The following abbreviations are used in the notes:
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DWC/USC |
David Weisbert Collection, University of Southern California Film Library Archives |
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HWC/MPAS |
Hal Wallis Collection, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Library, Beverly Hills |
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JHC/UM |
Jerry Hopkins Collection, Special Collections, University of Memphis |
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JWC/USC |
Jerry Wald Collection, University of Southern California Film Archives |
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MPAS/OHP |
Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, Oral History Project |
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TCFC/USC |
Twentieth Century–Fox Correspondence, University of Southern California Film Archives |
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
PREFACE
pagelink “It’s so strange”: Larry Geller in the documentary Mr. Rock & Roll, 1999.
INTRODUCTION
pagelink “Did you see it?”: Colonel Tom Parker to author, June 18, 1994.
pagelink “Cooked the Colonel’s Way”: Serene Dominic, Phoenix New Times, January 30–February 5, 1997.
pagelink “I want to leave you with just one thought”: Loanne Miller Parker at Colonel Tom Parker’s Memorial Service, Las Vegas, January 25, 1997.
pagelink “He was so immense”: Robert Kotlowitz to author, 1998.
pagelink “the most overrated person”: Dave Marsh, USA Today, January 22, 1997.
pagelink “a nobody who needed a somebody to be anybody”: Constant Meijers to author, 1997.
pagelink “the best manager I ever saw”: Chet Atkins to author, 1998.
pagelink “Whatever he cost Elvis”: Chet Atkins quoted in Tennessean, January 28, 1997.
pagelink “Nobody killed Elvis except Elvis”: Mike Crowley to author, 1998.
pagelink “I sleep good at night”: Colonel Tom Parker to author, 1994.
pagelink “Elvis is my only client and my life”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted in Audrey West, Memphis Press-Scimitar, February 22, 1974.
pagelink “That man’s a mystery”: Bitsy Mott quoted in Goldman, Elvis.
pagelink “when the Colonel’s stepson, Bobby Ross, died”: Sandra Polk Ross to author, 1998.
CHAPTER 1: THE LITTLE DUTCH BOY
pagelink “Dries was very keen on his looks”: Marie van Gort–van Kuijk to author, 1997.
pagelink “When they had done serious wrong”: Marie van Gort–van Kuijk to author, 1997.
pagelink “I was never happy at the convent”: Marie van Gort–van Kuijk, to author, 1997.
pagelink “I worked for a gypsy”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted in Merilyn Potters, “Birthday Bash for Colonel Parker,” Las Vegas Sun, June 24, 1994.
pagelink “the orphans stood in a row of twelve”: Engelina Maas– van Kuijk to Mieke Dons-Maas, 1993.
pagelink “He would scheme, but always in a good way”: Mieke Dons-Maas to author, 1997.
pagelink “They all slept in the loft”: Mieke Dons-Maas to author, 1997.
pagelink “He never hurt anyone”: Nel Dankers–van Kuijk quoted in Vellenga, “Breda Family Wants to Get in Touch.”
pagelink “even on the back of the meanest horse”: Mieke Dons-Maas to author, 1997.
pagelink “You could close the drawer”: Engelina Maas–van Kuijk to Mieke Dons-Maas, 1993.
pagelink “our mother was clever”: Marie van Gort–van Kuijk to author, 1997.
pagelink “Possessing money”: Marie van Gort–van Kuijk to author, 1997.
pagelink “he was very conscious about how he looked”: Engelina Maas–van Kuijk to Mieke Dons-Maas, 1993.
pagelink “if Mother didn’t iron his collar properly”: Marie van Gort–van Kuijk to author, 1997.
pagelink “He would never drink a complete beer”: Joe Esposito, Elvis International Forum, February 1997; also Peter Guralnick, Careless Love, p. 272.
pagelink “I’m sure that by the time”: Marie van Gort–van Kuijk to author, 1997.
pagelink “He came to say hello and good-bye”: Marie van Gort–van Kuijk to author, 1997.
CHAPTER 2: BEHAVIOR MOST STRANGE
pagelink “He never told me”: Marie Cornelisse-Ponsie quoted in Vellenga and Farren, Elvis and the Colonel.
pagelink “Dries must have been talking about me”: Marie Cornelisse-Ponsie quoted in Vellenga and Farren, Elvis and the Colonel.
pagelink “I remember it like yesterday”: Adriana van Gurp–van Kuijk quoted in Vellenga, “Breda Family Wants to Get in Touch.”
pagelink “He just changed identity”: Marie van Gort–van Kuijk to author, 1997.
CHAPTER 3: “ALL GREAT NEPTUNE’S OCEAN”
pagelink “We were driving through Hobbs, New Mexico”: Byron Raphael to author, 1998. All quotes from Byron Raphael come from the author’s extensive interviews with Mr. Raphael, 1998–2002.
pagelink Parker himself said he gained entry: Lloyd Shearer, “Presley vs. Parker,” Parade, August 1, 1982.
pagelink “The Smith Act, or the Alien Registration Act”: Marian Smith to author, 1998.
pagelink “And I am curious”: Smith to author, 1998.
pagelink “knifing a man to death in a fairgrounds brawl”: The People, January 26, 1997.
pagelink “no recollection of such a story”: Chris Hutchins to author, 1998.
pagelink “Do you know that Colonel Tom Parker comes from Breda?”: Dirk Vellenga, De Stem, September 20, 1977.
pagelink “Did something serious happen”: Dirk Vellenga, De Stem, October 15, 1981.
pagelink “Gentlemen: At last, I want to say”: De Stem, August 9, 1997.
pagelink “fancy costume . . . a dark fantasy jacket costume”: Breda Police Report: The Murder of Anna van den Enden.
pagelink “in a gray-colored overcoat”: Breda Police Report: The Murder of Anna van den Enden.
pagelink “conflict of words”: Breda Police Report: The Murder of Anna van den Enden.
pagelink “pretty chubby around the hips”: Breda Police Report: The Murder of Anna van den Enden.
pagelink “very thin layer”: Breda Police Report: The Murder of Anna van den Enden.
pagelink “part of the brain”: Breda Police Report: The Murder of Anna van den Enden.
pagelink “I really don’t think there was a murder in him”: Todd Slaughter to author, 2002.
pagelink “I don’t think there’s any doubt”: Lamar Fike to author, 2001.
CHAPTER 4: MISSING IN ACTION
pagelink “When he got off that boat”: Gabe Tucker to author, 1997.
pagelink “working in a circus”: Ad van Kuijk quoted in It’s Elvis Time, April 1967, May 1968, and June 1968.
pagelink “about two years when I was sixteen years old”: Colonel Tom Parker on private audiotape recording of Elvis Presley Birthday Banquet, Memphis, January 8, 1988.
pagelink “Please tell [Garth]”: Colonel Tom Parker in letter to Pam Lewis, 1994.
pagelink “Colonel never invited questions”: Byron Raphael to author, 1998.
pagelink “The story I heard”: Mac Wiseman to Beverly Keel for author, 1998.
pagelink “Colonel was very loyal”: Sandra Polk Ross to author, 1997.
pagelink “He was like a giant elephant”: Beecher Smith quoted in Soocher, They Fought the Law.
pagelink “The place looked like a carnival midway”: Alan Fortas to author, 1985.
pagelink “After I left the Netherlands”: Thomas A. Parker, affidavit in response to lawsuit, RCA Records v. Joseph A. Hanks, National Bank of Commerce of Memphis, and Priscilla Presley, co-executors of the Estate of Elvis A. Presley, Thomas A. Parker, individually and d/b/a All Star Shows, and Blanchard E. Tual, Jr., guardian ad litem for Lisa Marie Presley, May 18, 1982.
During Elvis’s movie days, he routinely obtained costumes from Western Costumers and in them struck dramatic poses for photographs of himself wearing everything from a Confederate colonel’s uniform and fake mustache to elaborate women’s garb and wig.
“The Colonel was always disguising himself with props—a hat, a costume, or buttons—so people would look at the prop instead of the man,” says Al Wertheimer, who photographed Elvis extensively at the outset of his career.
pagelink “I had ten or twelve pictures”: Cees Frijters quoted in Vellenga and Farren, Elvis and the Colonel.
pagelink Parker never reminisced: “I never have heard Colonel speaking of his army activities.” Bitsy Mott to Dirk Vellenga, raw interview transcript, 1983.
pagelink “Looking back from 1982”: Constant Meijers to author, 1997.
pagelink “We didn’t have much to do”: Earl Kilgus to author, 1998.
pagelink Yet Jerry Goodson: “There’s just no reference for this guy.” Jerry Goodson to author, 1998.
pagelink “We should also be entitled”: Peter A. Herbert in letter to Dirk Vellenga, 1982.
pagelink “We were never successful”: Blanchard E. Tual to author, 1998.
pagelink “The men who served here”: David Ogden to author, 1999.
pagelink A week later: Based on information in official U.S. Army unit rosters and morning reports.
pagelink “50 big and little elephants”: “ ‘Greatest Show’ Here,” Pensacola Journal, September 27, 1932.
pagelink when he returned: Based on information in official U.S. Army unit rosters and finance statements.
pagelink Records show that: Based on official U.S. Army finance statements.
pagelink “Psychosis, Psychogenic Depression”: Discharge on certificate of disability, official U.S. Army records, Army Medical Center, Office of the Detachment Commander.
pagelink On August 19, 1933: Based on official U.S. Army records, Army Medical Center, Office of the Detachment Commander.
In its manic form, bipolar disorder is a cyclical disease occurring in spontaneous episodes with periods of remission or depression in between. Mood disturbances severe enough to damage job or social functioning, or requiring almost continual supervision or hospitalization to prevent suicidal actions or violence to others are also common, as are outbursts of suspicion and persecutory delusions.
Today, several avenues of therapy are available to the bipolar patient, primarily with controlling drugs such as lithium. But in 1933, the severely disturbed were treated with nonsensical methods that ranged from barbaric to violent—placing the straightjacketed patient in a spinning chair for lengthy periods, for example, or dunking him in ice water baths for extensive hydrotherapy.
What was thought to be the most effective treatment for psychosis in the 1930s was also the most dangerous and controversial—insulin shock. Administered by intravenous injection, insulin shock dropped the patient’s blood sugar low enough to send him into diabetic coma and often convulsions. Intense treatment involved up to ninety tortuous injections and, not surprisingly, resulted in a high mortality rate. While the treatment had some marked therapeutic effect in reducing psychotic behavior, it also created confusion and memory loss in individuals who were already fragmented. After treatment, patients were often left with their same symptoms of delusions, hallucinations, and thought disorders, and were now sometimes brain damaged as well. The treatment was considered so perilous that electric shock—considerably safer—was developed to replace it in the late 1930s. Exactly how Private Parker was treated is unknown.
pagelink In his pocket: Based on official U.S. Army finance statements.
pagelink “She was for me”: Mieke Dons-Maas to author, 1997.
pagelink “He started out in a candy stand”: Larry Davis to Constant Meijers, raw interview transcript from the documentary Looking for Colonel Parker, 1999.
pagelink “I knew him”: Joe McKennon to author, 1997.
pagelink “he just didn’t make an impression”: Joe McKennon to author, 1997.
pagelink “I used to know”: Joe McKennon to author, 1997.
pagelink “You could know a guy”: John Campi to author, 1998.
pagelink “in 1933, he was”: Jack Kaplan to Dirk Vellenga, raw interview transcript, 1983.
pagelink “He did a lot”: John Campi to author, 1998.
pagelink “I think that everyone”: Larry Davis to Constant Meijers, raw interview transcript from the documentary Looking for Colonel Parker, 1999.
pagelink “You could say”: Joey Hoffman to author, 1997.
pagelink “He always had quick ideas”: Jack Kaplan to Dirk Vellenga, raw interview transcript, 1983.
