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“A smoothly detailed study of one shady man.”
- Kirkus Reviews

“Using the cunning of a detective and the straightforward prose
of a journalist, Nash, to the delight of Elvis lovers everywhere,
answers some lingering questions while posing a few new ones
about the man who made the King and then stole his crown.”
- Publisher’s Weekly

THE COLONEL
The Extraordinary Story of
Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley

Elvis Presley fans worldwide are still shocked by the descent into obesity and drug addiction that led to the tragic death, at age forty-two, of arguably the greatest entertainer of the twentieth century. While scores have been written about every nuance of the King’s life, it is primarily speculation that has been published about the man who claimed to have “made” Elvis: Colonel Tom Parker. In the truth about Parker lies the key to understanding Presley’s life, success, and untimely death. No book has succeeded at sorting through the murky past and penetrating the enigma of Elvis’s colorful and controversial manager – until now.

THE COLONEL: The Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley (Simon & Schuster; July 15, 2003; $25.00) is the first in-depth biography and definitive exposé of the man who discovered Elvis in 1955 when he was a twenty-year-old singing on The Louisiana Hayride radio show, pounced on his money-making potential as a seductive pop idol, and drove him to superstardom – and an early grave. A noted journalist and music industry insider who first encountered the Colonel at his famous client’s funeral – which he attended clad in a Hawaiian floral shirt and a baseball cap – Alanna Nash was the first journalist to view Presley’s body, and interviewed Parker, as well as family members in the U.S. and abroad. Nash, author of Elvis Aaron Presley: Revelations from the Memphis Mafia and Golden Girl: The Story of Jessica Savitch, has devoted years of exhaustive research to uncovering the truth about Parker and understanding his influence on the astonishing talent he often referred to in carnival terms as “my attraction.”

“Elvis is my only client and my life, so I never give out stories about myself.” For decades, that was the line Parker used to keep himself out of the headlines. Yet, as Nash discovered, Parker’s motivation for staying behind the scenes and in the shadows was to guard his own sinister past. “Parker was a man of not just one, but many secrets, and the keeper of several fantastic tales he fought to preserve,” Nash attests, “with Elvis almost always paying too much of the price.”

Who was Colonel Tom Parker? Was he the devil or an angel in Elvis’s private hell? In her search for answers, Nash traveled from Memphis to Tampa, from Las Vegas to Hollywood, from the White House to the tiny town of Breda, Holland – where, on June 26, 1909, Parker was born as Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk. Through extensive interviews with members of the family Parker abandoned in adolescence, Nash gained striking insights into the little Dutch boy who would grow up to become a master of illusion, evasion, and manipulation. Desperate to escape the boredom of conventional work and the beatings of his stern father, young Dries, as the Colonel was once nicknamed, found salvation in the hustle of traveling carnivals and circuses.

Early on, Parker developed a keen eye for alluring and lucrative curiosities – which equipped him to run the multi-million dollar business he called the “Elvis Exploitation Office.” A true puppet master, he pulled the strings that kept Elvis tied to third-rate Hollywood formula flicks and run ragged in 837 Las Vegas performances from 1969 to 1976. A fan of the bubbly Lawrence Welk, Parker had no ear for Elvis’s sophisticated blend of rhythm and blues, country, and pop, and no grasp of his client’s serious ambition and genuine gift for dramatic acting. What’s more, he had no empathy for the stage fright and insecurities that made Elvis vulnerable to drug addiction – and did nothing to curtail the drug use of which he was keenly aware. Yet, thanks to his brilliant knack for promotion and capitalism, the Colonel made Elvis famous and rich – and himself even richer by demanding a staggering 50 percent commission on all record, film, concert, and merchandise deals.

THE COLONEL, however, goes far beyond exposing the machinations of a wily and self-serving business manager. Within these riveting pages, Colonel Tom Parker comes alive as a tormented and dangerous man. Among Nash’s revelations, gleaned from investigators’ reports, declassified government documents, and never-before-disclosed information from Parker’s former colleagues, family members, and many unwitting victims:

  At age 20, Parker may have bludgeoned a young woman to death in his native Holland. Within days of the brutal murder, he disappeared without saying goodbye to his mother and sisters or taking his money, clothes or identifying papers. He likely entered America by sea, working as a galley boy on the Holland America Line, but told colleagues that once the boat docked, he never returned to pick up his check, a suspicious move for a boy who arrived penniless in a new land.

Reborn as Thomas Andrew Parker, the Colonel entered the U.S. Army. Shortly into his second tour of duty, he deserted his unit, suffered a nervous breakdown, and was discharged for reasons of “Psychosis, Psychogenic Depression, acute, on basis of Constitutional Psychopathic State, Emotional Instability.”

Although he called Lyndon Johnson and a long list of government officials friends, Parker never became a U.S. citizen or took advantage of amnesty options for illegal immigrants. There exists no INS record or FBI file for Thomas Andrew Parker, and he left no early paper trail such as a marriage license. His stepson, whom he raised from the age of ten but never attempted to adopt, believed that Parker was a native of West Virginia.

