN:
Well, I have to say this one, in that it seemed an
“ungettable” story. Some people say I still
haven’t gotten it, but I think I’ve gotten as close as
anyone is going to get. And I did so only because so many
people were willing to help me, starting with the Colonel’s
family in Holland. They wanted to solve the riddle as much
as I did. We became a team, of sorts. Marie
Parker’s daughter-in-law, Sandra Polk Ross, in Florida, also
was incredibly supportive and helpful. She has become a
true friend. And Byron Raphael was a great,
untapped source for the Colonel’s early years in Hollywood.
He also served as one of the Colonel’s confidantes, to some
degree, and he was eager that I understand both sides of the
Colonel’s nature.
EIN: Do you have any plans for writing a fourth book
about Elvis?
AN: No. I think there isn’t enough new to
say. And this book was really more about Parker than Elvis.
I would like to explore his early years a bit more.
My hope is that people who haven’t talked before, such as
Andy Griffith, will come forward and share their stories for
the historical record.
EIN: Who or what will your next book be about?
AN: I have so much debt on this one yet that I can’t think
about delving into a new project, other than magazine work!
EIN: You are busy promoting The Colonel over the
coming months. Where can fans get to meet you?
AN: My website,
www.colonelparker.com,
will list those events. I may be going to England in the
fall as the English edition appears. We have
to work that out yet, though, so it’s really premature for
me to even say that.
EIN: Alanna, it has been a great pleasure talking to
you today. Once again our sincere thanks for making time
available to us and we wish you continued success in the
future.
AN:
Nigel, thank you for asking such probing questions.
You always write so intelligently about this topic.
Visit Alanna Nash's web site:
www.colonelparker.com
Read
EIN's review of
The Colonel: The Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker
and Elvis Presley
Elvis, from Memphis to Hollywood: Memories from My Eleven
Years with Elvis Presley, and Elvis Aaron Presley:
Revelations of the Memphis Mafia are currently out of print.
Nigel—contrary to published reports, the Fortas book was
never actually published as “My Friend Elvis.” It will be
reprinted in 2004. EAP is available on
Amazon.com and through my website, but at a dear price.
Thanks again, AN
© Copyright 2003 by
Elvis
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