Sunday, June 28, 2009

Colonel Tom Parker-100th Birthday

"Colonel" Thomas Andrew "Tom" Parker (born Andreas Cornelis ("Dries") van Kuijk on June 26, 1909 – January 21, 1997), was a Dutch entertainment impresario known best as the manager of Elvis Presley.


For many years Parker claimed to have been U.S. born, but it eventually emerged that he was born in Breda, Netherlands, to Dutch parents. His management of Elvis Presley re-wrote the role of the manager and was seen as central to the astonishing success of Presley's career. He displayed a ruthless devotion to his client's interests, took far more than the traditional 10% of his earnings (reaching 25% and up to 50% by the end of Elvis's life), and piloted Elvis to global superstardom. Presley said of Parker: "I don't think I would have been very big with another man. Because he's a very smart man."


Learn more with Alanna Nash's The Colonel, the extraordinary story of Colonel Tom Parker available via LINKcat or we have many books on his client Elvis Presley at 921 Presley.

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