CHAPTER 6: DANCING CHICKENS, TOOTHLESS LIONS, AND RODEO COWBOYS
pagelink “The Colonel told me”: Larry Davis to Constant Meijers, raw interview transcript from the documentary Looking for Colonel Parker, 1999.
pagelink As someone who often treated animals with more dignity: “If he saw one hurt, it would really touch him.” Gabe Tucker to author, 1997.
pagelink “I’d start each week”: Hutchins and Thompson, Elvis & Lennon, p. 118.
pagelink “He used to come”: Ernie Wenzik to author, 1998.
pagelink “Mr. Velare,” he began: Jack Kaplan to Dirk Vellenga, raw interview transcript, 1983.
pagelink “One time, Colonel produced”: Alan Fortas to author, 1988.
pagelink “always intrigued by cowboys and cowboy stars”: Oscar Davis to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
CHAPTER 7: ONE BORN EVERY MINUTE
pagelink “a pussy pulls stronger than an elephant”: Feiler, Under the Big Top.
pagelink “She was a piss cutter”: Sandra Polk Ross to author, 1997.
pagelink “Colonel fell in love with Marie”: Sandra Polk Ross to author, 1997.
pagelink “I knew he had a girl”: Jack Kaplan to Dirk Vellenga, raw interview transcript, 1983.
pagelink “She had two children”: Bitsy Mott to Dirk Vellenga, raw interview transcript, 1983.
pagelink a startlingly beautiful child: “My husband always told me this was the prettiest baby he had ever seen.” Sandra Polk Ross to author, 1997.
pagelink he was adopted two years later: “It took two years for him to be adopted.” Sandra Polk Ross to author, 1997.
pagelink “play toy”: Billy Ross, unpublished manuscript.
pagelink “She said she was”: Official divorce records.
pagelink “willful, continuous and obstinate desertion of the complainant”: Official divorce records.
pagelink “I believe they were in love”: Sandra Polk Ross to author, 1997.
pagelink “I guess they went”: Bitsy Mott to Dirk Vellenga, raw interview transcript, 1983.
pagelink “by morning”: Sandra Polk Ross quoting Bobby Ross to author, 1998.
pagelink “Look what I won!”: Sandra Polk Ross quoting Bobby Ross to author, 1998.
pagelink “He made Mr. Rinaldi rich”: Gabe Tucker to author, 1997.
pagelink “the big, wise white man”: Rosita, 1961.
pagelink “I didn’t want you all to know”: Rosita, 1961.
pagelink sometimes spoke in a foreign language: “Spoke something in a language that sounded foreign to me—could have been Yiddish.” Bitsy Mott to Dirk Vellenga, raw interview transcript, 1983.
pagelink “The truth is”: Sandra Polk Ross to author, 1997.
CHAPTER 8: DEEPER INTO AMERICA
pagelink “Starting as a boy with his family”: Austin and Pabst, Gene Austin’s Ol’ Buddy.
pagelink “a great salesman”: Austin and Pabst, Ol’ Buddy.
pagelink “It was obvious”: Austin and Pabst, Ol’ Buddy.
pagelink “The stars come and go”: Gabe Tucker to author, 1997.
pagelink as he later claimed: “I managed him for two or three years.” Colonel Tom Parker to Ralph Emery, raw interview transcript, April 7, 1993.
pagelink “proud, bulging bank account”: Austin and Pabst, Ol’ Buddy.
pagelink “We sold out and made enough money”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted in Memphis Commercial Appeal, September 14, 1984.
pagelink “as an overstayed crewman”: Marian Smith to author, 1998.
pagelink in regarding Parker: “He thought Colonel hung the damn moon, and he wanted to be like him so bad.” Gabe Tucker to author, 1997.
pagelink “As you know, Mr. Bevis”: Crumbaker with Tucker, Up and Down with Elvis Presley.
pagelink castoffs he got free: “He made friends with two or three florists around there in the neighborhood.” Gabe Tucker to author, 1997.
pagelink “I wish you could have been here yesterday”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted in Crumbaker and Tucker, Up and Down with Elvis Presley.
pagelink “Colonel took care of Bevo”: Al Dvorin to author, 1998.
pagelink “He was always so crazy”: Buddy Killen to Beverly Keel for author, 1998.
pagelink “Marie yelled, ‘Hey Buddy!’ ”: Buddy Killen to Beverly Keel for author, 1998.
pagelink “I know he and Marie”: Gabe Tucker to author, 1997.
pagelink “As for kids”: Gabe Tucker to author, 1997.
pagelink “and be there long enough”: Sandra Polk Ross to author, 1997.
CHAPTER 9: NASHVILLE’S NASAL WHINE: JAMUP AND HONEY, EDDY ARNOLD, AND HANK SNOW
pagelink “Minnie, you’ll have to leave off that last part”: Hall, Hell-Bent for Music.
pagelink “When I came along”: Minnie Pearl to author, 1975.
pagelink “It was the first time”: Minnie Pearl to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
pagelink “could charm the warts off a hog’s back”: Time, date unknown.
pagelink “Tom said the guy”: Gabe Tucker to author, 1997.
pagelink “When I heard that Mother was dead”: Colonel Tom Parker to Ad van Kuijk, Rosita.
pagelink “Regardless of how big”: Pee Wee King to author, 1995.
pagelink “He introduced himself to me”: Eddy Arnold to Mike Streissguth, raw interview transcript, 1995.
pagelink “Tom was obviously interested”: Eddy Arnold to Mike Streissguth, raw interview transcript, 1995.
pagelink “I was a hungry boy”: Eddy Arnold at Colonel Tom Parker’s Memorial Service, Las Vegas, January 25, 1997.
pagelink “he’d constantly try”: Justin Tubb to author, 1997.
pagelink “We performed barefooted”: Gabe Tucker to author, 1999.
pagelink “Everybody said we were crazy”: Hurst, Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry.
pagelink “Even with the tent shows”: Pee Wee King to author, 1977.
pagelink “and oh God, that truck smelled awful”: Gabe Tucker to author, 1997.
pagelink “He was trying”: Gabe Tucker to author, 1998.
pagelink “little wasp-nest hotels”: Hurst, Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry.
pagelink “I was with him”: Minnie Pearl to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
pagelink “Southern people talk”: Minnie Pearl to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
pagelink “right out of that dog pound”: Honey Wilds to Jack Hurst, raw interview transcript, 1974.
pagelink “what each did”: David Wilds to author, 1998.
pagelink “He used to tell people in New York”: Jack Kaplan to Dirk Vellenga, raw interview transcript, 1983.
pagelink “He’d take a chance on anything”: Gabe Tucker to author, 1999.
pagelink “He would always wear”: Nelle Poe to author, 1998.
pagelink “As soon as Ernest”: Nelle Poe to author, 1998.
pagelink “He always said to me”: Nelle Poe to author, 1998.
pagelink “It’s free today”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Joey Hoffman to author, 1997.
pagelink “He was a ball of fire”: Eddy Arnold quoted in Atlanta Journal, January 22, 1997. See also The Life and Times of Eddy Arnold (Nashville Network) and Eddy Arnold to Constant Meijers, raw interview transcript from the documentary Looking for Colonel Parker, 1999.
pagelink “When he was settin’ up a tour”: Gabe Tucker to author, 1997.
pagelink “We got somebody”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Gabe Tucker to author, 1997.
pagelink “It was really too much”: Roy Wiggins to author, 1998.
pagelink “Tom came back backstage”: Eddy Arnold at Colonel Tom Parker’s Memorial Service, Las Vegas, January 25, 1997.
pagelink “We used to play”: Bitsy Mott to Dirk Vellenga, raw interview transcript, 1983.
pagelink “Tommy told him, ‘Plowboy’ ”: Gabe Tucker to author, 1997.
pagelink “I said to him once”: Arnold, It’s a Long Way from Chester County.
pagelink best-selling “folk” music: “Folk” in the chart name was changed to “Country & Western” in 1949.
pagelink “You like your room?”: Roy Wiggins to author, 1998.
pagelink “He turned around”: Gabe Tucker to author, 1997.
pagelink “The specter of Tom”: Bob McCluskey in e-mail to author, 1999.
pagelink “all of us would run”: Gabe Tucker to author, 1997.
pagelink “Where do you think you’re going”: Tom Diskin to Roy Wiggins, quoted by Michael Streissguth, “I’d Trade All of My Tomorrows (for Just One Yesterday): The Ting-a-Ling and Tears of Little Roy Wiggins,” Journal of Country Music, vol. 21 (no. 2), 2000.
pagelink “Well, fuck the Coinnal!”: Bob Moore to author, 1998.
pagelink “I’ll kill that big, fat, sloppy mother”: Roy Wiggins quoted in Streissguth, “I’d Trade All of My Tomorrows.”
pagelink “It’s one of the things”: Roy Wiggins to author, 1998.
pagelink “Don’t you know about insurance?”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted in Streissguth, “I’d Trade All of My Tomorrows.”
pagelink “Don’t run that ‘snowplow’ at me”: Roy Wiggins to author, 1998.
pagelink “I want to talk to you”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted in Streissguth, “I’d Trade All of My Tomorrows.”
pagelink “Did you say, ‘Fuck the Coinnal?’ ”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Bob Moore to author, 1998.
pagelink “I had embarrassed him”: Roy Wiggins quoted in Streissguth, “I’d Trade All of My Tomorrows.”
pagelink “It was really for nothing”: Julian Aberbach to author, 1997.
pagelink “almost every release of any importance was a Hill and Range song”: Bob McCluskey in e-mail to author, 1999.
Hill and Range would come to represent a staggering number of classic songs, from “Frosty the Snowman” to “Arrivederci Roma.”
Steve Sholes was thirty-four years old in 1945, the year he assumed the head of RCA’s country and R&B divisions, which the company quietly referred to as “hillbilly and race,” without either prejudice or hopes for spectacular sales. The real power and prestige belonged to the pop division, and hardly anyone paid the folk, or “hillbilly,” category any mind. Sholes was born in Washington, D.C., grew up in Camden, New Jersey, where his father worked in the Victor Talking Machine Company plant. At Rutgers University, he wangled a part-time job with the record company, mostly as a messenger boy, and played saxophone and clarinet in regional dance bands. After graduation, Sholes went to work in the factory storeroom of RCA’s radio department, and drifted into a clerk’s job in the record department. Soon, Frank Walker, learning of Sholes’s musical background, had him producing jazz, pop, and ethnic acts, first out of New York, and later in Chicago and Atlanta, where country acts lined up to make “field recordings” in a rented hotel room.
To Sholes, country music was an essential and important part of cultural America. While privately he was not above doing dead-on imitations of Southern dialects (“Well, I guess I’ll go out and plow the back forty now”), the big fat fellow whose eyes squinted when he grinned formed an affinity for the country people. His mild-mannered and diplomatic demeanor quieted the mistrust of those Southerners who still regarded Yankees with disdain. Universally liked and viewed by many as a workaholic who neglected his own health for the sake of his artists (“He was one of the greatest men I ever knew,” says his protégé, Chet Atkins), Sholes saw himself merely as a hard worker who dedicated himself to turning around Victor’s struggling status in the early ’40s.
Sholes had signed Arnold to a new one-year contract at the end of 1945, just as Tom Parker took over Eddy’s management. Parker’s opposite in nearly every way, the quiet executive, two years younger, listened to Parker’s demands for his artist and put up with his rude bluster, but refused to be intimidated by any of it. Sholes had managed to negotiate his career without playing corporate politics—a move that earned him the respect of the men in his employ—and he wasn’t about to start kowtowing to a singer’s manager, even if he represented the division’s biggest star.
“I don’t think Steve could have been intimidated by Parker, because he understood him,” says Charles Grean, Sholes’s assistant from 1947 to 1952 who also doubled as an A&R man and studio bass player, building on his background as a copyist for the Glenn Miller Band. “We all knew what he was—a pusher and a blowhard. He made a lot of noise, but that was his way of doing the job. Half of the time we didn’t pay any attention to him.”
pagelink “If Eddy got the twenty grand”: Bob McCluskey in e-mail to author, 1999.
pagelink “which was more than justified”: Julian Aberbach to author, 1997.
pagelink “All Eddy takes care of”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Bill Kimbro to author, 1997.
pagelink “Which one of our planes”: Roy Wiggins to author, 1998.
pagelink “Tell the Colonel”: Roy Wiggins to author, 1998. Arnold denied to biographer Michael Streissguth that he was about to hit Parker, but in interviews with both Streissguth and the author, Wiggins was adamant about what he saw. “They were about to have fisticuffs, I think,” he told the author, “and Marie stepped up and said, ‘Don’t hit him.’ She kind of stopped it.”
pagelink “treated him like a flea-bitten alley dog”: Gabe Tucker to author, 1997.
pagelink “as he’d already gotten a reputation”: Bob McCluskey in e-mail to author, January 13, 1999.
pagelink “He got the money up front”: Bob McCluskey in e-mail to author, January 9, 1999.
pagelink “Plowboy”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Gabe Tucker to author, 1997.
pagelink “Colonel Tom got me out”: Marty Robbins to author, 1997.
