Colonel Tom Parker ‘Destroyed’ the Unity of Elvis’ Entourage
Elvis Presley’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker, was a controversial figure. While he helped launch Elvis’ career, he also stifled him in some ways. He controlled many aspects of Elvis’ life, including the dynamic of his entourage. After Elvis hurt himself in a fall, Parker stepped in. The way he handled the entourage left many of them frustrated.
Colonel Tom Parker laid down the law with Elvis Presley’s entourage
In the late 1960s, Elvis’ road manager, Joe Esposito, picked up the musician to go to the studio and noticed that he seemed unsteady on his feet. Elvis admitted that he’d fallen and hit his head on the bathtub, which Esposito believed was the fault of all the pills he was taking.
When Parker learned that Elvis had a concussion, he lashed out at the entourage, asking how they could have let this happen. Two days later, he called a series of meetings in which he relegated new roles to the entourage.
He told Marty Lacker, who had been co-foreman, that he would now be in charge of planning Elvis’ wedding. The problem was that Parker had already planned the wedding.
“I thought it was a joke, because the Colonel and Joe had already planned the wedding,” Lacker said in the book Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley by Peter Guralnick. “To see Elvis acting that way, and to hear this old, fat bastard spewing edicts like he was Elvis’ ruler just made me sick. In fact, it destroyed my desire to be part of the group.”
Elvis Presley listened to Colonel Tom Parker when it came to his entourage
While the members of Elvis’ entourage were his friends, he deferred to Parker when it came to them. When Parker told Elvis to cut off one member of his entourage, Larry Geller, he listened obediently.
“‘Elvis should concentrate on his career,’ [Parker] said. ‘He’s an artist, not a shoulder to cry on. Leave him alone, and let him do his work,'” Priscilla Presley recalled in her book Elvis and Me. “The Colonel looked over at Larry; it was obvious that his message was primarily aimed at him … Elvis sat and listened like an obedient child, looking down, saying nothing. He did not stand up for Larry; no one did.”
Priscilla explained that Parker was the only person to whom Elvis would listen in this way.
“I was surprised at how attentively Elvis was listening,” Priscilla wrote. “Elvis had always argued with anyone, even me, who said anything against Larry. At one point, it seemed Elvis would cut off his right arm for Larry. But now Elvis promised the Colonel he wouldn’t spend any more time than he had to with him. He kept his promise. He only used Larry to style his hair and was never alone with him again.”
Vernon Presley didn’t like his son’s entourage either
Parker was not the only one who had problems with Elvis’ entourage. His father, Vernon, believed the entourage was taking advantage of him.
“Vernon didn’t have much respect for the guys,” Priscilla wrote. “He said Elvis just gave and gave and gave, and they took and took and took. He’d say, ‘Son, we have to save.’ Elvis would answer, ‘It’s only money, Daddy. I just have to go out and make more.'”
Elvis brushed off his father’s concerns, though.
