colonel parkers worst decisions/deals

[lvs2day]

durring ELVIS extrordinairy career his manger made some good deals/decisons and some real bad ones , i often wonder what it would have bin to have him change management maybe for better or worse] , either way i sure think there were alot of things that the colonel did not understand or most likely care about , after all as he stated to ELVIS from the beginning that he would make him a millionaire[and he kept that promise], even though ELVIS PRESLEY became the biggest thing in show buisness he had to question i would think , some of colonels bad decisions . I personally feel that the colonel should have bin gone after a few of those movies , what about you?

[rickb]

To be fair he did some good things and rode the promotion train pretty well in the 50s. Aloha was another milestone achievement.
However, his mis-management eventually outweighed the positives.
Booking EIC during the middle of yet another gruelling road-to-nowhere tour was a heartless, short-sighted decision.
His commitment to crap movies was almost career destroying.
Booking Elvis to Vegas in '56 was stupid.
But his worst decisions came in what he didn't do - denying Elvis his opportunity to fulfil overseas tours or to act in a decent movie.
Money was seen as the catalyst for success, not artistic relevance or fulfilment

[Brian]

If you look at things from Colonel Parker point of view he didn't make any bad decisions.

If you look at things from Elvis' point of view he made 3-4 mistakes

I'd say if Elvis really wanted to fire him he should have but he didn't.

[lvs2day]

To be fair he did some good things and rode the promotion train pretty well in the 50s. Aloha was another milestone achievement.
However, his mis-management eventually outweighed the positives.
Booking EIC during the middle of yet another gruelling road-to-nowhere tour was a heartless, short-sighted decision.
His commitment to crap movies was almost career destroying.
Booking Elvis to Vegas in '56 was stupid.
But his worst decisions came in what he didn't do - denying Elvis his opportunity to fulfil overseas tours or to act in a decent movie.
Money was seen as the catalyst for success, not artistic relevance or fulfilment

rick , i kinda agree with ger rijff when he says that the overseas touring was something ELVIS really lost intrest in and did't want to do[especially in the end], they made good money touring the same ol venues again and again[if it aint broke don't fix it], and this didn't seem to bother ELVIS to the point of speaking up, ger rijff also made a great point in that the aloha show was to show the fans that he was still relevant and the yeses to wantint to tour overseas was to keep fans happy. At the 69 press confrence he was asked if he was going to go overseas and he refferd the question yet again to colonel-ahh what could have bin eh.

[monk37]

I think Parker made one bad decision that all the other bad ones resulted from.

He only thought short time - get what you can, while you can.

There was never any thought to legacy or archival value .

Funny Parker seemed to want Elvis to be an all round family friendly entertainer and pretended the 50s didn't really happen

while EPE wants to pretend that the last part of the 70's didn't happen

[rickb]

good post monk37.

[debtdbruno]

I honestly don't think anyone could have done for Elvis what Tom Parker did in the 50's.
He kept his name going through his service time in Germany.
The controversy starts with the films.............depends on where your thoughts are. Elvis, we are told was the top, or virtually the hightest paid Film star going..........So, it gave him a lot of money to do what he wanted. Yes, it was at the expense of 'artistic' credability..........but it kept him working!!!!
Fortunately he stood up to Tom inregards to the 68 special and recording some of those fantastic songs from Memphis in 69.

Tom was very shortsighted in tying Elvis in to the long term deal at the International without a sliding scale salary.........

Was it him that kept Elvis on the road, or did Elvis want to, to pay his massive overheads and to stop the boredom??.............who knows??

Aloha was monumental, credit to Tom there. Depends on who you talk to about World Tours. Some say it was Tom's lack of passport, others, that Elvis wouldn't have got away with traveling with all the guns and drugs on him...............

[Jungleroom76]

I honestly don't think anyone could have done for Elvis what Tom Parker did in the 50's.
He kept his name going through his service time in Germany.

Exactly right Deb!!!