CHAPTER 10: THE MAN IN THE SHADOWS
pagelink ‘Bob, this guy is incredible’: Oscar Davis to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
pagelink “It was really Oscar who found Elvis”: Charlie Lamb on tape made for author, 1998.
pagelink “We would see him”: D. J. Fontana to author, 1998.
pagelink “razzle, dazzle character”: Bob Neal to author, 1977.
pagelink “one of the big resort hotels in Nevada”: Bob Neal in letter to Ed McLemore, quoted in Guralnick and Jorgensen, Elvis Day by Day.
pagelink “I always felt that Elvis”: Bob Neal to author, 1977.
pagelink “Oscar lived high, wide, and handsome”: Richard H. Frank Sr. to Charlene Blevins for author, 1999.
pagelink “He was a deserter, plain and simple”: Oscar Davis Jr. to author, 1999.
pagelink “I became completely discouraged”: Oscar Davis to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
pagelink “I thought, hey”: Sam Phillips in the documentary Mr. Rock & Roll, 1999.
pagelink “We must have met”: Norman Racusin to author, 1997.
pagelink “Did I buy the wrong boy?”: Steve Sholes to Sam Phillips, quoted by Chet Atkins to author, 1981.
pagelink “Girls, I’ll see you all backstage”: Elvis quoted in Cotton, All Shook Up.
pagelink “He was on top”: Marty Robbins to author, 1977.
pagelink “Perhaps it is to lighten our burdens”: Look November 13, 1956.
pagelink “He really was tone deaf”: Joan Deary in the documentary Mr. Rock & Roll, 1999.
pagelink “My boy”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Tommy Sands to author, 1998.
pagelink “I thought I’d have to be Mr. Clean”: Tommy Sands to author, 1998.
pagelink “Since Elvis Presley is pretty securely tied up”: Stephen H. Sholes in letter to Tom Diskin, pictured in Guralnick and Jorgensen, Elvis Day by Day. The Definitive Record of His Life and Music (New York: Ballantine Books, 1999).
pagelink offered the “possibility that we could record Tommy”: Stephen H. Sholes in letter to Tom Diskin, pictured in Guralnick and Jorgensen, Elvis Day by Day.
pagelink “but my voice hadn’t changed”: Tommy Sands to author, 1998.
pagelink “He was just one of those pretty faces”: Chet Atkins to author, 1998.
pagelink “The fact that”: Gabe Tucker to author, 1997.
pagelink “priming me for whatever the next move was going to be”: Tommy Sands to author, 1998.
pagelink “That really made him”: Cliffie Stone to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
pagelink “the actor who is going to play me”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted in Edward Linn, “Colonel Tom Parker, Pitchman Extraordinary,” Saga, January 1958.
pagelink “a very special type of voice”: Harry Kalcheim in letter to Colonel Tom Parker, quoted in Guralnick and Jorgensen, Elvis Day by Day.
pagelink “exploited properly”: Colonel Tom Parker in letter to Harry Kalcheim, quoted in Guralnick and Jorgensen, Elvis Day by Day.
pagelink “interested in making a picture with this boy”: Colonel Tom Parker in letter to Harry Kalcheim, quoted in Guralnick and Jorgensen, Elvis Day by Day.
pagelink “if you ever follow one of my hunches”: Colonel Tom Parker in letter to Harry Kalcheim, quoted in Guralnick and Jorgensen, Elvis Day by Day.
pagelink “just tied up a youngster, Elvis Presley”: Harry Kalcheim in letter to Sam Fuller, quoted in Guernsey’s, Official Auction Catalogue.
pagelink “I don’t think this artist”: Colonel Tom Parker in letter to Harry Kalcheim, December 16, 1955, pictured in Guralnick and Jorgensen, Elvis Day by Day.
pagelink “You know as well as I do”: Colonel Tom Parker in letter to Harry Kalcheim, December 16, 1955, pictured in Guralnick and Jorgensen, Elvis Day by Day.
pagelink “final approval of all contracts”: Nat Lefkowitz of the William Morris Agency in memo to Colonel Tom Parker, January 31, 1956, pictured in Butterfield’s auction on eBay, December 19, 2000.
pagelink “idiot savant”: Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, quoted in Jorgensen, Elvis Presley.
pagelink “why buy a cow”: Elvis Presley quoted in Guralnick and Jorgensen, Elvis Day by Day.
pagelink Yet it was nothing for him: “He was, for all his talent and sensitivity, this goof who would sit and laugh like a retarded person.” Anonymous source, 1999.
pagelink “There was absolutely no access”: Bob Schulman to author, 1997.
pagelink “did they spell his name right?”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Gabe Tucker to author, 1997.
pagelink “If it’s a question”: Colonel Tom Parker to Red Robinson, From the Bottom of My Heart, vol. 2, Savanah Records, 1997.
pagelink “I don’t think the Colonel is going to like this”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Freddy Bienstock to author, 1997.
pagelink the cost of an Elvis Presley appearance: The money paid for television appearances escalated. In a 1997 letter to the author, Steve Allen recalled his dealings with the Colonel and how the Sullivan Show appearance came about: “I don’t recall ever having any problems with Colonel Parker myself. As you probably know, the generally agreed upon top price on television shows in the ’50s—regardless of the stature of the performer involved—was $7,500. That’s why it produced repercussions when Ed Sullivan, apparently out of the desperation caused by his realizing he’d made a serious mistake in publicly criticizing Elvis, not only changed his mind on that point—so much for principle—but actually called the Colonel backstage at our theater the night his client appeared and broke his own and the industry’s price-ceiling, which, for all I know, may have been actionable price-fixing.
“When the Colonel told us about the matter after our show was off the air, he said, ‘I’ve talked to Elvis about this and we want to be fair to you guys. After all, you hired Elvis when Sullivan wouldn’t, so if you want to keep us with you, we’ll be happy to go along with that decision.’ I’m only about 97 percent certain that he added something like, ‘Of course, we would have to agree to accept the fee from you that Sullivan is offering.’ I’m pretty sure that that fee was $10,000.
“When our producer, Bill Harbach, told me about what the Colonel had said, I thought the matter over for about thirty seconds and then decided not to accept it although the Colonel’s thought about the $10,000 price had nothing whatever to do with my decision. I said to Bill, ‘Tell the Colonel that I really do appreciate the way he’s handling this, but it’s okay with me if Elvis now accepts Sullivan’s offer.’
“The reason was that while Sullivan’s was a typical vaudeville variety show—and quite a good one—ours was something else altogether, a comedy show. I didn’t want to have to figure out ways to make Elvis funny for four or five more appearances. It may be argued that I made a mistake in not keeping Elvis as part of our guest-family because of his enormous ratings potential.”
pagelink “you put a lump in my throat”: Quoted in TV Guide, November 30, 1968.
pagelink “Elvis was still standing there”: Norman Racusin to author, 1997.
pagelink “Elvis is just one”: Carolyn Asmus in letter to Kay Wheeler, October 25, 1955, quoted in Harbinson and Wheeler, Growing Up with the Memphis Flash.
pagelink “a couple of times a day”: Bill Denny to author, 1998.
pagelink mostly by assembly line: “We had a sort of assembly line.” Bill Denny to author, 1998.
pagelink “this thing became a beautiful, successful nightmare”: Charlie Lamb to author, 1998.
pagelink “a real stroke of genius”: Sam Phillips in the documentary Mr. Rock & Roll, 1999.
pagelink “You don’t have to be”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Minnie Pearl to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
pagelink “As long as Elvis”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Byron Raphael to author, 1998.
pagelink “Dear Colonel, Words can never tell you”: Elvis Presley, telegram to Colonel Tom Parker, quoted in Guralnick and Jorgensen, Elvis Day by Day.
pagelink “When someone would ask”: Bill Denny to author, 1998.
pagelink “I don’t want to end up with cider in my ear”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Byron Raphael to author, 1998.
pagelink “Let’s say she wasn’t”: Anne Fulchino to author, 1998.
pagelink “She had a twelve-foot closet just for coats”: Sandra Polk Ross to author, 1997.
pagelink “She was the only person I knew”: Ann Dodelin to author, 1999.
pagelink She was happiest, some say: June Carter Cash to author, 1998.
pagelink “the Colonel’s stable base”: Hubert Long to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
pagelink “a goner, just a pile of shit mixed with alcohol and pills”: Connie B. Gay quoted in Joe Sasfy, Regardie’s, March 1987.
pagelink “It was the only time”: Connie B. Gay quoted in Joe Sasfy, Regardie’s.
pagelink “Later, Mother said”: Judy Gay Burkley to author, 1997.
pagelink “an old, fat, nice guy”: Judy Gay Burkley to author, 1997.
pagelink “One reason Tom always stayed with us”: Jan Gay to author, 1997.
pagelink “was getting a little belligerent”: Bitsy Mott to Dirk Vellenga, raw interview transcript, 1983.
pagelink “I didn’t want people comin’ knockin’ on the door, you know”: Colonel Tom Parker to author, 1994.
pagelink “$20,000 or $30,000 worth”: Colonel Tom Parker to author, 1994.
pagelink “a small truckload of Elvis memorabilia”: Monsignor George Rohling to author, 1997.
pagelink “I thought it was rather unusual”: Monsignor George Rohling to author, 1997.
pagelink “pictures of family members”: Monsignor George Rohling to author, 1997.
CHAPTER 11: “ELVIS MAKES PITCHAS”
pagelink “look at this fellow”: Harriet Ames quoted by Joseph Hazen to Peter Whitmer, raw interview transcript, February 18, 1994.
pagelink “We chatted”: Joseph Hazen to Peter Whitmer, raw interview transcript, February 18, 1994.
pagelink “There was something about his eyes”: HWC/MPAS.
pagelink “I knew instinctively”: Wallis with Higham, Starmaker.
pagelink “nothing would stop me”: Wallis with Higham, Starmaker.
pagelink “we were agog”: Chick Crumpacker in letter to author, February 16, 1998.
pagelink “It was the talk of the place”: Crumpacker to author, 1998.
pagelink “meteoric rise is unquestionably a freak situation”: Joe Hazen to Hal Wallis, June 11, 1956, HWC/MPAS.
pagelink “but his dramatic abilities and talents”: Joe Hazen in letter to Colonel Tom Parker, quoted in Guernsey’s, Official Auction Catalogue.
pagelink “My ambition has always been”: Elvis Presley to Hal Wallis, HWC/MPAS.
pagelink “The idea of tailoring”: Hal Wallis in the documentary Elvis: The Echo Will Never Die, 1986.
pagelink “No check is good”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted in Time, May 16, 1960.
pagelink “full shadow of a real blue beard”: “You could see the full shadow of a real blue beard, one that she would have to shave twice a day.” Bob McCluskey in e-mail to author, 1999.
pagelink Parker, who had demanded early: Abe Lastfogel in letter to Hal Wallis, May 3, 1956, HWC/MPAS. “Dear Hal: Am quoting an excerpt of a memorandum from Ann Rosenthal re ELVIS PRESLEY: ‘In talking to Joe Hazen you might also tell him that if he or Hal Wallis have anything to discuss with respect to Presley they should not contact him direct but channel all of these matters through Colonel Parker or through us. The Colonel is most sensitive about this.’ ”
pagelink “Parker has a peeve about neglect”: Joe Hazen in interoffice memo to Hal Wallis, October 2, 1956, HWC/MPAS.
pagelink “I wouldn’t be a hundred feet”: Joe Hazen to Peter Whitmer, raw interview transcript, February 18, 1994.
pagelink “very confidentially—and as man to man”: Joe Hazen in interoffice memo to Hal Wallis, October 26, 1956, HWC/MPAS.
pagelink “crap”: Joe Hazen in interoffice memo to Hal Wallis, September 6, 1957, HWC/MPAS.
pagelink “methods that have been very helpful”: Colonel Tom Parker in letter to Buddy Adler, September 25, 1956, TCFC/USC.
pagelink “I was in his office when the call came”: Freddy Bienstock to author, 1997.
pagelink “maybe he needs a new manager”: Colonel Tom Parker to Buddy Adler, quoted in John Semien, “Graceland Magazine Honors Parker,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, June 23, 1994.
pagelink “Better take this, Tom”: Abe Lastfogel quoted in Linn, “Pitchman Extraordinary.”
pagelink “Go back to ’em”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Byron Raphael to author, 1998.
pagelink “in getting the most”: Leonard Hirshan to author, 1998.
pagelink “If anybody laughs”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Byron Raphael to author, 1998.
pagelink “a familiar face will help keep this fellow settled down”: David Weisbart in memo to Harry Brand, August 22, 1956, DWC/USC.
pagelink “He’s been so cooperative with us”: David Weisbart in memo to Buddy Adler, September 24, 1956, DWC/USC.
pagelink “because I was developing too much of a relationship with Elvis”: Leonard Hirshan to author, 1999.
pagelink “You can’t trust people in this town”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Byron Raphael to author, 1998.
pagelink “possessed him”: Joseph Hazen to Peter Whitmer, raw interview transcript, February 18, 1994.
pagelink “I want to be the kind of actor”: Elvis Presley in the documentary Elvis in Hollywood, 1993.
pagelink “I’d sooner cut my throat”: Elvis Presley quoted in Lloyd Shearer, Parade, September 30, 1956.
pagelink “it’s pretty easy”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Byron Raphael to author, 1998.
pagelink Presley, who as a small child: “Seems we was always in debt. Can’t hardly remember when we wasn’t. We used to sit on the doorstep talkin’ about our debts. After a while Elvis’d look up, he was just a little fella, an’ he’d say, ‘Don’t worry none. One of these days things will change.’ Well, Elvis changed ’em.” Gladys Presley quoted in Lloyd Shearer, Parade, September 30, 1956.
pagelink “For the first twelve years”: Freddy Bienstock to author, 1997.
pagelink “a very rough way”: David Weisbart in memo to Harry Brand, August 22, 1956, DWC/USC.
pagelink “a beginner who had”: Mildred Dunnock to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
pagelink “He has magnetism”: Trude Forsher to author, 1997.
pagelink “Spread the news”: TCFC/USC.
pagelink “as to how much money”: Joe Hazen in interoffice memo to Hal Wallis, October 26, 1957, HWC/MPAS.
pagelink “divided among them according to their own desires”: Joe Hazen in interoffice memo to Hal Wallis, January 17, 1957, HWC/MPAS.
pagelink “could not or would not keep any of it personally”: Abe Lastfogel, quoted in Joe Hazen in interoffice memo to Hal Wallis, December 3, 1956, HWC/MPAS.
pagelink “your paying Elvis Presley and Colonel Parker the additional $50,000”: Abe Lastfogel in letter to Joe Hazen and Hal Wallis, February 7, 1957, HWC/MPAS.
pagelink “for the cooperation of Colonel Tom Parker”: Contract quoted in Guernsey’s Official Auction Catalogue.
pagelink “You want to tell me”: Colonel Tom Parker to Oscar Davis, quoted in Rosita, 1960.
pagelink “the only Jewish fella in Madison”: Colonel Tom Parker to Ralph Emery, raw interview transcript, April 7, 1993.
