Tom Hanks: People Don't Realize This About Elvis Presley's Manager

[@susanjeffries5108]

I love the depth to which Tom Hanks researched his character. His thoughtfulness and desire to get it right really speaks a lot to his integrity and dedication to acting. I've always really enjoyed Tom Hanks and his movies and thought this interview was really interesting!

[@jackmundo4043]

Good show I enjoyed it. Thank you. In fairness to Elvis, I almost shot my tv the last time Robert Goullet came on, too.

[@scsu5085]

--------the great mistake this movie made was omitting Elvis other big influences, ie: Country, Bluegrass, & Pop. Elvis biggest idol was Dean Martin. He did not set out to be a blues artist or rock & roll, he wanted to be another Pop Crooner, like Dean & Bing Crosby. They also did not emphasize Elvis was the one singlehandedly who DEsegregated our music via doing blues songs, among his repertoire. But when he did blues, it sounded entirely different than the originals he covered. He did something to them, it was a style of his own, as Rufus Thomas said. He injected something into black music that no one else had ever done. Whether Elvis was aware of it or not, he blended white Country Music with Black Blues and came up with a unique blend of Rock & Roll. We must not forget Bill Hailey, who did it also.

[@jupitermoongauge4055]

I love Elvis, but it wasn't so much that he injected something into Blues, as that he left most of it out.The reason being, he didn't have 20% of the talent as a a vocalist as most Blues singers of the era. That doesn't take anything away from the fact that Elvis was in another league when it came to presentation and performance.

[@psychedelicelvis-777]

@@jupitermoongauge4055 Presley's voice with its beautiful register was more than a one trick pony hence his wider appeal!

[@thewebstylist]

Great interview 100

[@brianjay9811]

Colonel Tom Parker once had a show where he made chickens step on electrified wires, causing the helpless animals to jump around in pain. Colonel Parker's Dancing Chickens were a big hit. I believe the man treated Elvis in a similar fashion. Parker had immigration issues and so would not dare leave the country. This is why Elvis never did a world tour. Parker also roped Elvis into large Hollywood movie contracts, resulting in Elvis losing touch with the evolving music scene. This manager poured water on Elvis's potential at every turn...

[@davidrice3337]

You believe this is how he treated Elvis? You believe ? What kind of horseshit is this ? If you knew the man then speak of your experience - So many people come with their idiotic negativity about subjects they know nothing of

[@davidrice3337]

Great comment

[@brianjay9811]

@@davidrice3337 My dad knew Elvis. I wrote a book based on Elvis. Truth can often appear as negative, but the only negative vibes here are coming from your comment...

[@stianolafsen7450]

Great movie ⚡️ TCB!

[@richardmardis2492]

Wow- Tom knows his stuff! I’m so much more enlightened now😲

[@piczmdr4415]

I love Tom Hank’s art as an actor. All of his films I have seen. The Elvis film was fantastic too. He (Tom) is also right in realizing that artists have immense power to influence people also in their political views. That’s exactly why artists should refrain from exercising this power. Their God given talent is in their art and should not be abused by copy-pasting it to other domains of life where their talent is not so obvious, to put it mildly. No matter how talented, they are just another voter. That is the democratic thinking. So Colonel Parker was right about this issue.

[@EasyTiger.01343]

3:53 Sounds like he’s describing a Trump rally

[@benw-king3380]

Someone was bound to be disappointed by this movie...you couldn't possibly get every detail of this fantastically drawn out, complex saga into an hour or two. That said - and I respect the fact that Tom Hanks had access to Elvis' family - I disagree with Tom's maintaining that Parker, or Andreas Cornelis Van Kuilk as he was on his birth certificate - was the only person capable of creating the legend that Elvis was to become. I think Elvis held his own destiny in his hands in the respect that, way before Parker turned up, Presley was causing havoc on the chitlin circuit. His Sun recordings were already creating the kind of mayhem one might expect...granted this was regional; but I think that it was only a matter of time. Elvis had it all didn't he? That voice, the natural choreography, and it didn't hurt that he was such a beautiful man - sending women everywhere he performed completely potty. No, Elvis would have gotten there anyway. Maybe a little slower....but he was destined to be what he became. And maybe he would have avoided those shitty movies, the hideous records that accompanied those films, and the inability to play the shows he wanted to - most notably, the rest of the world. Becoming a bloated wreck, to my mind, was symptomatic of the fact that he never really had authentic agency of his life and career. But this is just my opinion.