As I've said many times before, I really think The Colonel did a very good job with Elvis' career during the 50's and early 60's. Getting Elvis the RCA deal, booking him on all of the top-rated TV programs of the 50's for nationwide exposure, the movie deal and perhaps the greatest thing of all, as Deb said, keeping Elvis on the radio and in the media while he was away in the Army. Elvis could have been completely out of the public eye during those 2 years had it not been for The Colonel spacing out the singles and albums while Elvis was away. Even the first couple of years when Elvis was home from the Army was handled well by The Colonel...getting Elvis on the Frank Sinatra special and insuring Elvis had movie contracts to work on when he came home.

The controversy starts with the films.............depends on where your thoughts are. Elvis, we are told was the top, or virtually the hightest paid Film star going..........So, it gave him a lot of money to do what he wanted. Yes, it was at the expense of 'artistic' credability..........but it kept him working!!!!

Right again Deb...this is where things started going downhill in terms of The Colonel's ability to manage Elvis effectively. Yes, Elvis was the highest paid movie actor no question....but the money is only part of the equation. What about Elvis' artistic creativity?? Of course we all know why The Colonel was focused on making Elvis the highest paid actor in the movies...the more money Elvis made, the more The Colonel stole, er, I mean earned...

Instead of forcing Elvis to honor all of those movie contracts, The Colonel should have dealt differently with the movie studios by negotiating shorter term contracts and then re-negotiated them when they were up instead of getting Elvis locked into such long-term deals!!

Fortunately he stood up to Tom inregards to the 68 special and recording some of those fantastic songs from Memphis in 69.

Honestly, I think we have Steve Binder to thank for Elvis standing up to The Colonel on the '68 Special. If Steve Binder didn't have the vision for the special, Elvis would have done the 60-minute Christmas special that The Colonel truly wanted.

Same thing with the American Sessions...I really think the guys had more to do with that than The Colonel. The guys (Marty Lacker, George Klein, etc.) really got Elvis fired up over the idea of recording at American and convinced Elvis that he needed to do it to complete the revival of his career. Without the guys giving Elvis the support, Elvis probably wouldn't have stood up to The Colonel on recording at American.

Tom was very shortsighted in tying Elvis in to the long term deal at the International without a sliding scale salary.........

Again, another EXCELLENT point Deb!!!

Was it him that kept Elvis on the road, or did Elvis want to, to pay his massive overheads and to stop the boredom??.............who knows??

Although it has been stated that if Elvis had too much off-road time, he would ask The Colonel to set up a tour, I really think most of the touring came down to The Colonel. If Elvis wasn't working, there wasn't any money to be made for The Colonel to siphon, er, I mean work for his 50% of!!!

Aloha was monumental, credit to Tom there. Depends on who you talk to about World Tours. Some say it was Tom's lack of passport, others, that Elvis wouldn't have got away with traveling with all the guns and drugs on him...............

Yes I agree that the ALOHA show was a brilliant piece of managing, but sadly it was too little, too late. Elvis was already on a slippery slope and even though ALOHA prevented Elvis from sliding down at the time, eventually it happened....basically ALOHA delayed the inevitable.

As for the World Tour thing, considering The Colonel was a smart guy, if he REALLY wanted Elvis to do a world tour, he would have worked out the logisitics to make it happen. PERIOD! The Colonel could have figured out the security, Elvis' gun situation, etc. But The Colonel just completely shut the whole idea down repeatedly, which means to me that there was some reason HE didn't want to have Elvis leave the country. There was just too much money to be made on a world tour for The Colonel to say no simply because of security challenges or Elvis' need to carry guns. The Colonel would have worked around all of that to get Elvis overseas to make more money. But since he didn't, that means to me that The Colonel was hiding something...

As far as bad deals, let's not forget the '73 RCA deal where The Colonel sold all of Elvis' rights to his back catalog back to RCA for 5.4 million. That easily could be the WORST business decision in the history of show business...

TCB!
Mike

[monk37]

I think that any competent manager with such a hot property like Elvis could have made good deals.

And a manager who had an understanding of the music, would have been making better deals because they would have cared about the artistic merit of the movies and the songs.

Elvis probably would have been happier and may have done less drugs to dull himself.


the Steve Allen show in particular should never have happened - Elvis should not have been made to appear foolish.