CHAPTER 12: DIRECTIONAL SNOWING
pagelink “a lot of people hated him”: Hal Kanter to Barbara Hall, MPAS/OHP, July 5, 1994.
pagelink “a nasty little boy”: Hal Kanter to Barbara Hall, MPAS/OHP, July 5, 1994.
pagelink “orchid-pretty”: Kanter, So Far, So Funny.
pagelink “There were some things”: Hal Kanter to Barbara Hall, MPAS/OHP, July 5, 1994.
pagelink “I thought the colorful Colonel”: Kanter, So Far, So Funny.
pagelink “Trude, if you come with me now”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Trude Forsher to author, 1997.
pagelink “Speak German for me, Trude”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Trude Forsher to author, 1997.
pagelink “this bombastic, driving, one-man minstrel show”: A. C. Lyles to author, 1997.
pagelink “My induction was given to me over dinner”: Charlie Boyd to author, 1997.
pagelink “how much, not who, where, when, or why”: Hal Kanter to Barbara Hall, MPAS/OHP, July 5, 1994.
pagelink “I would never know”: Hal Kanter to Barbara Hall, MPAS/OHP, July 5, 1994.
pagelink “was happier fleecing the world”: Kanter, So Far, So Funny.
pagelink “pink face turned magenta”: Kanter, So Far, So Funny.
pagelink “Now I see why you have the police there”: Hal Kanter to Barbara Hall, MPAS/OHP, July 5, 1994, and Kanter, So Far, So Funny.
pagelink “eight doors removed from the donniker”: Colonel Parker in letter to Hal Wallis and Joseph Hazen, May 5, 1959, HWC/MPAS.
pagelink “I consider it my patriotic duty”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted in Jerry Hopkins, unpublished magazine article, JHC/UM.
pagelink “I love to pay taxes”: Colonel Tom Parker to Boots Randolph, quoted in Peter Cronin, Scott Isler, and Mark Rowland, “An Oral Biography: Elvis Presley,” Musician, October 1992.
pagelink “just scared him to death”: Bitsy Mott to Dirk Vellenga, raw interview transcript, 1983.
pagelink “What he told me”: Anne Fulchino to author, 1998.
pagelink “He was an angel”: Sam Esgro to author, 1998.
pagelink “my people listen to me”: Gabe Tucker to author, 1997.
pagelink “I’ll know about it”: Linn, “Pitchman Extraordinary.”
pagelink “I know the inside of the Colonel”: Trude Forsher to author, 1997.
pagelink “just scares me”: Guralnick and Jorgensen, Elvis Day by Day.
pagelink “I am the most miserable”: Elvis Presley quoted by James Hamill to author, 1977.
pagelink “After the break”: Freddy Bienstock to author, 1997.
pagelink “Oh my God, Cole Porter”: Jean Aberbach quoted by Byron Raphael to author, 1997.
pagelink “pushed a chair in front of the door”: Mike Stoller to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
pagelink “I called [the Colonel] and said”: Jerry Leiber to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
pagelink “a necessary evil”: Gordon Stoker to author, 1998.
pagelink “The Colonel had a grip”: D. J. Fontana quoted in Cronin, Isler, and Rowland, “An Oral Biography.”
pagelink “He just wants to use your name”: The Jordanaires to Chris Clark, WTVF-TV, Nashville, May 2000.
pagelink One day, the Colonel found: The Mike Stoller anecdote comes from his quotes in Cronin, Isler, and Rowland, “An Oral Biography.”
pagelink “was trapped by his dependency”: Jerry Leiber quoted in Cronin, Isler, and Rowland, “An Oral Biography.”
pagelink “Elvis, Trude’s here”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Byron Raphael to author, 1998.
pagelink “It’s better to be feared than liked”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Byron Raphael to author, 1998.
pagelink Don’t Push Me Too Far, or Trouble Is My Name: Colonel Parker letter to Pandro Berman, March 23, 1957, quoted in Guernsey’s Official Auction Catalogue.
pagelink “deathly afraid to be alone”: Mardy Baum to author, 1997.
pagelink “Don’t you know”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Byron Raphael to author, 1998.
pagelink “Like he was going to call roll”: Gordon Stoker to author, 1998.
pagelink “If we would go out for a meal”: Byron Raphael to author, 1998. Parker’s obsessive-compulsive traits, including excessive neatness, fear of germs, preoccupation with feces, and repeated washing, were likely the result of abnormally low serotonin levels in the brain. Studies show that low serotonin activity also increases aggressive behavior. Violent criminal offenders—particularly those who act impulsively in predatory attacks such as the one on Anna van den Enden—are often found to suffer from this condition. As children, in keeping with the antics of the young Dries van Kuijk, who also bit his teacher on the ankle, these subjects are usually disruptive in school; as young adults, they can show particularly aggressive and/or violent behavior while intoxicated. Parker is on record for having reported impaired impulse control while drinking in his own young adult life, and gave it as his reason for avoiding alcohol. The level of serotonin in the brain is also affected by the consumption of carbohydrates—typical of the starchy food Parker loved.
pagelink “They paid the sheriff”: Frank Bogert to author, 2001.
pagelink “I kept hearing stories”: Eddy Arnold quoted in Streissguth, Eddy Arnold.
pagelink “The times when I was there”: Gabe Tucker to author, 1997.
pagelink The Sahara was built: Denton and Morris, The Money and the Power.
pagelink “Bitsy, I trust you more than anyone else”: Bitsy Mott to Dirk Vellenga, raw interview transcript, 1983.
pagelink “mental telepathy and perpetual perception motors”: Colonel Tom Parker in letter to Hal Wallis, June 19, 1963, HWC/MPAS.
pagelink “There’s no war going on”: George Klein in the documentary Elvis in Hollywood, 1993.
pagelink “What’s going to happen to me?”: Freddy Bienstock to author, 1997.
pagelink “Is it in the [Production] Code?”: Hal Wallis in memo to Paul Nathan, January 7, 1958, HWC/MPAS.
pagelink “That crooked son of a bitch”: Anonymous source, 1998.
pagelink “a ton of balloons”: Lenny Hirshan to author, 1998.
pagelink “For the first time, I know what a director is”: Elvis Presley quoted by Jan Shepherd in the documentary Elvis in Hollywood, 1993.
pagelink “Just like in his music”: Michael Curtiz quoted in Guernsey’s Official Auction Catalogue.
pagelink “Colonel Parker,” a reporter scribbled: Life, February 10, 1995.
pagelink “Good-bye, you long, black son of a bitch”: Elvis Presley quoted in Life, February 10, 1995.
pagelink “My father knew all the doctors in town”: Janice Fadal quoted in Michael Hall, “Viva Fort Hood,” Texas Monthly, December 2000.
pagelink “that elevator opened”: Lamar Fike to author, 1995.
pagelink “When the funeral director”: Freddy Bienstock to author, 1997.
pagelink “I suppose I was never”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted in Hutchins and Thompson, Elvis & Lennon.
pagelink “shit . . . they were awful people”: “The Colonel said to me at one time, ‘The problem with Elvis was his family was shit. They were awful people.’ ” Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Todd Slaughter to author, 2002.
pagelink “Don’t you call me a square!”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Chick Crumpacker in letter to author, 1998.
pagelink “I want to apologize, I was wrong”: Conversation recounted by Anne Fulchino to author, 1998.
pagelink “I miss my singing career very much”: Elvas Presley quoted in Peter Guralnick, Last Train to Memphis.
pagelink “That may be big in Nashville”: Anne Fulchino to author, 1998.
pagelink “pushed his stubby little fist in Elvis’s back”: Al Wertheimer to author, 1998.
pagelink “I barely saw him”: Colonel Tom Parker to Larry Hutchinson, chief investigator to the district attorney general, Memphis, 1980.
pagelink “When we got ready to leave”: Dale Robertson to author, 1999.
pagelink going to dinner at the Luau: Byron Raphael to author, 1997.
CHAPTER 13: FRIENDLY PERSUASION: MOGULS, MILITARY MEN, AND MOBSTERS
pagelink “to keep your name hot over here”: Colonel Tom Parker in undated letter to Elvis Presley quoted in Guralnick and Jorgensen, Elvis Day by Day.
pagelink $3 million from souvenirs alone: Hedda Hopper, Motion Picture, May 1961.
pagelink “There was not much I could do”: Colonel Tom Parker in letter to Vernon and Elvis Presley, November 18, 1958, pictured in Guralnick and Jorgensen, Elvis Day by Day.
pagelink “This sure is a long tour”: Elvis Presley in undated letter to Colonel Tom Parker, quoted by Sean O’Neal, raw interview transcript from the documentary Looking for Colonel Parker, 1999.
pagelink tipping a Las Vegas bellboy with sandwiches: “We thought that using our sandwiches for a tip to the bellboy in Las Vegas was pretty good.” Joe Hazen in letter to Colonel Tom Parker, February 16, 1959, HWC/MPAS.
pagelink “to give Mr. Presley some additional income”: Joe Hazen in undated letter to the William Morris Agency, HWC/MPAS.
pagelink “I am sure,”: Colonel Tom Parker in letter to Hal Wallis and Joe Hazen, April 28, 1959, HWC/MPAS.
pagelink “You’ve just got to get the big picture, Colonel”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Byron Raphael to author, 1998.
pagelink “This again shows you”: Colonel Tom Parker in letter to Hal Wallis, February 19, 1964, HWC/MPAS.
pagelink “from Elvis and myself”: Colonel Tom Parker in telegram to Hal Wallis, June 21, 1959, HWC/MPAS.
pagelink “your two orphans, Marie and the Colonel”: Colonel Tom Parker in telegram to Hal Wallis, June 15, 1968, HWC/MPAS.
pagelink “It is nice”: Hal Wallis in letter to Colonel Tom Parker, June 17, 1968, HWC/MPAS.
pagelink “good voice for that type of singing”: Colonel Tom Parker in letter to Hal Wallis, December 13, 1958, HWC/MPAS.
pagelink “a gang of promoters”: Movie-plot ideas, Colonel Tom Parker in letter to Hal Wallis, December 18, 1958, HWC/MPAS.
pagelink “a gypsy boy”: Dick Sokolove in interoffice memo to Hal Wallis, June 5, 1961, HWC/MPAS.
pagelink “flooding the market”: Colonel Tom Parker to Steve Sholes, quoted in Guralnick and Jorgensen, Elvis Day by Day.
pagelink “I’ve got money stashed in places all over the world”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Byron Raphael to author, 1998. According to two other people close to the Colonel, he occasionally traveled out of the country with a fake passport. This has not been documented.
pagelink “some important papers”: Judy Gay Burkley to author, 1997.
pagelink “People thought it was strange,”: Freddy Bienstock to author, 1997
pagelink “I hope our paths cross again”: Lyndon Baines Johnson in letter to Colonel Tom Parker, December 29, 1959, Senate Masters Collection, Lyndon Baines Johnson Library.
pagelink “certainly counting on you”: Lyndon Baines Johnson in letter to Colonel Tom Parker, January 13, 1960, Senate Masters Collection, Lyndon Baines Johnson Library.
pagelink “My special meeting in Washington”: Colonel Tom Parker in letter to Joe Hazen, September 30, 1959, HWC/MPAS.
pagelink “feels they would do the same”: Paul Nathan in interoffice memo to Hal Wallis, July 21, 1959, HWC/MPAS.
pagelink Often, Parker said: “Then Elvis went to the army for two years and I spent my money keeping Elvis’s name alive for the two years until he came out.” Colonel Tom Parker to Ralph Emery, phone conversation quoted in raw interview transcript, April 1993.
pagelink “just another G.I. Joe”: Estes Kefauver, “Tribute to Elvis Presley,” Congressional Record, Friday, March 4, 1960, no. 40, pp. 4151–4152.
pagelink “You don’t think”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Steve Sholes to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
pagelink “the Colonel went through”: Account of Kotlowitz’s time with the Colonel, Robert Kotlowitz to author, 1999.
pagelink to call an army recruiting officer”: Norman Racusin to author, 1997.
pagelink “like a happy young colt”: David Halberstam, Tennessean, March 7, 1960.