[@johndavis3921]

If the Colonel truly loved Elvis, he should have realized he could not fulfill Elvis' creative desires. The Colonel should have found Elvis a manager who could secure the projects that would have made Elvis happy, that would have nurtured and developed Elvis' confidence. I recently learned that Bob Neal, not the Colonel, booked Elvis on the Dorsey Brothers Show. I believe Elvis would have been Elvis without the Colonel. Hollywood would have come to Elvis. I learned 25 years ago that during the casting of the picture, Rio Bravo and John Wayne wanted Elvis, and he gave Howard Hawks permission to be a mediary to acquire Elvis' services. Mr. Hawks knew of the Colonel's reputation and warned Mr. Wayne that the Colonel was extremely difficult. According to Mrs. Hawks, the Colonel wanted 1 million dollars in cash and top billing for his "boy." So John Wayne used Ricky Nelson instead. I remember reading articles in the early 80s that the Colonel didn't like Elvis being to chummy with people outside his inner circle. I recall Walter Mathau advising Elvis to take lessons from acting coach Sandy Meisner, but the Colonel was not appreciative of the advice. As for Priscilla's and Jerry's belief Elvis could have told the Colonel 'no," I recall an incident with a song by Jerry Reed. Elvis was sick of making movie soundtracks. He heard a Jerry Reed song he liked and booked time in RCA Studio B. When RCA discovered Elvis was using the studio without permission, all hell broke loose. RCA had to get permission from Jerry Reed to allow Elvis to record his song. Lucky for RCA, Jerry was signed to RCA. They tracked down Jerry, who was on vacation in Northern Mississippi fishing. They sent a helicopter down to pick him up. RCA called the Colonel, who rushed over to STUDIO B from his office 30 miles west of Nashville. This was the first time Elvis met Jerry. He apologized to Jerry for the commotion. Was in the process of trying to explain why he was recording his song when the Colonel walked in and took Elvis into another room When Elvis returned, his demeanor had changed to that of a child who had just come back from the wood shed. This incident is why I believe Elvis had a hard time recording Burning Love. The Colonel didn't supply the song; one of the Memphis Mafia supplied the song. Elvis didn't want to experience the Jerry Reed incident again. I always heard that the Colonel wanted 20% of the publishing before Elvis was allowed to cut a song. Leiber and Stoller were surprised at how lovely it was working with Elvis. It was the Colonel that ruined what could have been a long-term partnership. Leiber and Stoller told the anticdote of returning to their hotel room and finding an 8.5x14 yellow legal sheet of paper slid under their door with a paper clipped not attached. The note said, "I will fill in the details later. Just sign by the "X." Out of the 3 "x's," one of them had the name "Colonel Tom Parker." They realized it was a contract for them to be the exclusive songwriters for Elvis. The Colonel was a conman. I saw an interview back in the 80's on the Gary Collins show. He had a Green Acre's reunion. Pat Buttram stated that he based his character of Mr. Haney on Colonel Parker. He knew the Colonel for decades. They started out in the entertainment business together. These were crucial points overlooked in the film. But their are so many interesting business and personal anticdotes in the relationship of Elvis, the Colonel, and Elvis' associates that it would have taken Mr. Lurhman years to write the script. From my understanding, Mr. Lurhman developed his script exclusively from the information he found in Elvis' archives, which also hold the Colonel's. Mr. Lurhman obviously did not research any biographies like Peter Guralnick.

[@soeffingwhat]

Wow, and you were there? You actually saw all this in person?

[@scottm2828]

Parker was EXACTLY right about keeping politics out of entertainment.

[@12Cooper]

T.Hanks!

[@ayianaarthur2551]

Tom Parker was right about entertainers having no business talking about their political views.

[@soeffingwhat]

Why shouldn't entertainers talk about their views? They don't merely exist just to entertain, they're human beings not performing monkeys.

[@bentucker2301]

Especially if those views don't match your own, right?

[@ayianaarthur2551]

@@bentucker2301 I dislike any entertainer who talks politics. I know that using entertainers to push political agendas is the domain of oppressive dictators. That kind of thing is rampant in countries where freedom and true democracy don't exist. Now America is just as bad as the countries that people fled to America to get away from that kind of thing. America needs to get back to entertainers solely being entertainers and not political puppets pushing agendas, division and hatred.

[@bentucker2301]

@ayianaarthur2551 maybe

[@soeffingwhat]

@@ayianaarthur2551 Wow you are really over-thinking this. You can be sure that Entertainers in America are not political puppets, they are giving their views and opinions, there's a difference. I repeat entertainers are human beings with their own views and opinions. They are not "puppets" just here to entertain the likes of you and to "know their place". You might want to learn that.

[@davidrice3337]

George Strait was also fond of Col.Tom - This is why George made a movie -

[@2bigbufords]

Guy in the background keeps saying "Yea" every 3 seconds.

[@avcat]

I have listened to audio clips of Parker and found the Hanks interpretations unlike these clips.

[@tobiesoftstudio823]

Why was Priscilla calling Elvis her husband? EX husband sweetie. she divorced him. Wow , what filth. Rest in peace king 🙏🏼

[@davidrice3337]

Easy now - again , unless you know these people personally, you have no idea -

[@thedelshannonshow8575]

I love T H but Priscilla was/is Elvis’s EX wife and he was her EX husband. She left after 5 years, rightfully so… he was a horrible husband, but let’s keep it honest, she’s not the widow.

[@speedracer2336]

Parker took advantage of Elvis, but Presley was a grown man. Should have fired him after the movie contracts!

[@sandarbian3947]

30 minute questionss....really? Ask a question, simple and short.

[@walterhaines1309]

Hanks portrayal of Parker was awful. Sofia Coppola in Godfather 3 awful. Bucket of yuck.

[@Antonio-fw1bs]

Horrible movie, yuck!