If Blue Hawaii had not been made, and he'd kept with the Flaming Star/Wild in the Country - I think the fans would have come around.

But he shouldn't have made more than 1 movie a year and he should have toured through the sixties.

When the Beatles came here in 64 - Elvis should have gone and taken Europe by storm

[debtdbruno]

I think that any competent manager with such a hot property like Elvis could have made good deals.

And a manager who had an understanding of the music, would have been making better deals because they would have cared about the artistic merit of the movies and the songs.

Elvis probably would have been happier and may have done less drugs to dull himself.


the Steve Allen show in particular should never have happened - Elvis should not have been made to appear foolish.

If Blue Hawaii had not been made, and he'd kept with the Flaming Star/Wild in the Country - I think the fans would have come around.

But he shouldn't have made more than 1 movie a year and he should have toured through the sixties.

When the Beatles came here in 64 - Elvis should have gone and taken Europe by storm

excellent points Monk!!!!!!!!

[debtdbruno]

Exactly right Deb!!!

As I've said many times before, I really think The Colonel did a very good job with Elvis' career during the 50's and early 60's. Getting Elvis the RCA deal, booking him on all of the top-rated TV programs of the 50's for nationwide exposure, the movie deal and perhaps the greatest thing of all, as Deb said, keeping Elvis on the radio and in the media while he was away in the Army. Elvis could have been completely out of the public eye during those 2 years had it not been for The Colonel spacing out the singles and albums while Elvis was away. Even the first couple of years when Elvis was home from the Army was handled well by The Colonel...getting Elvis on the Frank Sinatra special and insuring Elvis had movie contracts to work on when he came home.



Right again Deb...this is where things started going downhill in terms of The Colonel's ability to manage Elvis effectively. Yes, Elvis was the highest paid movie actor no question....but the money is only part of the equation. What about Elvis' artistic creativity?? Of course we all know why The Colonel was focused on making Elvis the highest paid actor in the movies...the more money Elvis made, the more The Colonel stole, er, I mean earned... :angry::lmfao

Instead of forcing Elvis to honor all of those movie contracts, The Colonel should have dealt differently with the movie studios by negotiating shorter term contracts and then re-negotiated them when they were up instead of getting Elvis locked into such long-term deals!!



Honestly, I think we have Steve Binder to thank for Elvis standing up to The Colonel on the '68 Special. If Steve Binder didn't have the vision for the special, Elvis would have done the 60-minute Christmas special that The Colonel truly wanted.

Agree, Steve and Elvis worked together to push out Tom

Same thing with the American Sessions...I really think the guys had more to do with that than The Colonel. The guys (Marty Lacker, George Klein, etc.) really got Elvis fired up over the idea of recording at American and convinced Elvis that he needed to do it to complete the revival of his career. Without the guys giving Elvis the support, Elvis probably wouldn't have stood up to The Colonel on recording at American.

Yes, Tom would have sooner had him at Nashville, thanks to Marty, George (or whoever) for suggesting Memphis. My favourite 'era' of his music......awesome stuff



Again, another EXCELLENT point Deb!!!



Although it has been stated that if Elvis had too much off-road time, he would ask The Colonel to set up a tour, I really think most of the touring came down to The Colonel. If Elvis wasn't working, there wasn't any money to be made for The Colonel to siphon, er, I mean work for his 50% of!!!


Yes I agree that the ALOHA show was a brilliant piece of managing, but sadly it was too little, too late. Elvis was already on a slippery slope and even though ALOHA prevented Elvis from sliding down at the time, eventually it happened....basically ALOHA delayed the inevitable.

As for the World Tour thing, considering The Colonel was a smart guy, if he REALLY wanted Elvis to do a world tour, he would have worked out the logisitics to make it happen. PERIOD! The Colonel could have figured out the security, Elvis' gun situation, etc. But The Colonel just completely shut the whole idea down repeatedly, which means to me that there was some reason HE didn't want to have Elvis leave the country. There was just too much money to be made on a world tour for The Colonel to say no simply because of security challenges or Elvis' need to carry guns. The Colonel would have worked around all of that to get Elvis overseas to make more money. But since he didn't, that means to me that The Colonel was hiding something...