pagelink “One of the dogs may sue us”: Colonel Tom Parker in letter to Hal Wallis, February 23, 1959, HWC/MPAS.
pagelink “He would lose fortunes”: Freddy Bienstock to author, 1997.
pagelink “I think the reason for his gambling”: Julian Aberbach to author, 1997.
pagelink “controlled by more mobs than any other casino in Nevada”: Reid and Demaris, The Green Felt Jungle.
pagelink known as Mr. Entertainment: Information on Jack Entratter comes from - Berman, Lady Las Vegas; The Agency; and the author’s interviews with Byron Raphael and with Art Nadler of the Las Vegas Sun.
pagelink for Elvis to be photographed with Prell: The information about Parker’s relationship with Milton Prell comes from Goldman, Elvis, and from sources who wish to remain anonymous.
pagelink “The Colonel demanded everything”: Anonymous source, 1998.
pagelink “He got just wild”: Lamar Fike to author, 1994.
pagelink “We feel sure”: Colonel Tom Parker in letter to Hal Wallis, June 30, 1960, HWC/MPAS.
pagelink “His be-rhinestoned cuff links”: Billboard, April 25, 1960.
pagelink With a change of studios: Twentieth Century–Fox believed that selling Elvis as a dramatic actor as well as a singer could attract an ever wider audience than before. Charles Einfeld letter to David Weisbart, November 7, 1960, DWC/USC.
pagelink “I have sweated over the script”: David Weisbart in letter to Buddy Adler, June 6, 1960, DWC/USC.
pagelink “We want all the best”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted by David Weisbart to Ted Cain, August 10, 1960, DWC/USC.
pagelink “I would not know”: Colonel Tom Parker in letter to David Weisbart, July 12, 1960, DWC/USC.
pagelink “I think Parker”: Charles Einfeld in letter to David Weisbart, November 10, 1960, DWC/USC.
pagelink “Elvis Acts!”: Don Siegel in letter to Harry Brand, October 12, 1960, DWC/USC.
pagelink “an excellent dramatic actor, a natural actor”: Philip Dunne, MPAS/OHP.
pagelink “the gifted individual”: From story conference with Joseph Stefano and Jerry Wald, April 29, 1958, JWC/USC.
pagelink “I have never advised”: Colonel Tom Parker in night letter to Jerry Wald, November, 1960, JWC/USC
pagelink “Svengali who has hypnotized”: Twentieth Century–Fox, unpublished press release for Wild in the Country, 1960, JHC/UM.
pagelink “When we previewed”: Philip Dunne, MPAS/OHP.
pagelink “Negro cotton field harmony”: Memphis Commercial Appeal quoted in Guralnick and Jorgenson, Elvis Day by Day.
pagelink “He started snowing them”: Ron Jacobs to Jerry Hopkins, quoted in Hopkins, unpublished magazine article, JHC/UM.
pagelink “one of the admirals”: Tom Moffatt to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
pagelink “every penny . . . must go to the fund!”: Music Reporter, February 20, 1961.
pagelink “how encapsulated Elvis was in his fame”: Minnie Pearl to author, 1981.
pagelink “It is very important”: Hal Wallis in letter to Colonel Tom Parker, January 30, 1961, HWC/MPAS.
pagelink “A Presley picture”: Hal Wallis in the documentary Elvis in Hollywood.
pagelink “He really can’t”: Joe Pasternak quoted by Byron Raphael to author, 1998.
pagelink “That’s fine”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Jerry Weintraub at Colonel Tom Parker’s Memorial Service, Las Vegas, January 25, 1997.
pagelink “They’ll never win”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Jean Bosquet in Guralnick and Jorgensen, Elvis Day by Day.
CHAPTER 14: “MISTAKES SOME-ONE MAY HAVE MADE”
pagelink “It seemed like a fairy tale”: Adam van Kuijk quoted in Rosita, see below.
pagelink “Master Ad van Kuyk Jr.”: A copy of the letter from “Andre” to Master Ad Van Kuyk Jr. was obtained from Mr. Van Kuyk. The original remains in his possession. The quotes from Ad Sr. are from articles in Rosita, July 1, 8, and 15, 1961. All quotes from Ad Jr. are from the author’s interview, and from letters to the author dated May 4, 1998, and February 21, 1999. I also relied on Dineke Dekkers, “Tom Parker . . . American or Dutchman?” It’s Elvis Time, April 1967.
pagelink “If Elvis had known”: Lamar Fike to author, 2001.
CHAPTER 15: TROUBLE IN THE KINGDOM: THE COLONEL TIGHTENS HIS GRIP
pagelink “going over there to meet Elvis”: Presley and Harman, Elvis and Me.
pagelink “I said, ‘God Almighty’ ”: Lamar Fike to author, 1994.
pagelink “Not any special one”: Elvis Presley, press conference, Memphis, March 7, 1960.
pagelink “he didn’t give them a time”: Priscilla Presley quoted in Finstad, Child Bride.
pagelink “We had to keep everything”: Anita Wood quoted in Finstad, Child Bride.
pagelink “I may not type good”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Al Wertheimer to author, 1998.
pagelink “always remain friendly with the Colonel”: Constant Meijers to author, 1998.
pagelink “RCA has nothing to say”: Jerry Hopkins, unpublished magazine article, JHC/UM.
pagelink “just explode out into the hall”: Joan Deary in the documentary Mr. Rock & Roll, 1999.
pagelink “None of us liked it”: Joan Deary to Constant Meijers, raw interview transcript from the documentary Looking for Colonel Parker, 1999.
pagelink “That kid was not only unhappy”: Anne Fulchino to author, 1998.
pagelink “If they’re smart enough”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Byron Raphael to author, 1998.
pagelink After her husband went to prison: The author is grateful to Virginia Overholt, whose letter provided the central thesis of this argument.
pagelink “If someone else”: Colonel Tom Parker to MGM, April 15, 1964, quoted in Guralnick and Jorgensen, Elvis Day by Day.
pagelink “He was singing one song”: LouCeil Austin to author, 1998.
pagelink “If you didn’t know”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted Sam Katzman to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
pagelink “Look, you can’t”: Joe Pasternak to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
pagelink “Sam Katzman said”: Yvonne Craig to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
pagelink “That doesn’t mean”: Interview with Hal Wallis in Las Vegas Desert News and Telegram, April 1964.
pagelink “I didn’t mean that, guys”: Elvis Presley quoted by Bob Moore to author, 1998.
pagelink “Once we started on the MGM contract”: Freddy Bienstock to author, 1997.
pagelink “By dumb luck”: Michael Streissguth to author, 1999.
pagelink “a great, great man”: Bob Moore quoted in Cronin, Isler, and Rowland, “An Oral Biography.”
pagelink “a pretty nice old codger, really”: Buddy Harman to author, 1997.
pagelink “Boy,” the Colonel said: Colonel Tom Parker to Hal Wallis quoted by Bob Moore to author, 1998.
pagelink “soft, fat, and jowly around the face”: Hal Wallis in letter to Colonel Tom Parker, December 10, 1963, HWC/MPAS.
pagelink “He’s just been eating what he always eats”: Marty Lacker to author, 1994.
pagelink “He had this big orchestra in there”: Marty Lacker to author, 1994.
pagelink “Colonel just damned near”: Gabe Tucker to author, 1997.
pagelink “You do your thing”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Gordon Stoker to Chris Clark, WTVF-TV, Nashville, May 2000.
pagelink “I thought it was kind of rank”: John Hartmann to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
pagelink “We didn’t hurt ourselves workin’ ”: Gabe Tucker to author, 1997.
pagelink “The Colonel thinks you ought to invite us to supper”: Gabe Tucker to author, 1997.
pagelink thanking him for swiping it: “Thanks for the little dish you swiped from the Elephant Club.” Colonel Tom Parker in letter to Hal Wallis, June 4, 1963, HWC/MPAS.
pagelink “I could tell you”: Hal Wallis in letter to Colonel Tom Parker, June 10, 1963, HWC/MPAS.
pagelink “Of course, we want”: Hal Wallis in letter to Colonel Tom Parker, August 19, 1963, HWC/MPAS.
pagelink “You have a certain magic wand”: Colonel Tom Parker in letter to Hal Wallis, June 17, 1963, HWC/MPAS.
pagelink “When I was doing Roustabout”: Allan Weiss to author, 2001.
pagelink “I was at the house one day”: Lamar Fike to author, 1994.
pagelink “What you’re talking about”: Elvis Presley quoted by Larry Geller to author, 1998. All quotes from Larry Geller come from the author’s extensive interviews and e-mails with Mr. Geller, 1998–2002.
pagelink he’d brokered deals that had earned Presley $35 million: People, February 3, 1997.
pagelink “My husband is deathly ill”: Marie Parker to Henry Jenkins as recounted by Gabe Tucker to author, 1997.
pagelink “Gabe, Colonel is bad sick”: Henry Jenkins quoted by Gabe Tucker to author, 1997.
pagelink “Goddamn, Colonel, you scared”: Conversation between Colonel Tom Parker and Gabe Tucker quoted by Gabe Tucker to author, 1997.
pagelink “Elvis’s last good picture”: Joe Hazen in letter to Hal Wallis, October 23, 1965, HWC/MPAS.
pagelink “is dying all over the country”: Charles Boasberg in letter to Hal Wallis, May 11, 1966, HWC/MPAS.
pagelink “I think the Colonel”: Hal Wallis in interoffice memo to Joe Hazen, September 13, 1965, HWC/MPAS.
pagelink “the height of duplicity”: Joe Hazen in letter to Hal Wallis, October 23, 1965, HWC/MPAS.
pagelink “Elvis came up to me”: Marty Lacker to author, 1994.
pagelink wielding a machete: The machete photograph appears in the 1966 Annual Report for Colonel Hal Wallis, Picture Producer, HWC/MPAS.
pagelink “a fifty-fifth cousin to P. T. Barnum”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted in Guralnick and Jorgensen, Elvis Day by Day.
pagelink “Heck yes, I would retire”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted in James Kingsley, Memphis Commercial Appeal, February 6, 1966.
pagelink “an insult to Elvis and fans”: Janet White, president of the Hampshire, England, fan club, in letter to Hal Wallis, 1966, HWC/MPAS.
pagelink “when his career is beginning to falter”: “Concerned Fan” in letter to Hal Wallis, July 5, 1966, HWC/MPAS.
pagelink “I realize that there is”: Marjorie Reep in letter to Hal Wallis, 1964, HWC/MPAS.
pagelink “radically wrong”: Hal Wallis in letter to Colonel Tom Parker, September 6, 1966, HWC/MPAS.
pagelink “I did not know who”: Norman Racusin to author, 1997.
pagelink “During the making of [the film]”: Twentieth Century–Fox, unpublished press release for Wild in the Country, 1960, JHC/UM.
pagelink “My daddy doesn’t do anything”: Elvis Presley quoted by Bones Howe in Cronin, Isler, and Rowland, “An Oral Biography.”
pagelink “I walked in the door”: Elvis Presley quoted by Marty Lacker to author, 1994.
pagelink “When I fall deeply in love it will happen”: Elvis Presley quoted by Hedda Hopper, Motion Picture, May 1961.
pagelink “He ate out of depression”: Jerry Schilling to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
pagelink “The Colonel took us out in the hall”: Marty Lacker to author, 1994.
pagelink “The Colonel went back in”: Marty Lacker to author, 1994.
pagelink “She was absolutely petrified”: Judge David Zenoff, Life, February 10, 1995.
pagelink “It was the Colonel”: Priscilla Presley quoted in Finstad, Child Bride.
pagelink “had a penchant for the tables”: Norman Racusin to author, 1997.
pagelink “I’m sure there was an awful lot going on”: Dick Contino to author, 1998
pagelink “I know that both of you”: Colonel Tom Parker in letter to Hal Wallis and Joe Hazen, May 5, 1959, HWC/MPAS.
pagelink “could very well lose”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Hal Wallis in letter to Joe Hazen, September 27, 1965, HWC/MPAS.
pagelink “Charro! is the first movie”: Elvis Presley quoted in Susan Doll, The Films of Elvis Presley.
pagelink “which have been in”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted in Guralnick and Jorgensen, Elvis Day by Day.
pagelink “Would TV serve to refurbish”: TV Guide, November 30, 1968.
pagelink “I wanted Elvis to let the world in”: Steve Binder to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
pagelink “show to depart completely from the pattern”: Bob Finkelin in memo, quoted in Guralnick and Jorgensen, Elvis Day by Day.
pagelink “This is what I want my boy to do”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Steve Binder to Peter Whitmer, raw interview transcript, 1993.
pagelink the genius of the Colonel: “To me, the genius of the Colonel is that he had grown men terrorized all around him.” Steve Binder to Peter Whitmer, raw interview transcript, 1993.
pagelink “There was no blood and guts of this man left”: Steve Binder to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
pagelink “You certainly knew”: Steve Binder to Peter Whitmer, raw interview transcript, 1993.
pagelink “without any weak points”: Steve Binder to author, 2001.
