And his son, Jimmie (later Jimmy), envied Elvis and yearned to counsel him on his sinful ways. ", Hanks immersed himself in research about who the Colonel really was. From your memoir, it sounds like Peggy Lee might have been the least fun? In an interview (via Entertainment Weekly), Hanks broke down why he took the part, "Baz said, 'There would've been no Colonel Tom Parker without Elvis. Sure, of course. Baz Luhrmann's musical biopic Elvis explores the eponymous singer's career, leading up to his tragic death, and one of the characters that has caused a fair amount of controversy is Elvis and the Colonel, Tom Parker. He didn't care what Elvis (Austin Butler) sang from the. nothing., According to Parker, production costs for the average Presley film ran between $1.5 and $2 million, and if the studio lets it maybe a little more., The Colonel didnt seem too concerned that Elvis film popularity would dry up someday. No, all that stuff was rehearsed and rehearsed. Read Next: Pink Performs Acoustic Set for No Kid Hungry, Talks Why Her Upcoming Arena Tour Will Feel Intimate. Look you got a product, you sell it, explained Parker. All Rights Reserved. I think we maybe killed them! And when you first buy it, you love listening to it. The actor has talked about the project, what drew him to it, and how he felt about the overall story. He is passionate about film, comics, TV and spends way too much on collectibles. But yes, adolescent Elvis listened to all kinds of music, from the Ink Spots to Dean Martin. Col Parker is talking from 16:45---16:55(ish) and that last bit is 20:04---you get a clear shot of Parker talking and good audio . After Elvis' death in 1977, the Elvis Presley manager continued on as if The King were still alive. For a while he lied about his early years, claiming to have been born in Huntington, West Virginia and that he had run away at an early age to join a circus run by an uncle. I would agree with that. In particular, Hanks was looking forward to taking part in a fresh look at the story, as the tale of Elvis is well-known enough to garner fatigue. Years later, I think in the 90s, we all went on a trip to Graceland and were given a private tour by Georgie Klein, who was one of Elvis Memphis mafia guys. Get weekly rundowns straight to your inbox, A daily briefing on what matters in the music industry. In an exclusive interview, David E Stanley said his brother's manager Colonel Tom Parker - played by Tom Hanks in a new movie about the star - treated the iconic singer as a "product" and. Do you think, based on your experiences with the Colonel, which werent great, that its easy to paint him as a villain? We dont have approval on scripts only money. Which I thought was weird, at the time. Did the Colonel live out his later years being sickly in casinos, as portrayed in the movies framing device? King would be playing in the lounge, and Elvis would be playing in the big room. Well, Parker finally said, Did they spell his name right?. ", We start telling people what to do and they blame us if the picture doesnt go. So who knows, maybe someday well just decide to release the album of a show that didnt happen. The timeline well, what timeline? You seem right.' ", So maybe we never win an Oscar but were going to win a few box office awards. "The question was, 'Why are we still talking about Elvis Presley?'" The hotel would bring a roulette wheel to his room. So its a perfect chance to catch up with Stoller,who wrote the music to Jerry Leibers lyrics on two dozen Presley songs, including the classics Hound Dog, Jailhouse Rock, Trouble, Treat Me Nice, Love Me, Loving You, Santa Claus Is Back in Town, Bossa Nova Baby and (Youre So Square) Baby I Dont Care. No other writers are so closely associated with the King, even if their run of collaborations with Elvis was ultimately cut short by want to hazard a guess? In 1969, she was an employee of the International Hotel when Elvis made his record-breaking performances there. Elvis never knew how many shows he played free to satisfy Parkers enslavement to the roulette wheel and the craps table. And seeing our names on (45 labels), they thought that Leiber-Stoller was a kind of music, like how they used to put Foxtrot on a record. If youd like to follow Steven on Twitter or Instagram, you can expect plenty of breaking news, exclusive interviews, and pictures of cats doing stupid things. I am curious though, I like throwing a curve ball at the beginning, something, hopefully you haven't been asked. In making him such an antagonist, they have robbed him of his many accomplishments with his client. I mean, Big Mamas song was a woman singing it to a no-good guy, and the original lyric in the first verse was, You can wag your tail, but I aint gonna feed you no more. And the Presley version almost sounds like hes singing it to a dog: You aint never caught a rabbit, and you aint no friend of mine. I dont know where that came from. TOM HANKS: Wow. For one, Parker said, we can do some of the personal appearances we havent been able to. I remember we went out it probably took about 15 minutes and we came back in and performed it for them. In a way, sure. This article originally appeared on The Hollywood Reporter. But we used to have to say to him, This is Jerry, and Im Mike. That was amazing because you still see the twinkle in his eyes. I thought it should have said directed by, like a film, because we werent funding it, like a films producers. So then we had to perform it for her, as I played the piano and Jerry sang. No, it never did. One of the offers he turned down was for Elvis to appear on the small screen for $150,000. Im not a super rap fan. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google. Eddy Arnold, whom Parker had built into a household name, had fired him as his manager over failing to honor their exclusive contract, though Parker continued to book him. There's a number of thematic elements there that All right. He told me: There were times when B.B. "But having seen the movie, I notice something profoundly different every time. Well, wed had it pulled over already, a few times. Before production began, he read music critic Peter Guralnick's two books about the rise and fall of Elvis, 1994's Last Train to Memphis and 1999's Careless Love. He then did the unthinkable, convincing Elvis' father, Vernon, to sign over control of Elvis' movie and singing "career" to him. And when he went down there, he was celebrated as though he himself was Elvis Presley. I mean like ridiculously handsome guy who also happened to be a third-rate singer and a second-rate actor who just happened to become very, very, very, very famous for a record in Chile. King used to visit some in Las Vegas, but that was in the 70s. Check the list of the 10 top box office stars Elvis is right there. Would you say Elvis was growling when he covered Hound Dog three years later, in 1956, becoming the first of the big hits he had with your songs? We found that a lot of the blues singers that we knew, he knew them also, which was a surprise to us. When Parker crony Gabe Tucker threw a magazine piece on the Colonels desk that insinuated that Elvis was gay, Parker didnt say a word until his friend stopped sputtering. "You hear the Colonel literally lay out the foundation for how he was going to make Elvis immortal over the course of the next 30 years," marvels Hanks. My favorite rap was Grandmaster Flash on The Message, which goes back a whole bunch of years; thats the only one that I was really taken with. As you can see in the trailers, Elvis is about the complicated relationship between Colonel Tom Parker (Hanks) and Elvis Presley (Austin Butler). Its a very strong film; I really like the movie. The reasons for this are a source of controversy, as it was believed that Parker's status as an illegal immigrant (the theme of the Netflix series Stateless) would prohibit him from traveling as he didn't have a passport, nor could he get one due to his status. Theyre doing it in Connecticut now; a young lady who was in the show in London is directing it. I Want to Be Free had a kind of special meaning, because we wanted to get out of the goddamn hotel room! And heres a guy who carries his pictures by himself ., Colonel Parker Answered Criticism About Elvis' Movies In 1964 Interview, To what extent Parker was guilty of such sins against Elvis, Im not qualified to say. Variety is a part of Penske Media Corporation. First, Baz Luhrmann joined a list of directors including Joe Wright, Frank Darabont, and Lawrence Kasdan as someone who had two Best Picture nominations but didn't get a Best Director nomination either time. I tried to put together, and it was tricky, this story of There was a guy named Dean Reed. Variety fried it. But what you're describing there is literally something that happens on movies. "Because I don't know what Colonel Tom Parker looks like. Colonel Parker called himself "the Snowman" because he loved snowing, or fooling, people. Elvis took care of what Elvis did and Colonel took care of what Colonel did. We'll make a lot of money." He never left the carnivals, really. Elvis picked up an impressive seven Oscar nominations. People are so used to hearing it within the polite context of Christmas radio that they dont think about what a down-and-dirty, raw song that is. He had a matter-of-fact method of speaking and didn't suffer fools lightly. When Elvis returned home from the Army, The Colonel focused on more films, TV appearances, and albums, saturating the airwaves with Elvis. Somebody must be making a buck. So while he was gone (remember, Parker never went to Germany when Elvis was there), Parker set up all these appearances and movies for him, and the idea was to make him appeal to families the all-American boy that would have longevity, and could grow into that role as he aged. We told him this story, and he said, Elvis would have given his left arm to be in a movie like that with those people. In fact, in my book I included a chapter entitled, The Parker Propaganda Machine. It outlines how Parker promoted, marketed, and booked Elvis in ways that undeniably made possible Presleys meteoric rise in show business. Did Parker really install Elvis dad, Vernon, as business manager to make sure he, the Colonel, could really run all things? Even so, he continued to sell out shows and hit the Top 10 charts. Known for his keen promotion and merchandising savvy, Parker, or "the Snowman," would help to make Elvis a household name, putting the singer on everything from lunch boxes to board games to trading cards and beyond. However, Parker claimed that his issue with overseas performances was over security issues, as well as poor venues not suitable for the star's stature. We were having brunch one day in the suite, and Jean Aberbach came in and said, Boys, where are the songs? And I think Jerry said, Dont worry, Jean, youll get em. He said, I know I will get them. He says, "I said he should sing this kind of thing." [A movie version of Walk on the Wild Side was eventually produced in the 60s, with none of the same talent attached, and flopped.]