Col. Tom Parker :: essays research papers

PARKER, who gave up smoking his trademark big Cuban cigars in 1990, had a meteoric rise from being a hobo in the new-made 1920s to a top show business manager. tom Parker was born on June 26, 1909 in Breda, The Netherlands to Adam and Maria VanKuijk who named their fifth shaver Andreas Cornelius VanKuijk. As a young man Parker immigrated to the United States where he worked on carnivals and served four years in the United States Army.After his discharge from the ground forces he went spikelet to carnival life. In late 1939 and early 1940 he became the manager of Gene Austin and traveled with Genes "Models & Melodies" show.In late 1940 he became Field Director of the Tampa Humane Society, a position he held for three years. tom turkey Parker left the Humane Society to go back into the entertainment field, booking country acts. In 1944 he became the manager of run Arnold and by November 1947 Eddy had been 1 on the country charts for 53 weeks.When Tom Parker and Eddy Ar nold went their separate ways, Tom began booking Hank Snow and in January 1955 became his face-to-face manager. Colonel (as he was now called, having been given an honorary title of "colonel" by some(prenominal) southern governors) began booking window glass Presley as an opening act on the Hank Snow appearances.In October 1955 as pane special advisor (Bob Neal was still managing Elvis), Colonel negotiated a recording contract with RCA Victor for Elvis. It should be noted that it was, at that time, the custom for the A&R people to choose the songs for an artist to record. notwithstanding Colonel insisted that Elvis choose his own songs. Today it is common practice for the artist to choose their own material. . . .but Elvis was the first.In 1956 Colonel became Elvis personal manager. By the barricade of their first year together the WALL STREET JOURNAL account that since Colonel began marketing Elvis merchandise, they had grossed some $22 million in sales. Elvis re cords and albums were selling in the millions. Together they made history.After reading a newspaper story pleading for support for the Arizona Memorial fund, Colonel talked with Elvis and they decided to offer a benefit project to raise specie to finish the memorial which honored those who lost their lives during the devastating surprise bombardment on the military installations at Pearl Harbor. In March 1961 the concert took place and nearly $100,000 was raised.