pagelink “We hit it off pretty well”: Steve Binder to Constant Meijers, raw interview transcript from the documentary Looking for Colonel Parker, 1999.
pagelink Steve Allen had made him look silly: In a 1997 letter to the author, Allen made it clear he did not mean to humiliate Presley, and in fact, while Allen received much criticism for the stunt through the years, he believed it enhanced Presley’s performance. “I had personally come up with the two ideas that made Elvis look so good that night,” he wrote, “the singing ‘Hound Dog’ to an actual dog, and the Range Roundup sketch with Andy Griffith and Imogene Coca.”
pagelink “You make a record”: Steve Binder to author, 2001.
pagelink “he was not in the business as far as I was concerned”: Steve Binder to Peter Whitmer, raw interview transcript, 1993.
pagelink “it was my job”: Steve Binder to Peter Whitmer, raw interview transcript, 1993.
pagelink Howe thought, “Elvis probably felt”: Bones Howe quoted in Cronin, Isler, and Rowland, “An Oral Biography.”
pagelink “once he had the stranglehold”: Steve Binder to author, 2001.
pagelink “He laughed at that”: Steve Binder to Constant Meijers, raw interview transcript from the documentary Looking for Colonel Parker, 1999.
pagelink “He told me he had been burning up”: Steve Binder to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
pagelink “I felt very, very strongly”: Steve Binder to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
pagelink “He looked amazing”: Steve Binder to author, 2001.
pagelink “I wanted him to be not that agreeable”: Steve Binder to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
pagelink “quite well read”: Steve Binder to Peter Whitmer, raw interview transcript, 1993.
pagelink “Elvis was scared to death of the Colonel’s power”: Steve Binder to author, 2001.
pagelink “He felt shamed”: Steve Binder to Peter Whitmer, raw interview transcript, 1993.
pagelink “I think what pissed him off”: Steve Binder to Peter Whitmer, raw interview transcript, 1993.
pagelink “Whenever Parker basically told me”: Steve Binder to Constant Meijers, raw interview transcript from the documentary Looking for Colonel Parker, 1999.
pagelink Binder said maybe Interpol: “Because Interpol was looking for him and he - didn’t want to leave the United States for fear of being arrested.” Steve Binder to Peter Whitmer, raw interview transcript, 1993.
pagelink “You can’t fire me”: Bill Strange quoted by Steve Binder to author, 2001.
pagelink “There was a day of tremendous pressures and tension”: Steve Binder to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
pagelink “I’m a Jewish kid from New York”: Billy Goldenberg quoted by Steve Binder to author, 2001.
pagelink “When Elvis heard the first note”: This paragraph is a combination of quotes from Steve Binder to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM, and Peter Whitmer, raw interview transcript, 1993.
pagelink an overgrown sweetheart who reminded Binder: Steve Binder to author, 1998.
pagelink “Music was [Elvis’s] most interesting side”: Bones Howe, quoted in Cronin, Isler, and Rowland, “An Oral Biography.”
pagelink “I wanted to capture”: Steve Binder to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
pagelink “I’m not sure it’s . . . a good idea”: Elvis Presley quoted in Jorgensen, Elvis Presley.
pagelink “but who was really above all that”: Guralnick and Jorgensen, Elvis Day by Day.
pagelink “That’s a hit song”: Bones Howe to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
pagelink “That was all he was interested in”: Steve Binder to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
pagelink “In my last meeting with the Colonel”: Steve Binder to Peter Whitmer, raw interview transcript, 1993.
pagelink “They said, ‘The Colonel’s telling us’ ”: Steve Binder to author, 2001.
pagelink “The Colonel just sat there staring at me”: Steve Binder to Peter Whitmer, raw interview transcript, 1993.
pagelink “The string players”: Bones Howe quoted in booklet accompanying Elvis: From Nashville to Memphis: The Essential ’60s Masters (RCA Records, 1994).
pagelink “On the outside”: Steve Binder to Constant Meijers, raw interview transcript from the documentary Looking for Colonel Parker, 1999.
pagelink “The only way he could set it up”: Lamar Fike to Constant Meijers, raw interview transcript from the documentary Looking for Colonel Parker, 1999.
pagelink “old hat in this day of the post-Beatle”: Material on NBC press conference from TV Guide, November 30, 1968.
pagelink “I have no proof to back it up”: Steve Binder to Peter Whitmer, raw interview transcript, 1993, supplemented with quotes from Binder to author, 2001.
pagelink “Every time I walked by”: Billy Goldenberg to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
pagelink “You want the blond bouffant hairdo”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Steve Binder to Peter Whitmer, raw interview transcript, 1993.
pagelink “Do you think my hair’s too black?”: Elvis Presley quoted by Steve Binder to author, 2001.
pagelink “he sat in that makeup chair”: Bones Howe to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
pagelink forced him to make the effort: “Forced him to go out there as a favor to me.” Steve Binder to author, 2001.
pagelink “nobody had thought that he’d be so soaking wet”: Bones Howe quoted in Cronin, Isler, and Rowland, “An Oral Biography.”
pagelink “when I really believed”: Steve Binder to author, 2001.
pagelink “There is something magical”: Jon Landau, Eye, date unknown.
pagelink “Diskin started a whole tirade”: Bones Howe to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
pagelink “You guys are going to have a million-dollar experience”: Guralnick and Jorgensen, Elvis Day by Day.
pagelink “He watched it three more times”: Steve Binder to Constant Meijers, raw interview transcript from the documentary Looking for Colonel Parker, 1999.
pagelink “I hear you, Elvis”: Steve Binder to author, 2001.
pagelink “sense of loyalty was confused”: Steve Binder to Peter Whitmer, raw interview transcript, 1993.
pagelink “the look on Elvis’s face”: Steve Binder to Peter Whitmer, raw interview transcript, 1993.
pagelink “they were always intercepted”: Steve Binder to Peter Whitmer, raw interview transcript, 1993.
pagelink “There’s no limit”: Steve Binder to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
CHAPTER 17: LAS VEGAS: GLITZ, GREED, AND RUINATION
pagelink “I made up my mind”: Bill Miller quoted in Desert Sun, May 3, 1998.
pagelink “Elvis was a question mark”: Nick Naff to Art Nadler for author, 1997.
pagelink “Prell got money”: Anonymous source, 2001.
pagelink “Actually, I think I was about the third one”: Bruce Banke to Karen Schoemer, raw interview transcript, 1997.
pagelink “There were a lot of bad songs”: All quotes from Chips Moman come from the author’s interview, 2001.
pagelink “I wasn’t angry about it”: Freddy Bienstock to author, 1997.
pagelink “In all the years”: Harry Jenkins quoted by Chips Moman to author, 2001.
pagelink “The campaign that he produced was unbelievable”: Alex Shoofey in the documentary Mr. Rock & Roll, 1999.
pagelink “I did the commercials”: Nick Naff to Art Nadler for author, 1997.
pagelink “He insisted only the word Elvis”: Nick Naff in the documentary film Mr. Rock & Roll, 1999.
pagelink “schlocky as all hell”: Nick Naff to Art Nadler for author, 1997.
pagelink “We got calls from all over the world”: Alex Shoofey in the documentary Mr. Rock & Roll, 1999.
pagelink “The closing night of Barbra”: Bill Miller quoted in Desert Sun, May 3, 1998.
pagelink “just all over the goddammed place”: Nick Naff to Art Nadler for author, 1997.
pagelink “There were banners and flags”: Joe Moscheo to Beverly Keel for author, 1998.
pagelink “I don’t have to tell you”: Nick Naff to Art Nadler for author, 1997.
pagelink “a very likable guy”: Nick Naff to Art Nadler for author, 1997.
pagelink “I’ve wanted to perform on the stage again”: Elvis Presley quoted by Ray Connolly in Guralnick and Jorgensen, Elvis Day by Day.
pagelink “helluva big stage to fill”: Elvis Presley quoted by Charlie Hodge in Guralnick and Jorgensen, Elvis Day by Day.
pagelink “I said, ‘Would you please tell”: Steve Binder to author, 2001.
pagelink “We went up there”: Bob Finkel to author, 1999.
pagelink “He says, ‘Now tell me again’ ”: Alex Shoofey in the documentary Mr. Rock & Roll, 1999.
pagelink “I heard”: Gordon Stoker in the documentary Mr. Rock & Roll, 1999.
pagelink “Just look at the figures”: Marty Lacker to author, 1994.
pagelink “Was he trying to protect”: Joe Delaney to author, 1997.
pagelink “He had an open tab”: Joe Shane to Constant Meijers, raw interview transcript from the documentary Looking for Colonel Parker, 1999.
pagelink “He had the boy”: Joe Shane to author, 1998.
pagelink “[The] Colonel was one of the best customers we had”: Alex Shoofey in Amended Report of Guardian ad litem, July 31, 1981.
pagelink “I never saw anybody”: Lamar Fike to author, 2001.
pagelink “He’d stack ’em up all over”: Gabe Tucker to author, 1997.
pagelink “everything went haywire”: Julian Aberbach to author, 1997.
pagelink “He just wouldn’t see me”: Joe Moscheo to Beverly Keel for author, 1998.
pagelink “Man, I’ll put on a disguise”: Elvis Presley quoted by Larry Geller to author, 1999.
pagelink “damn near gorgeous”: Lamar Fike to author, 1994.
pagelink “Elvis loved downers”: Lamar Fike to author, 1994.
pagelink “I don’t want any son of a bitch”: Elvis Presley quoted by Jerry Schilling to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
pagelink “not only my manager”: Elvis Presley quoted in Guralnick and Jorgensen, Elvis Day by Day.
pagelink “One of the things Jerry said”: John Denver to author, 1991.
pagelink “He wanted us to pay”: Steve Wolf to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
pagelink “Jerry was very well connected”: Joe Delaney to author, 1997.
pagelink “Jerry had to go out and bust his butt”: Joe Shane to Constant Meijers, raw interview transcript from the documentary Looking for Colonel Parker, 1999.
pagelink “who made Elvis what he is today”: Colonel Tom Parker in telegram to Jerry Weintraub, October 12, 1970 quoted in Guernsey’s Official Auction Catalogue.
pagelink “He would have it all mapped out”: Gaylen Adams to author, 1998.
pagelink “the rest of the auditorium”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted in Jerry Hopkins, unpublished magazine article, JHC/UM.
pagelink “He made life rough”: Kathy Westmoreland to author, 1997.
pagelink “Remember,” he concluded: Colonel Tom Parker in letter to Elvis Presley, quoted in Guralnick and Jorgensen, Elvis Day by Day.
pagelink “you especially had to be careful”: Billy Smith to author, 1993.
pagelink “I would love to meet you”: Elvis Presley in letter to Richard M. Nixon, reproduced in Worth and Tamerius, Elvis.
pagelink “his most prized physical possession”: Jerry Schilling to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
pagelink “The Colonel said”: Henri Lewin to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
pagelink “it was great”: Jerry Schilling in the documentary Mr. Rock & Roll, 1999.
pagelink “Elvis was mad”: Lamar Fike in the documentary Mr. Rock & Roll, 1999.
pagelink “drawn, tired, and noticeably heavier”: The Hollywood Reporter quoted in Guralnick and Jorgensen, Elvis Day by Day.
pagelink “He didn’t have breathing room”: Alex Shoofey in the documentary Mr. Rock & Roll, 1999.
pagelink “Nobody goes to Vegas”: Lamar Fike to author, 1993.
pagelink “I was there”: Henri Lewin quoted in Las Vegas Style, 1994.
pagelink “[Elvis] wanted to take all of his troupe with him”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted in Woody Baird, “Couldn’t Have Saved Elvis, Manager Says,” Tennessean, December 7, 1990.
pagelink lately hearing rumors of cocaine use: Informant report, FBI file, January 31, 1974.
pagelink “Clearances needed on songs”: Colonel Tom Parker’s private notes, pictured in Elvis: The Official Auction Catalogue on Guernsey’s Web site (www.guernsey’s.com) [no longer available].
pagelink “RCA makes contracts with talent or do we?”: Colonel Tom Parker in private notes, quoted in Guernsey’s Official Auction Catalogue.
pagelink “He was a big friend of mine”: Mel Ilberman to author, 1998.
pagelink “a brilliant move”: Joe Galante to author, 1998.
pagelink “We finally demanded”: Tony Brown to author, 1998.
pagelink “There were a lot of things”: Lamar Fike to author, 1993.
pagelink “People talk about the fifty percent”: Joe Shane to author, 1998.