. So we wrote Jailhouse Rock, and then we wrote the others. Only then did the Presley-Parker partnership make a triumphant return to television and, soon after that, to the concert stage. "The promotion. Bono and the Edge with the soldier in the bomb shelter in Ukraine that was very touching, that they would choose that song. The Elvis Presley manager did a lot of controversial things during his time in show business, and the Baz Luhrmann movie reveals just how much of a monster he really was. But they all tended to be the same kind of story. Hard to do. Thats total and unequivocal bunk, a complete invention in the movie. In Elvis, out June 24, we get a portrait not only of the rise and fall of Elvis (Austin Butler), but also of his manager, Colonel Tom Parker (Tom Hanks), and the co-dependent relationship between the two. Coupled with the fact that the character of Tom Hanks' Tom Parker isn't his usual role, and Hanks was eager to play the part. 2023 Billboard Media, LLC. HANKS: There's a YouTube, one was named Comrade Rockstar and another movie called Red Elvis. King and Little Richard later. He did make him by 1961 a talent that would reign eternally, probably a career that could be of import for 20 years. The Elvis manager certainly had some unethical practices when it came to the King of Rock n Roll, and many were shocked upon viewing the film to find out that this was the case. Related: Why Elvis' Reviews Are So Positive. I think that these days these days meaning going back a couple of decades writers and performers have gotten very hip to protecting their stuff, much more so than we were. They all took little roles, and we wrote for what they could do. No. The purpose here is not to recap the relationship between Parker and Presley. But the more I read about the Colonel, it was about the sell overwhelming the other side. Tom Hanks is playingElvis Presley manager "Colonel Tom" Parker in the upcomingBaz Luhrmann film, and to get a better idea of the infamous character, the actor had dinner withPriscilla Presley. Everybody's very familiar with it. He was both a genius and a scoundrel, Hanks said of Parker, Elvis only manager. He. He had never seen that before. Hanks looks almost unrecognizable in the. They were hot with Grand Funk Railroad and a variety of things, but that was not what they were looking for in 1969. Davis went to have a look and went back to tell Colonel Parker all about him and how he wiggled and girls went wild. Turns out he didnt have an impediment he was just trying to wrap a Dutch tongue around the English language, Southern-style. There is the legend of an afternoon where you and Leiber cranked out four classic Elvis film songs in just a few hours Jailhouse Rock, Treat Me Nice, I Want to Be Free and (Youre So Square) Baby I Dont Care pretty much because someone trapped you in a hotel suite and compelled you to be prolific. This would sand the rough edges off his image and bring him back as the all-American boy fit for family entertainment with Frank Sinatra. He made him. Baz Luhrmann is much like . Elvis is famously quoted as saying, Down in Tupelo, Miss., I used to hear old Arthur Crudup bang his box the way I do now and I said, if I ever got to the place I could feel all old Arthur felt, Id be a music man like nobody saw. But its unclear whether this was on the radio or in person. The Tom Hanks Tom Parker portrayal was a shocking one. About Elvis' Movies In 1964 Interview. But if you have gotten over the fear of making the movie in the first place, which you do I think in the first three days of the movie. And the movies I mean, naturally I liked Jailhouse Rock, but I dont think it was a great movie. THE ELVIS movie biopic stars Tom Hanks as The King's manager Colonel Tom Parker, who the actor has described as both a 'genius' and a 'scoundrel'. Colonel Parker is seen as under pressure from secretive governmental forces who want to keep Elvis from corrupting youth and to try to get him to tamp down Presley, they threaten toexpose his past, as a non-American native of Holland, which hes desperate to hide. And he continued to go see Black performers, such as Jackie Wilson, throughout his life. And then I guess it, obviously, became something else. I think it was presented to the guys who run Leiber and Stoller stuff, and they had already done it and were gonna put it in the movie. Parker used Jimmie to sidle up to Elvis and form a friendship to get Elvis to sign with Parker and the elder Snow, who were then business partners. He could have said, I mean, Priscilla herself told me he could have said no to those movies. You guys basically produced those Jailhouse Rock sessions, even though you didnt get credit? this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines. Elvis clearly demonstrates the ways in which Parker was integral in crafting Presley into an icon, but it also doesn't hold back in exposing the abuses and limitations of that relationship a paradox and tragedy that Hanks says became the most intriguing driving force in his portrayal. Elvis influences were so diverse. And there certainly would've been no Elvis without Colonel Tom Parker.' When watching the movie, you think about all the what ifs. Check him out. During the interview, Hanks talked about the way Parker was a promoter and not a manager, why Elvis never fired him, and how he prepares for a really emotional scene. 1 hit in 1953 with Big Mama Thorntons Hound Dog, which you wrote for her. Privately, Parker referred to Elviss family as shit and rubbed his thumb and forefinger together. I don't know if that's true or not. Colonel Parker is the devil to many Elvis Presley fans.
Elijah Craig Barrel Proof Releases,
Sun Debilitation Cancellation,
Articles C
