Colonel Tom Parker’s Controversy With Elvis Presley Explained

Colonel Tom Parker was an integral part of Elvis Presley’s success. His hard-nosed management tactics, combined with Elvis’ talent, brooding good looks, and sizzling sex appeal, helped propel the singer to international superstardom. However, after Elvis died in 1977, Parker was vilified by fans, the media, and the Presley family estate.

According to Classic Rock & Culture, Parker was an exploitative, greedy, press-grabbing manipulator who took 50 percent of Elvis’ earnings. Parker pushed his client to make one movie after another, regardless of quality. Eventually he forced Elvis into a Las Vegas residency to pay off his own gambling debts, preventing Elvis from touring overseas. Many even blame Parker for his untimely death.

The Smithsonian Magazine notes that pretty much everything about Parker was a carefully crafted fabrication, but the truth didn’t come out until long after Elvis’ death. Parker, whose real name was Andreas van Kuijk, claimed to be from Huntington, West Virginia. However, he was actually born in the Netherlands. Parker entered the U.S. in the 1920s as an illegal immigrant, and he never adjusted his status. Meanwhile, he served in the armed forces but never rose above the rank of Private. Parker’s military career came to an abrupt end after he was sent to prison for desertion in 1932. The “Colonel” title was honorific; the Governor of Louisiana awarded it in 1948 for the work Parker carried out on his election campaign. Still, he did nothing to correct people’s obvious assumption that he’d earned the rank from service in the military.