Colonel Tom Parker

Thomas Andrew Parker (born Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk; June 26, 1909 – January 21, 1997), commonly known as Colonel Parker, was a Dutch-American musical entrepreneur.

He was best known as the manager of Elvis Presley.

Parker was born in the Netherlands and entered the United States illegally when he was 20 years old.

He adopted a new name and claimed to have been born in the United States.

Thomas Andrew Parker was born Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk on June 26, 1909, in Breda, North Brabant, Netherlands.

He was the fourth of 11 children of Maria Elisabeth (Marie) Ponsie and Adam van Kuijk.

His Catholic father, a former military man of 12 years, was working as a deliveryman for catalogs when Parker was born.

He died at the age of 59 when Parker was 16.

After his father's death, Parker moved to the port city of Rotterdam and lived with an aunt and uncle.

His uncle was a skipper by profession who sailed from Breda to Rotterdam.

At the age of 17, Parker expressed a desire to run away to the United States to "make his fortune", and he entered the US illegally, probably by jumping ship.

Biographies usually mention 1927 as the year of Parker's first attempt to emigrate to the US, but according to the Holland-Amerika Lijn passenger list that became available online in 2023, he was sent back from New York to the Netherlands on March 20, 1926.

He returned home to Rotterdam on the steamship SS Veendam.

The address he was registered at was Spanjaardstraat 110, Rotterdam.

The entry in the passenger list shows the voyage was paid for by the US government.

(The passenger lists can be viewed online at the Rotterdam archives.)

In May 1929, aged nearly 20, Parker returned to the US, this time to stay.

Having had previous experience in the traveling entertainment industry, he found work with carnivals and traveled with a Chautauqua educational tent show.

A few months later he enlisted in the United States Army, under a false identity to disguise his illegal entry into the country.

His new name, Tom Parker, is said to have been taken from the officer who interviewed him during his enrolment.

He completed basic training at Fort McPherson in Georgia.

Between 1931 and 1938, he worked with Royal American Shows, and began building a list of contacts that would prove valuable in later years.

In 1935, he married 27-year-old Marie Francis Mott.

They struggled to make ends meet during the Great Depression, working confidence tricks and traveling across the country in search of work.

With a background working in carnivals, Parker moved into music promotion in 1938, working with one of the first popular crooners, Gene Austin, and country music singers Eddy Arnold, Hank Snow, and Tommy Sands.

He also assisted Jimmie Davis's campaign to become governor of Louisiana, for which he was awarded the honorary rank of "colonel" in the Louisiana State Guard.

Parker encountered Presley in 1955 and by 1956 had become his manager.

With Parker's help, Presley signed a recording contract with RCA Victor, which led to a commercial breakthrough in 1956 with his sixth single "Heartbreak Hotel" and a career as one of the most commercially successful entertainers in the world.

Parker received more than half of the income from the enterprise, an unprecedented figure for a music manager.

He negotiated Presley's lucrative merchandising deals and media appearances and is said to have influenced Presley's personal life, including his decision to accept military service in 1958 and his marriage to Priscilla Beaulieu in 1967.

Parker encouraged Presley to make musical films, and they became the focus of his career during his commercial decline in the 1960s until his 1968 comeback and return to touring.

Parker served two years in the 64th Coast Artillery at Fort Shafter, Hawaii, and shortly afterward reenlisted at Fort Barrancas, Florida.

Although he had served honorably for a time, he went AWOL in Florida and was charged with desertion.

He was punished with solitary confinement, from which he emerged with a psychosis that led him to spend two months in a mental hospital.

His condition caused him to be discharged from the army.

Following his discharge, Parker worked at odd jobs, including short-term employments at food concessions and gaming carnivals.

Parker's influence waned in later years, but he continued in his management role until Presley died in 1977.

Parker managed the Presley estate for the rest of his life.

Having previously sold the rights to Presley's early recordings to RCA he struggled to secure a steady income, and his financial situation worsened after he sustained significant gambling losses.

Parker's final years were spent living in Las Vegas, in declining health, until his death in 1997.