CHAPTER 18: GEEK FEVER
pagelink “Ah, I don’t know what makes ’em say that”: Elvis Presley, press conference, New York City, June 9, 1972.
pagelink “He said, ‘Mr. Kahane, they’re animals out there’ ”: Elvis Presley quoted by Jackie Kahane to Peter Whitmer, raw interview transcript, 1994.
pagelink “so many flashbulbs”: Joe Guercio to Karen Schoemer, raw interview transcript, 1997.
pagelink “A Prince from Another Planet”: Chris Chase, New York Times, June 18, 1972.
pagelink “His usual protocol”: Lamar Fike to author, 1993.
pagelink “in the history of the record business”: RCA press release quoted in Guralnick and Jorgensen, Elvis Day by Day.
pagelink “It’s very hard to comprehend”: Elvis Presley quoted in Guralnick and Jorgensen, Elvis Day by Day.
pagelink “The next morning”: Marty Lacker to author, 1993.
pagelink “from seeing each other on stage”: Colonel Tom Parker in letter to Elvis Presley quoted in Guralnick and Jorgensen, Elvis Day by Day.
pagelink “as the disease progressed”: Sandra Polk Ross to author, 1997.
pagelink “The Colonel always felt”: Freddy Bienstock to author, 1997.
pagelink “she presented me”: Nick Naff to Art Nadler for author, 1997.
pagelink “Most people have no idea”: Loanne Miller Parker to Constant Meijers, raw interview transcript from the documentary Looking for Colonel Parker, 1999.
pagelink “really pay attention”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Joe Esposito at Colonel Tom Parker’s Memorial Service, Las Vegas, January 25, 1997.
pagelink “compromising circumstances”: John Mott in e-mail to author, 2002.
pagelink “I’m sorry, ladies and gentlemen”: Elvis Presley quoted in Guralnick and Jorgensen, Elvis Day by Day.
pagelink “I figured it would take a big check”: Mel Ilberman to author, 1998.
pagelink “He wasn’t sick”: Marty Lacker to author, 1994.
pagelink “One night when I was about five or six”: Lisa Marie Presley quoted in Life, December 1988.
pagelink “hard addict”: Dr. George Nichopoulos quoted by Marty Lacker to author, 1994.
pagelink “There was more dope in that outfit”: Jackie Kahane to Peter Whitmer, raw interview transcript, 1994.
pagelink “Organized crime”: Informant report, FBI file, January 31, 1974.
pagelink “one of the most ill-prepared”: The Hollywood Reporter quoted in Guralnick and Jorgensen, Elvis Day by Day.
pagelink “Elvis was worse”: Kathy Westmoreland to author, 1997.
pagelink “nervous as a chicken”: Duke Bardwell to author, 2002.
pagelink “He said to me one time”: Jackie Kahane to Peter Whitmer, raw interview transcript, 1994.
pagelink “every performer has good days and bad days”: Colonel Tom Parker to Larry Hutchinson, chief investigator to the district attorney general for Memphis, 1980.
pagelink “lack of humanity”: Duke Bardwell to author, 1999.
pagelink Boxcar would become: Corporate reports, Boxcar Enterprises, Report to Guardian ad litem, September 30, 1980.
pagelink “actually almost lived”: Bruce Banke to Karen Schoemer, raw interview transcript, 1997.
pagelink “he knew he had to have other irons”: Kathy Westmoreland to author, 1997.
pagelink “He knew talent”: Kathy Westmoreland to author, 1997.
pagelink “He played stupid”: Bitsy Mott to Dirk Vellenga, raw interview transcript, 1983.
pagelink “I’ll pull your goddamned tongue”: Bootleg tape, Elvis Presley live in Vegas, 1974.
pagelink “And my manager, Colonel Tom Parker”: Bootleg tape, Elvis Presley live in Vegas, 1974.
pagelink “It never got better”: Billy Smith to author, 1994.
pagelink “He would be so damn drugged”: Lamar Fike to author, 1994.
pagelink “they’d kill any type of body odor”: Billy Smith to author, 1994.
pagelink “We used to con him into the bathtub”: Lamar Fike to author, 1994.
pagelink “went for it, definitely”: Jerry Schilling to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
pagelink “Mr. Presley has indicated”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted in Guralnick and Jorgensen, Elvis Day by Day.
pagelink “There was never no plan”: Colonel Tom Parker to Craig Rivera, Inside Edition, January 1993.
pagelink “but he knew if negotiations broke down”: Jerry Schilling to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
pagelink “deep down”: Lamar Fike to author, 1994.
pagelink “People aren’t going to remember me”: Elvis Presley quoted by Kathy Westmoreland to author, 1997.
pagelink “Elvis came out to the bus”: Lamar Fike to author, 1994.
pagelink “you could almost”: Billy Smith to author, 1993.
pagelink “I was with the Colonel”: Gaylen Adams to author, 1998.
pagelink “we all thought it was going to happen”: David Briggs to author, 1998.
pagelink “Colonel was adamant”: Loanne Miller Parker to Constant Meijers, raw interview transcript from the documentary Looking for Colonel Parker, 1999.
pagelink “To deny him that”: Duke Bardwell to author, 1999.
pagelink “I was there”: Mike Crowley to author, 1997.
pagelink “I hate that old man”: Elvis Presley quoted by Billy Smith to author, 1993.
pagelink “He’s really screwed up”: Joe Guercio quoted by Jackie Kahane to Peter Whitmer, raw interview transcript, 1994.
pagelink “scared shitless”: Jackie Kahane to Peter Whitmer, raw interview transcript, 1994.
pagelink “He didn’t do twenty minutes”: Jackie Kahane to Peter Whitmer, raw interview transcript, 1994.
pagelink “It is hereby understood”: Agreement between Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley quoted in Guralnick and Jorgensen, Elvis Day by Day.
pagelink “Felton would come back”: Joe Galante to author, 1998.
pagelink “The Colonel almost shit”: David Briggs to author, 1998.
pagelink “We’d come to the house”: Tony Brown quoted in Cronin, Isler, and Rowland, “An Oral Biography.”
pagelink “Why are you sitting out here, Elvis?”: Felton Jarvis quoted by Ray Walker to author, 1977.
pagelink “There was a lot of dissension”: Tony Brown to author, 1998.
pagelink “he had locomotive attacks”: John O’Grady quoted in Guralnick and Jorgensen, Elvis Day By Day
pagelink “Hookstratten, Priscilla, and I”: John O’Grady to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
pagelink “I don’t want anybody to know”: Elvis Presley quoted by Kathy Westmoreland to author, 1997.
pagelink “As I told Vernon today”: Colonel Tom Parker in letter to Elvis Presley, June 16, 1976, quoted in Guralnick and Jorgensen, Elvis Day by Day.
pagelink “I was gambling”: Mike Growney in the documentary Mr. Rock & Roll, 1999.
pagelink “I understand you’re trying to sell”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Joe Shane to author, 1998.
pagelink “We had a nice camaraderie”: Joe Shane to Constant Meijers, raw interview transcript from the documentary Looking for Colonel Parker, 1999.
pagelink “You are the biggest entertainer”: Tom Hulett quoted in Guralnick and Jorgensen, Elvis Day by Day.
pagelink “depressingly incoherent”: Bob Claypool, quoted in Guralnick and Jorgensen, Elvis Day by Day.
pagelink “It was really bad”: Lamar Fike to author, 1994.
pagelink “What would the point be?”: Joe Guercio quoted by Jackie Kahane to Peter Whitmer, raw interview transcript, 1994.
pagelink “I said, ‘He’s putting us on’ ”: Bruce Banke to Karen Schoemer, raw interview transcript, 1997.
pagelink “One walks away”: Bill Burk quoted in Guralnick and Jorgensen, Elvis Day by Day.
pagelink “feeling that I wasn’t worth anything”: Linda Thompson to author, 1977.
pagelink “Get off your tail”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted in Guralnick and Jorgensen, Elvis Day by Day.
pagelink “contend the singer’s new girlfriend”: Quoted in Guralnick and Jorgensen, Elvis Day by Day.
pagelink “He had us go on stage”: Kathy Westmoreland to author, 1997.
pagelink “seeming not to care”: Quoted in Guralnick and Jorgensen, Elvis Day by Day.
pagelink “He stunk the joint out”: Quoted in Guralnick and Jorgensen, Elvis Day by Day.
pagelink “absolutely no plans”: Laura Eipper, “Manager Denies Presley or Sale,” Tennessean, April 30, 1977.
pagelink “he was pale, swollen—he had no stamina”: Quoted in Guralnick and Jorgensen, Elvis Day by Day.
pagelink “At the finale”: Variety quoted in Guralnick and Jorgensen, Elvis Day by Day.
pagelink “I’m going to look fat”: Elvis Presley quoted by Kathy Westmoreland to author, 1997.
pagelink “I’m so tired”: Elvis Presley quoted by Kathy Westmoreland to author, 1997.
pagelink “He’ll never see”: Lamar Fike to author, 1994
pagelink “Parker and Presley”: Richard Harrington, Washington Post, January 24, 1997.
pagelink a staggering $30 million: People, March 5, 1984.
pagelink “in a very good mood”: Larry Geller to author, 2001.
pagelink “Ain’t no problem”: Elvis Presley quoted by Billy Smith to author, 1994.
pagelink “They’ve never beat me before”: Billy Smith to author, 1994.
pagelink “It’s okay”: Billy Smith to author, 1994.
pagelink “Billy . . . son . . . this is going to be my best tour ever”: Elvis Presley quoted by Billy Smith to author, 1994.
pagelink “I’m going to go in the bathroom”: Elvis Presley quoted by Billy Smith to author, 1994.
pagelink No, if they ain’t heard from him: Billy Smith to author, 1994.
pagelink “Who’s on duty?” Ginger Alden quoted in Esposito and Oumano, Good Rockin’ Tonight.
pagelink “What happened to him?”: Ulysses Jones quoted by Marty Lacker to author, 1994.
pagelink “He’s gone”: Dr. George Nichopoulos quoted in Esposito and Oumano, Good Rockin’ Tonight.
pagelink “It’s Lisa”: Lisa Marie Presley quoted by Linda Thompson, Life, February 10, 1995.
pagelink “I have something terrible to tell you”: Esposito and Oumano, Good Rockin’ Tonight. Loanne Miller Parker says the news came in two phone calls, the first alerting the Colonel that something awful had happened, and it was unclear whether Elvis was dead or alive.
pagelink “Okay, Joe”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted in Esposito, Good Rockin’ Tonight.
pagelink “The Colonel wants to see you right now”: Tom Hulett quoted by Lamar Fike to author, 1994.
pagelink “I don’t want”: Colonel Tom Parker as quoted by Loanne Miller Parker to Ken Vrana, 2002.
pagelink “Bob, I hope to hell”: Bruce Banke to Karen Schoemer, raw interview transcript, 1997.
pagelink “I must have been”: Bruce Banke to Karen Schoemer, raw interview transcript, 1997.
pagelink “Would everybody get off the plane?”: Marty Harrell quoted by Jackie Kahane to Peter Whitmer, raw interview transcript, 1994.
pagelink “The operator was crying”: Jackie Kahane to Peter Whitmer, raw interview transcript, 1994.
pagelink “I can’t waste time mourning”: Colonel Tom Parker to Chris Hutchins, The People, January 26, 1997.
pagelink “He knew exactly what was going to transpire”: Joe Shane to author, 1998.
pagelink “He was like, ‘The boy’s dead”: Joe Shane to Constant Meijers, raw interview transcript from the documentary Looking for Colonel Parker 1999.
pagelink The estate would eventually be valued at $7.6 million: Sources differ as to the estimate. See People, December 1, 1980, Tennessean, December 7, 1990; and Woody Baird, “Graceland Earns Millions for Heir,” Associated Press, August 14, 2002.
pagelink The Colonel could advance the estate: At his death, Elvis had $1.4 million in a non-interest-bearing checking account and about $750,000 in savings, though sources close to Presley believe that Parker advanced the bulk of the money to the estate.
pagelink “Elvis didn’t die”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted in Jerry Hopkins, “Playing the Elvis Presley Game,” unpublished manuscript, JHC/UM.
pagelink “It don’t mean a damned thing”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted in Tosches, Country.
pagelink “This changes nothing”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted in Irish Times, January 24, 1997.
pagelink “I am deeply grateful that you have offered”: Vernon Presley in letter to Colonel Tom Parker, August 23, 1977.
pagelink “If Elvis looks down”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted in Jerry Hopkins, “Playing the Elvis Presley Game,” unpublished manuscript, JHC/UM.
pagelink “every time he would go past the coffin”: Jackie Kahane to Peter Whitmer, raw interview transcript, 1994.
pagelink “He didn’t talk to many people”: Larry Geller to author, 2001.
pagelink “I could see there was pain”: Kathy Westmoreland to author, 1997.
pagelink “No sir”: Colonel Tom Parker to Chris Hutchins, The People, January 26, 1997.
pagelink “Elvis committed suicide”: Jackie Kahane to Peter Whitmer, raw interview transcript, 1994.
pagelink “When I joined the TCB group”: Jackie Kahane to Peter Whitmer, raw interview transcript, 1994.
pagelink “I can’t straighten it out by telling another lie”: Vernon Presley to author, 1977.
pagelink “hypertensive heart disease”: Dr. Jerry Francisco, press conference, Memphis, 1977, quoted in Thompson and Cole, The Death of Elvis.
pagelink “not that it specially concerned me”: Colonel Tom Parker to Larry Hutchinson, chief investigator to the district attorney general, Memphis, 1980.
pagelink “It was just like”: Robin Rosaaen in e-mail to author, 2001.
pagelink “We made a hell of a team”: Colonel Tom Parker to Robert Hilburn, Los Angeles Times, 1978, quoted in “Colonel Tom Parker,” Journal of Country Music, vol. 19 (no. 1).
pagelink “I sat with him there”: Jackie Kahane to Peter Whitmer, raw interview transcript, 1994.
pagelink “You could say the Colonel killed him”: Sandra Polk Ross to author, 1998.
pagelink “I thought I would die”: Sandra Polk Ross to author, 1998.
pagelink “I said, ‘You know I made 488 pairs’ ”: Dennis Roberts to author, 2000.
pagelink “It cost me about $135,000”: Dennis Roberts to author, 2000.
pagelink “it was a shock to all of us”: Priscilla Presley to Katie Couric, Dateline, August 13, 2002.
pagelink “We weren’t aware”: D. Beecher Smith II, in Soocher, They Fought the Law.