Parker demonstrated a frightening mental state as a man who was psychologically predatory, paranoid, given to fits of thunderous rage and had trouble showing love – even as he was tender and kind to children and animals, and regularly contributed large sums to charity.

As THE COLONEL makes chillingly clear, Parker orchestrated his star client’s career to protect his own awful truths. In the most devastating example, Parker staunchly refused repeated offers and Elvis’s pleas for a European tour because he did not have a passport and feared the consequences of applying for one. And, as Nash reveals, Elvis was
not an isolated case. Throughout his career and life, Parker routinely abused, humiliated, and twisted clients, employees, and friends to his own advantage.
In Nash’s estimation, however, Parker is a complex man, who should justifiably be held responsible for the destruction of an American icon, but also lauded as a key figure in music history. He was, she writes, “the man who almost single-handedly took the carnival tradition first to rock and roll, and then to modern mass entertainment, creating the blueprint the business operates by today.” For music fans everywhere, the millions who clamor to understand the unfulfilled promise and tragic death of Elvis Presley, and lovers of true crime dramas, THE COLONEL is an indispensable, and compelling, read.

About the Author

ALANNA NASH is the author of five previous books, including Elvis Aaron Presley: Revelations from the Memphis Mafia and Golden Girl: The Story of Jessica Savitch, which was the basis for the feature film Up Close and Personal. A regular feature writer for Entertainment Weekly, USA Weekend and The New York Times, she was named one of the “Heavy 100 of Country Music” by Esquire magazine. Nash holds a master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and was the Society of Professional Journalists’ National Member of the Year in 1994. She lives in Louisville, Kentucky.


THE COLONEL
The Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley
By Alanna Nash
Published by Simon & Schuster
July 15, 2003
$25.00; 416 pages
ISBN: 0-7432-0301-7

Visit the author’s website: www.colonelparker.com
Visit our website: www.SimonSays.com
 

THE COLONEL: The Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley (Simon and Schuster, July 15, 416 pp., $25) is the first major book about the legendary talent manager to be written by someone who actually knew Parker and both his Dutch and American families. Drawing upon previously unavailable army documents, letters, and never-before-opened police reports, author Alanna Nash breaks new ground in the Elvis saga as she exhaustively investigates the Colonel’s story.

Readers will learn for the first time how Parker (aka Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk) was implicated in a 1929 murder which may have been his impetus for fleeing his native Holland, entering the U.S. illegally, and changing his name. And they will discover how every major decision he made in managing Elvis Presley was an attempt to either re-write his past, or conceal it, and how Presley was victimized and stunted artistically by the Colonel’s ancient deeds. The author also reveals for the first time that the Colonel (his title was honorary, from the state of Louisiana) deserted the U.S. Army, and was subsequently admitted to Walter Reed Army Hospital and honorably discharged on the basis of “Psychosis, Psychogenic Depression, acute, on basis of Constitutional Psychopathic State, Emotional Instability.”

In addition, in THE COLONEL, the author uses new inside information from a Parker associate to tell the real story of how Presley was drafted, and why Parker did nothing to stop his client’s lethal abuse of prescription drugs, fully knowing the outcome.

But THE COLONEL is not entirely about Elvis. The book traces Parker’s rise through the underworld of the American carnival, his dogcatching days in Tampa, Florida, and his entry into the music business, representing Gene Austin, Roy Acuff, Pee Wee King, Ernest Tubb, Hank Snow, and Eddy Arnold before finding Elvis. THE COLONEL, which took six years to research and write, expands on known information and illuminates each phase of Parker’s life in a new and vital way. It brings to life a terribly complex, misunderstood, and compelling figure, and also gets a fix on the sometimes frightening mental state of a man who was psychologically predatory, paranoid, and give to fits of thunderous rage—but who had trouble showing love, even as he was tender and kind to children and animals, and regularly contributed large sums to charity.

Nash also explores the Colonel’s tactical brilliance, particularly in inventing popular music culture. As the man who had the largest impact on American music of any non-musician, Parker single-handedly took the carnival tradition first to rock and roll, and then to modern mass entertainment. By merely applying the exploitational tactics of the barker to his own client, he drew a straight line from the bally platform to the hullabalooed concert stage. Nash also shows how the Colonel protected the merchandising rights of artists’ estates through his quick actions upon Elvis’s death.

See why Kirkus Reviews calls THE COLONEL, “A smoothly detailed study of one shady man,” and why Publisher’s Weekly praises the “careful and extensive research,” describing the author’s technique as a combination of “the cunning of a detective and the straightforward prose of a journalist.” In profiling such a character “who changes his identity to hide his mysterious (and possibly murderous) past and who cultivates relationships with both shady mob characters and America’s elite (e.g. Lyndon Johnson) in an attempt to capture the money, power and respect he never had as a youngster,” PW continues, “Nash’s biography seems only comparable to the fictional life of Jay Gatsby.”

For review copies of this highly readable biography, contact Rachel Nagler, Assistant Director of Publicity, Simon and Schuster, 1230 Sixth Ave., New York, NY 10020, p: 212-698-7544, f: 212-698-7336. Email: rachel.nagler@simonandschuster.com.