(63) DAD TRIES TO GET COLONEL PARKER TO BE MY MANAGER

Dad had become my greatest fan, but what I needed at a time when I was shy of managers was a great new manager.

Dad thought that Elvis' Colonel Tom Parker would make the best manager for me - for anyone in the business. To this day I don't know how he got the address, but one day Elvis Presley admitted to me that he knew dad had approached Parker to be my manager. Dad got a letter back that I'll paraphrase by saying, "I only have one act, that's Elvis Presley!"

Parker got Elvis Presley a $35,000 recording contract with RCA Victor in the mid-1950s when Sam Phillips of Sun Records in Memphis decided to sell it. Maybe Sam lived to regret it, maybe not. Parker made his whole life revolve around Elvis.

Elvis himself told me that he thought that if Parker hadn't been his manager "The Hollywood Sharks" would have gotten him... Elvis thought that way, at least at this moment in time. But he wouldn't feel that way forever.

Colonel Parker has had a lot said about him. He turns out to be a controversial man, not only for his tactics for managing Elvis Presley but also because he took a higher than standard percentage for what he did for him. Parker and his assistants not only booked Elvis, they marketed him, took care of every detail of his performances and tours. But after Elvis died there would be law suits back and forth between the Colonel, RCA, and the Elvis Presley estate.

And I think Parker taking on just one act like this was an incredible act of faith.

ROCKABILLY HALL OF FAME - COLONEL TOM PARKER link above!