As far as bad deals, let's not forget the '73 RCA deal where The Colonel sold all of Elvis' rights to his back catalog back to RCA for 5.4 million. That easily could be the WORST business decision in the history of show business...

It must have been the worst deal in Music hisory.........a complete traversty.

Elvis should have tried another alternative to pay his divorce settlement, thereagain, a better Manager would have offered done more to find a way through the sticky patch

TCB!
Mike

We will all never agree on Tom Parker, a very controversial figure!!!!!

[Jungleroom76]

We will all never agree on Tom Parker, a very controversial figure!!!!!

Though we will never all agree on Col. Parker and our feelings about him, I think we'll all at least agree that as you said, he is a VERY controversial figure!!

TCB!
Mike

[buttonhead]

I think Colonel did his bad and great part to promote Elvis,....

The movie contract was not the best decisions, eventhough there were MANY songs / great songs come out off it, but Elvis lack of challenge as an actor put Elvis on too much stress, not to mentioned boredom, and The Beatles came to the U.S... overall was not the best year for Elvis, except the first movies he made such as Love Me Tender, King Creole...Jailhouse Rock...

I do think that Col. Parker decision not to have Elvis world tour ( excuse my language) .. was dumb... i heard that Colonel did not have american passport etc..etc ... and Elvis drugs issue would be bad for his reputations,...

I would think that you only lived once,.... trying something wouldn't hurt so much if its all correctly arranged and planned... I think this would be Elvis hoped and wished to meet his fans all over the world.

As much as Aloha from Hawaii was a huge success, it is different to feel the real crowds of fans from different countries face to face, ..

Just my 2 cent

[Raised on Rock]

Parker was genius from '56 to '61, after that he didn't seemed what to do and to me then comes his first big mistake:

1. After switching directions from rocker to a more mature performer, which was asserted, the success of Blue Hawaii, and the musical light comedies, made clear for him that bubble gum entertainment, both on the screen and in vinyl, made much more money than the more mature and supreme Wild in The Country, and albums like the great Elvis is Back! His Hand in Mine and Something for Everybody. From then on, Parker saw no need in changing direction again, so he saw Elvis a a finished product, they reached the goal, and there was nothing else to do but milk on it, making Elvis to vanish from a highly respected artist, to a mere all family bubble gum entertainer. And maybe for and old man like him that was the way to go, actually that was the way to go in the 40's or 50's, but these where the 60's and Parker never understood the changing times, and how Elvis himself and what he did in the mid to late 50's, WAS crucial to those changing times. PARKER BIGEST MISTAKE WAS INSISTING AND PUSHING ELVIS OVER AND OVER TO BE THE NEXT PERRY COMO OR DEAN MARTIN INSTEAD OF LETTING HIM TO BE ELVIS, to grow as an artist, and go with the flow with his own creative needs, which were actually in tune with the changing 60's, forcing Elvis to be out of tune with the times and feeling constantly frustrated, both, him and his audience.

2. Parker second huge mistake, not allowing Elvis to tour overseas. They say they were going to do that in '58 but the army got in the way, can't say if its true or not. But after his stunning return to live performance in '69, anytime between '70 and '72 WAS the time to do it. Post '74 much have been said of Elvis moods and all, but between '69 and '72, Presley was willing to do it, the world was willing to see him, there was much more money there than in any other tour or TV show in the states, and it was big time money, so just out of love for the money, how could he let that go!!! something simply smells funny about that.

[Jumpsuit Junkie]

I think the Colonel was simply to strong a character for Elvis. The Colonels management of Elvis in the beginning was that of a strong father figure who Elvis looked up to. As the years passed by this situation was aloud to continue until the latter part of the 60's where Elvis pulled away from the Colonels overbearing need to submerge Elvis into a family entertainer category.

If it wasn't for people like Steve Binder and Chips Moman who had a vision of the earlier Presley, who knows where Elvis would have been sidelined into?

However the reborn emergence of Elvis from the syrupy films and songs was short lived, the Colonel became the default leader once again mainly through Elvis' own apathy.