CHAPTER 20: LIVING TOO LONG: LITIGATION AND LONELINESS
pagelink “represent and defend the interests of Lisa Marie Presley”: Amended Report of Guardian ad litem, July 31, 1981.
pagelink “all agreements with Elvis Presley terminated on his death”: Amended Report of Guardian ad litem, September 30, 1980.
pagelink “I’m sure a lot of people see him”: Mike Crowley to author, 1998.
pagelink “You can’t paint Parker as an angel”: Stan Soocher to author, 1999.
pagelink “Most people would say”: David Skepner to author, 1997.
pagelink “While he kept getting a higher proportion”: Joe Galante to author, 1998.
pagelink “How can you argue”: Barry Coburn to author, 1997.
pagelink “When he was working for Elvis”: D. Beecher Smith II quoted in People February 3, 1997.
pagelink “contractual barriers”: D. Beecher Smith II quoted in Tennessean, December 11, 1980.
pagelink “I’m not prepared to paint Parker black”: D. Beecher Smith II quoted in Soocher, They Fought the Law.
pagelink “I got the feeling”: Blanchard E. Tual quoted in Tennessean, December 11, 1980.
pagelink $7 or $8 million: Blanchard E. Tual in Soocher, They Fought the Law.
pagelink “He had it from the eyebrows up”: Blanchard E. Tual to Constant Meijers, raw interview transcript from the documentary Looking for Colonel Parker, 1999.
pagelink “the worst decision ever made in the history of rock ’n’ roll”: Blanchard E. Tual quoted in Soocher, They Fought the Law.
pagelink “the conscious decision to make as much money”: Amended Report of Guardian ad litem, July 31, 1981.
pagelink “Elvis had thirty-three songs”: Joe Moscheo to Beverly Keel for author, 1998.
pagelink “collusion, conspiracy, fraud”: Amended Report of Guardian ad litem, July 31, 1981.
pagelink “the compensation received by Colonel Parker”: Judge Joseph W. Evans quoted in People, August 31, 1981.
pagelink “enter into any future agreements with Parker”: Randell Beck and Richard Powelson, “Judge Halts Payments to Col. Parker,” Memphis Press-Scimitar, August 14, 1981.
pagelink $25,000 for small talk, $100,000 for a long conversation: Richard Harrington, “One for the Money: Elvis Presley Paid a High Price for His Fame,” Washington Post, January 24, 1997.
pagelink “every effort to honor [Elvis’s] name”: “Elvis’s Manager Promises Defense of Fraud Charges,” Nashville Banner, August 17, 1981.
pagelink “but also are unfair and insulting”: “Col. Tom Parker Denies He Ever Cheated Elvis,” Tennessean, August 16, 1981.
pagelink “Elvis knew that I provided services”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted in People, August 31, 1981.
pagelink “nervous energy”: “Parker Calls Elvis Headstrong Client,” Memphis Press-Scimitar, September 9, 1981.
pagelink “moody” and “headstrong”: Quotations in this and the next two paragraphs from “Parker Calls Elvis Headstrong Client.”
pagelink “weren’t selling”: “Parker Calls Elvis Headstrong Client.”
pagelink “really pushed”: “Parker Says Elvis Accusations ‘Insulting,’ ” Nashville Banner, August 31, 1981.
pagelink “Elvis’s decisions in 1973 were correct”: “Parker Says Elvis Accusations ‘Insulting,’ ” Nashville Banner, August 31, 1981.
pagelink “I never saw anything to indicate it was a partnership”: Blanchard E. Tual to author, 1998.
pagelink “I am advised by my attorneys”: Affidavit of Thomas A. Parker, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York.
pagelink “Yes, I am a man without a country”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted in Variety, June 24, 1983.
pagelink “I did not receive more than Elvis did”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted in Baird, - “Couldn’t Have Saved Elvis.”
pagelink “We figured the Colonel might die”: Blanchard E. Tual to Constant Meijers, raw interview transcript from the documentary Looking for Colonel Parker, 1999.
pagelink “if Elvis had lived”: Blanchard E. Tual quoted in Soocher, They Fought the Law.
pagelink “Bitsy, if I was doing something wrong”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Bitsy Mott to Dirk Vellenga, raw interview transcript, 1983.
pagelink “A couple of weeks after we opened Graceland”: Jack Soden quoted in Soocher, They Fought the Law.
pagelink sales of all things Elvis: Baird, “Graceland Earns Millions for Heir,” citing Forbes.
pagelink “I didn’t hear from them”: Colonel Tom Parker to Ralph Emery, raw interview transcript, 1993.
pagelink the Colonel’s $30-million tab: People, March 5, 1984.
pagelink “I’ve had offers”: Colonel Tom Parker to Ralph Emery, raw interview transcripts, 1993.
pagelink “Any time the Colonel came into view”: Bill Willard to author, 1998.
pagelink “chronic brain syndrome”: Marie Parker, certificate of death, November 25, 1986.
pagelink “To me, that’s not a real tribute”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Pat Embry, “The Colonel: In a Rare Interview, Elvis’ Promoter More Teddy Bear Than All Shook Up,” Nashville Banner, June 12, 1987.
pagelink a black-hearted villain: A 1994 article in the San Diego Union-Tribune noted that Elvis purists view Parker as “the devil who traded the singer’s rock ’n’ roll soul for the demon Hollywood dollar.”
pagelink “He wanted me to come to New York”: Colonel Tom Parker to author, 1993.
pagelink “If they know so much”: Colonel Tom Parker to Ted Koppel, Nightline, August 16, 1987.
pagelink “I’ll never manage anyone again”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Ed Koch, “Where Do You Go After Elvis? Parker Won’t Manage Again,” Las Vegas Sun, August 15, 1987.
pagelink “We may have had dinner”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted in Las Vegas Sun, August 11, 1987.
pagelink “We’re here to honor his memory”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted in Las Vegas Review-Journal, January 22, 1997.
pagelink estrangement from the estate weighed heavily: “He never recovered.” Gordon Stoker to Constant Meijers, raw interview transcript from the documentary Looking for Colonel Parker, 1999.
pagelink “He thought”: Joan Shoofey Richardson to Art Nadler for author, 1997.
pagelink “None of ’em are memories for me”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted in Nashville Banner, June 12, 1987.
pagelink “Well, it’s been too long”: Colonel Tom Parker, private videotape recording of press conference, January 8, 1988.
pagelink “I don’t think there was any producer”: Colonel Tom Parker on private audiotape recording of Elvis Presley Birthday Banquet, Memphis, January 8, 1988.
pagelink “I think”: Jack Soden quoted in Soocher, They Fought the Law.
pagelink “special hello to an old friend of ours”: Priscilla Presley on private audiotape recording of Elvis Presley Birthday Banquet, Memphis, January 8, 1988.
pagelink “shared an abiding friendship”: Jack Soden quoted in Memphis Commercial-Appeal, December 25, 1993.
pagelink “As I recall”: Chet Flippo in e-mail to author, 1998.
pagelink “They window-dressed it pretty nicely”: Joe Delaney to author, 1997.
pagelink “He wouldn’t answer certain questions”: Merilyn Potters in e-mail to author, 1997.
pagelink “I think the Colonel was sharp enough”: Joe Delaney to author, 1997.
pagelink “Loanne hoarded money”: Jackie Kahane to Peter Whitmer, raw interview transcript, 1994.
pagelink “He said, ‘Without her, I wouldn’t be living”: Author’s anonymous source, 1997.
pagelink “When his sister walked into that room”: Lamar Fike to author, 2001.
pagelink “The Colonel said he doesn’t wish”: Loanne Miller Parker to Mieke Dons-Maas, 1990, quoted to author, 1997.
pagelink “I suppose he just wanted”: Mieke Dons-Maas to author, 1997.
pagelink “spoke with great love and affection”: Loanne Miller Parker to Constant Meijers, raw interview transcript from the documentary Looking for Colonel Parker, 1999.
pagelink “He talked a little bit of Dutch to me”: Constant Meijers to author, 1997.
pagelink “He continued to gamble until the day he died”: Nick Naff to Art Nadler for author, 1997.
pagelink “Now, when they’ve done all they could with [Elvis]”: Colonel Tom Parker to Craig Rivera, Inside Edition, January 1993.
pagelink “Every once in a while”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted in Mike Weatherford, “Colonel Recalls King,” Las Vegas Review-Journal, January 8, 1995.
pagelink “It’s hard to convince people”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted in Woody Baird, “Col. Tom Speaks Out on Elvis’ Drugs, Rock ’n’ Roll,” Associated Press, December 7, 1990.
pagelink “Do you miss him?”: Chris Hutchins conversation with Colonel Tom Parker quoted in The People, January 25, 1997.
pagelink “I’ve turned down more books for big money”: Colonel Tom Parker to Craig Rivera, Inside Edition, January 1993. See also The People, January 25, 1997.
pagelink “seemed designed more to intimidate a number”: Michael Gray, “25 Percent of the King,” Guardian, January 23, 1997.
pagelink “I got the book right up here”: Colonel Tom Parker to author, 1994.
pagelink “I don’t know if a guy should put out a book”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted in Embry, “The Colonel.”
pagelink “if I were to expire before completing it”: The People, January 25, 1997.
pagelink “He freezes”: Loanne Miller Parker to author, 1994.
pagelink “I teased him about it a couple of times”: Bill Willard to author, 1998.
pagelink “I’ve got plenty to do”: Colonel Tom Parker to Ralph Emery, raw interview transcript, 1993.
pagelink “People take up exercise, you know”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted in Embry, “The Colonel.”
pagelink “Eddy [Arnold] calls me”: Colonel Tom Parker to Ralph Emery, raw interview transcript, 1993.
pagelink “He was a lonely old man”: Author’s anonymous source, 1997.
pagelink “very nice”: Tony Brown quoted in Rob Tannenbaum, “Rock and Roll to Colonel Tom: Tom Parker, 1909–1997,” Village Voice, February 4, 1997.
pagelink “like a king would banish you from the court”: Lamar Fike to author, 2001.
pagelink “warned them about what to say”: Peter Whitmer in e-mail to author, 2001.
pagelink “shouting very loudly”: Chris Hutchins to author, 1998.
pagelink “I’m healthy up in my mind”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted in Weathersford, “Colonel Recalls King.”
pagelink “exploited Elvis as much as he’s being exploited today”: Colonel Tom Parker to Craig Rivera, Inside Edition, January 1993.
pagelink “I’m still working for you, Elvis”: Colonel Tom Parker quoted in James Kingsley, “Col. Parker Honored in Nevada,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, June 27, 1994.
pagelink “he knew he was dyin’ ”: Gabe Tucker to author, 1997.
pagelink “He said Elvis was as hard a worker”: Jimmie Dale Gilmore quoted in Tannenbaum, “Rock and Roll to Colonel Tom.”
pagelink “In the last years”: Freddy Bienstock to author, 1997.
pagelink “Loanne had to talk for him”: Author’s anonymous source, 1997.
pagelink “He was my mentor, my teacher”: Jerry Weintraub quoted in Michael Fleming, “Weintraub, Shelton Team,” Variety, December 2, 1997.
pagelink “He told me he loved me”: Jerry Weintraub at Colonel Tom Parker’s Memorial Service, Las Vegas, January 25, 1997.
pagelink “Colonel, it’s Bruce”: Bruce Banke to Karen Schoemer, raw interview transcript, 1997.
pagelink $913,000 in savings bonds, securities, and memorabilia: Petition for probate of will and codicils and for letters testamentary for the estate of Tom Parker, Las Vegas, February 5, 1997.
pagelink “How and where do you begin”: John O’Reilly at Colonel Tom Parker’s Memorial Service, Las Vegas, January 25, 1997
pagelink “a very emotional man”: John O’Reilly at Colonel Tom Parker’s Memorial Service, Las Vegas, January 25, 1997
pagelink “to work with him”: Henri Lewin at Colonel Tom Parker’s Memorial Service, Las Vegas, January 25, 1997.
pagelink “Elvis and the Colonel made history together”: Priscilla Presley at Colonel Tom Parker’s Memorial Service, Las Vegas, January 25, 1997.