Colonel Tom Parker
| Tom Parker | |
|---|---|
Parker in 1993
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| Born |
Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk June 26, 1909 Breda, Netherlands |
| Died | January 21, 1997 (aged 87) Las Vegas, Nevada, United States |
| Occupation | Talent manager |
| Spouse(s) |
Marie Francis Mott (m. 1935; d. 1986) Loanne Miller (m. 1990) |
Thomas Andrew "Colonel Tom" Parker (born Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk; June 26, 1909 – January 21, 1997) was a Dutch-born American talent manager, best known as the manager of Elvis Presley. His management of Presley defined the role of masterminding talent management, which involved every facet of the client's life and was seen as central to the success of Presley's career.
Parker's healthy compensation has led some to question whether it came at the detriment of his client. While other managers took compensation in the range of 10–15 percent of earnings, Parker took as much as 50 percent toward the end of Presley's life. Presley said of Parker, "I don't think I'd have ever been very big if it wasn't for him. He's a very smart man." For many years, Parker falsely claimed to have been born in the United States, but it eventually emerged that he had been born in the Netherlands.
Parker was born in Breda, Netherlands, the seventh of 11 children in a Catholic family. As a boy, he worked as a barker at carnivals in his hometown, learning many of the skills that he would require in later life while working in the entertainment industry.
At age 15, Parker moved to Rotterdam, gaining employment on the boats in the port town. At age 17, he first displayed signs of wanting to run away to America to "make his fortune". A year later, with enough money to sustain him for a short period, he entered America illegally by jumping ship from his employer's vessel. During his first visit there, he traveled with a Chautauqua educative tent show, before returning briefly to the Netherlands.
Alanna Nash would later write in The Colonel, her biography of him, that there were questions about a murder in Breda in which Parker might have been a suspect or at least a person of interest. This might have motivated Parker to avoid seeking a passport, as the Netherlands has an active extradition treaty with the United States, and Parker might have wanted to avoid criminal arrest by Dutch authorities in that case.
Parker returned to America at age 20, finding work with carnivals due to his previous experience in the Netherlands. He enlisted in the United States Army, taking the name "Tom Parker" from the officer who interviewed him, to disguise the fact he was an illegal immigrant.
He served two years in the 64th Coast Artillery (United States), at Fort Shafter in Hawaii, and shortly afterwards re-enlisted at Fort Barrancas, Florida. Although Parker had served honorably before, he went AWOL this time and was charged with desertion. He was punished with solitary confinement, from which he emerged with a psychosis that led to two months in a mental hospital, and he was discharged from the Army due to his mental condition.
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