There is far to much political 'in' fighting between the Elvis and Colonel camps. To many people on the payroll for Elvis to worry about. In the end the familiar became the bedrock from which Elvis just couldn't break free from.

[Nigel_EIN]

Hi guys

While the Colonel was good for Elvis in the 50s and early 60s, his style of management was overtaken by major changes in the music business.

To me there were five major blunders by the Colonel:

1. No world tour
2. Rejecting the $10M offer in the 70s for Elvis to stage a concert in front of the pyramids in Egypt
3. The sale of Elvis' back catalog to RCA
4. Not being more strategic with Elvis' film career (he should have looked carefully at how Crosby & Sinatra managed their music-film careers)
5. Not changing with the times.

Nigel
EIN
www.elvisinfonet.com

[KPM]

I think the Colonel was simply to strong a character for Elvis. The Colonels management of Elvis in the beginning was that of a strong father figure who Elvis looked up to. As the years passed by this situation was aloud to continue until the latter part of the 60's where Elvis pulled away from the Colonels overbearing need to submerge Elvis into a family entertainer category.

If it wasn't for people like Steve Binder and Chips Moman who had a vision of the earlier Presley, who knows where Elvis would have been sidelined into?

However the reborn emergence of Elvis from the syrupy films and songs was short lived, the Colonel became the default leader once again mainly through Elvis' own apathy.

There is far to much political 'in' fighting between the Elvis and Colonel camps. To many people on the payroll for Elvis to worry about. In the end the familiar became the bedrock from which Elvis just couldn't break free from.

Exactly correct in my opinion-I would add one word to your description of the Col "he was too strong and smart"
He knew how to "lead" Elvis which made Elvis feel he was moving totally on the correct course and when you feel someone smarter is at the helm you don't notice the drift in your voyage-because you feel secure and safe.
I have always quoted Parkers own words about Elvis which in essence say "Elvis was going to be big nomatter who managed him"
I truely believe that and have several times pointed out that Parker followed the same path that managed Crosby and Sinatra, after they caused a stir in performances ...they were steered onto a record label, made guest shots on radio shows (tv for Elvis) then into the movies......it was not rocket science because it had been done before. I recently posted a link to Elvis's original movie contract with Wallis negotiated by Parker and I was not impressed with the money which just not good-Parker renegotiated it later after everyone saw the box office bonanza Elvis was-but instead of going after a little more creative control and a promise in contract of serious chances for non singing roles all he asked for was money and profit.
Creatively Shortsighted from someone who had no idea of what creatvie people need for growth...IMO
Parker and RCA did keep songs coming out during he Army years which helped keep him a presense on the radio-but lets not forget stories were still coming out in magazines, and on radio about Elvis in the service that Parker had nothing to do with so there was a lot of interest in Elvis even without the songs from 58-60.

[debtdbruno]

I think the Colonel was simply to strong a character for Elvis. The Colonels management of Elvis in the beginning was that of a strong father figure who Elvis looked up to. As the years passed by this situation was aloud to continue until the latter part of the 60's where Elvis pulled away from the Colonels overbearing need to submerge Elvis into a family entertainer category.

If it wasn't for people like Steve Binder and Chips Moman who had a vision of the earlier Presley, who knows where Elvis would have been sidelined into?

However the reborn emergence of Elvis from the syrupy films and songs was short lived, the Colonel became the default leader once again mainly through Elvis' own apathy.

There is far to much political 'in' fighting between the Elvis and Colonel camps. To many people on the payroll for Elvis to worry about. In the end the familiar became the bedrock from which Elvis just couldn't break free from.

Absolutely........unfortunately, Elvis should have stood up to him

[Diane]

Absolutely........unfortunately, Elvis should have stood up to him

Sure wish he had but Elvis wasn't used to handling the extremely complicated life and career that was thrown at him. So much was going on in his life. I can't see anyone with his personality and upbringing handling things any better.

Diane

[debtdbruno]

agree, he had the upbringing of respecting one's elders.............which he carried to the extreme.

Plus, he didn't really like confrontations