The Colonel
Description
Almost the only indisputable fact about Colonel Tom Parker is that he was the manager of the greatest performer in popular music: Elvis Presley. His real name wasn't Tom Parker - indeed, he wasn't an American at all, but a Dutch immigrant called Andreas van Kujik. And he certainly wasn't a proper military colonel: he purchased his title from a man in Louisiana. But while the Colonel has long been acknowledged as something of a charlatan, this book is the first to reveal the extraordinary extent of the secrets he concealed, and the consequences for the career, and ultimately the life, of the star he managed. As Alanna Nash' prodigious research has discovered, the Colonel left Holland most probably because, at the age of twenty, he bludgeoned a woman to death. Entering the US illegally, he then enlisted in the army as 'Tom Parker'. But, with supreme irony for someone later styling himself as Colonel, Parker's military career ended in desertion, and discharge after a psychiatrist had certified him as a psychopath. He then became a fairground barker, working sideshows with a zeal for small-scale huckstering and the casual scam that never left him. And by the height of Elvis's success, Parker had become a pathological gambler who, at the same time as he was taking, amazingly, a full 50% of Presley's earnings, frittered away all his wealth in the casinos of Las Vegas. As Nash shows, therefore, the often baffling trajectory of Elvis Presley's career makes perfect sense once the secret imperatives of the Colonel's life are known. Parker never booked Presley for a tour of Europe because of the dark secret that ensured he himself could never return there. Even at his most famous, Elvis was still being booked to play out-of-the-way towns in North Carolina - because the former fairground barker (who shamelessly negotiated as such even with top record company and film executives) knew them from his days on the circus circuit. And Elvis was trapped playing years of arduous seasons in Las Vegas - two shows nightly, seven days a week, until boredom and despair brought on the excessive drug use that killed him - because for Parker he was an open chit" whose huge earnings prevented his manager's losses at the gambling tables being called in. Alanna Nash knew Parker towards the end of his life, and has now uncovered the whole story, improbable, shocking, and never less than compelling, of how this larger-than-life man made, and then unmade, popular music's first and greatest superstar.
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ISBN:
9781781312018
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Grouping Information
Grouped Work ID | 28104510-d6b1-0bfb-5f4e-ac98f7a4e6ab |
---|---|
Grouping Title | colonel |
Grouping Author | alanna nash |
Grouping Category | book |
Grouping Language | English (eng) |
Last Grouping Update | 2024-01-26 15:04:47PM |
Last Indexed | 2024-05-03 23:20:05PM |
Solr Fields
accelerated_reader_point_value
0
accelerated_reader_reading_level
0
author
Nash, Alanna
author2-role
hoopla digital
author_display
Nash, Alanna
display_description
Almost the only indisputable fact about Colonel Tom Parker is that he was the manager of the greatest performer in popular music: Elvis Presley. His real name wasn't Tom Parker - indeed, he wasn't an American at all, but a Dutch immigrant called Andreas van Kujik. And he certainly wasn't a proper military colonel: he purchased his title from a man in Louisiana. But while the Colonel has long been acknowledged as something of a charlatan, this book is the first to reveal the extraordinary extent of the secrets he concealed, and the consequences for the career, and ultimately the life, of the star he managed. As Alanna Nash' prodigious research has discovered, the Colonel left Holland most probably because, at the age of twenty, he bludgeoned a woman to death. Entering the US illegally, he then enlisted in the army as 'Tom Parker'. But, with supreme irony for someone later styling himself as Colonel, Parker's military career ended in desertion, and discharge after a psychiatrist had certified him as a psychopath. He then became a fairground barker, working sideshows with a zeal for small-scale huckstering and the casual scam that never left him. And by the height of Elvis's success, Parker had become a pathological gambler who, at the same time as he was taking, amazingly, a full 50% of Presley's earnings, frittered away all his wealth in the casinos of Las Vegas. As Nash shows, therefore, the often baffling trajectory of Elvis Presley's career makes perfect sense once the secret imperatives of the Colonel's life are known. Parker never booked Presley for a tour of Europe because of the dark secret that ensured he himself could never return there. Even at his most famous, Elvis was still being booked to play out-of-the-way towns in North Carolina - because the former fairground barker (who shamelessly negotiated as such even with top record company and film executives) knew them from his days on the circus circuit. And Elvis was trapped playing years of arduous seasons in Las Vegas - two shows nightly, seven days a week, until boredom and despair brought on the excessive drug use that killed him - because for Parker he was an open chit" whose huge earnings prevented his manager's losses at the gambling tables being called in. Alanna Nash knew Parker towards the end of his life, and has now uncovered the whole story, improbable, shocking, and never less than compelling, of how this larger-than-life man made, and then unmade, popular music's first and greatest superstar.
format_category_eh
eBook
format_eh
eBook
id
28104510-d6b1-0bfb-5f4e-ac98f7a4e6ab
isbn
9781781312018
last_indexed
2024-05-04T05:20:05.275Z
lexile_score
-1
literary_form
Non Fiction
literary_form_full
Non Fiction
local_time_since_added_eh
Year
primary_isbn
9781781312018
publishDate
2014
publisher
Aurum Press
recordtype
grouped_work
subject_facet
Electronic books
title_display
The Colonel
title_full
The Colonel [electronic resource] / Alanna Nash
title_short
The Colonel
topic_facet
Electronic books
Solr Details Tables
item_details
Bib Id | Item Id | Shelf Loc | Call Num | Format | Format Category | Num Copies | Is Order Item | Is eContent | eContent Source | eContent URL | Detailed Status | Last Checkin | Location |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
hoopla:MWT11692899 | Online Hoopla Collection | Online Hoopla | eBook | eBook | 1 | false | true | Hoopla | https://www.hoopladigital.com/title/11692899?utm_source=MARC&Lid=hh4435 | Available Online |
record_details
Bib Id | Format | Format Category | Edition | Language | Publisher | Publication Date | Physical Description | Abridged |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
hoopla:MWT11692899 | eBook | eBook | English | Aurum Press | 2014 | 1 online resource (416 pages) |
scoping_details_eh
Bib Id | Item Id | Grouped Status | Status | Locally Owned | Available | Holdable | Bookable | In Library Use Only | Library Owned | Holdable PTypes | Bookable PTypes | Local Url |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
hoopla:MWT11692899 | Available Online | Available Online | false | true | false | false | false | false |