elvis presley had the best manager any entertainer could ever hope for. in 1954 oscar davis told tom parker about a young teenager he had seen perform up in memphis and said to parker you ought to check this kid out he really puts on a wild show and gets the women all worked up. parker who always did what it took to get what he wanted. made the moves of a master chess player and ended up the manager of the most famous entertainer who ever lived. parker had ties into rca and the publishing business and didn’t waste any time getting elvis set up to make millions. he was a carnival man who only understood things in dollars and cents. once parker created his marketing plan he got the full help of rca and the william morris agency. in less than one year elvis was the biggest selling artist in the music business and highest paid performer on tv. parker also enlisted the help of beverly hills movie merchandiser hank saperstein into licensing seventy eight articles every thing from bracelets to lipstick, scarves, dolls plastic guitars, that pulled in $22 million not counting record sales or concerts in 1956. this was at a time when managers did little more than book concert dates for their artist.what tom parker started is the guide that the music business operates by today. much has been said about how tom parker cheated elvis. the truth is tom parker made elvis presley millions of dollars and there would be no graceland to visit if it had not been for for the vision of the colonel. tom parker knew entertainment inside out upside down and backwards and when he found elvis he had the vehicle to to put his knowledge to work. in elvis’ entire show business career he was never overexposed and with good reason. it was tom parkers belief that if they see elvis for free, they won’t pay to see him. with very little tv exposure “heartbreak hotel” sold over one million copies at the rate of 70,000 copies per week. eighty-two percent of every tv set in america saw elvis preform on the ed sullivan show and elvis got $25,000.00 for each of his three prformances. then came the movies and more money rolled in. in each movie that followed “love me tender” the colonel got elvis a better deal. the movies may have been silly but they made money. elvis went into the army as a regular soldier as the colonel instructed him to do. elvis came out in 1960 as a model american citizen who had done his duty to his country. more money making deals were made with movie companies, publishing, and better record deals were made. when the movies ran their course parker set up a deal with the international hotel in las vegas. after the come back special in 1968 parker struck a deal with with “kirk” kerkorian who made millions when sold his airline “trans international” and was building a $60 million dollar resort. kerkorian already owned the flamingo and knew good entainment would draw people into his 2,000 seat showroom. bill miller who would operate the international for kerkorian wanted elvis. elvis would do a four week engagement two shows a night seven days a week. usually performers get monday and tuesday off. elvis would work this schedule for $100.000.00 per week. for the four week engagement elvis drew 101,500 people. and the international grossed $1,680.000 dollars. the colonel upped the price to $125.000.00 per week. parker took elvis back on the road in the 70′s to sell out crowds. if you wanted to book elvis you put a million dollar deposit aganist 65% of the gate. the road shows became a major business with elvis getting $300,000.00.for a nights work. elvis was the first entertainer to sell out madison square garden and grossed over $730.000.00. maybe every deal the colonel made for elvis wasn’t good such as the time he asked for 5.4 million for all the rights to every song elvis had recorded up to 1973 and negotiated a seven year contract with rca for an annual payment of $500,000 for two albums and four singles a year. the final deal on on elvis’ records up to 1973 came to $10.5 million. the colonel got $ 6 million and elvis got $4.5 million. after taxes elvis got $ 2 million for the best recording’s he ever made. elvis needed the money to settle up with percilla. when his divorce came final in 1973 percilla would recieve $725.000, $4,200 a month which later would be upped to $6,000 per month and $4,000 a month child support. the colonel was always there to get elvis out of any mess he got into. he always found a way financially to bail elvis out of his many money problems. in the end the colonel took most likely 50% of what elvis earned. he had the right, elvis never complained. there was no way he could have earned any where near that much money had it not been for the colonel. when elvis got to the point that he understood nothing that had to do with common sence, the colonel took care of business and ran the show. everyone looked to the colonel to take care of business which he did. vernon always knew tom parker had an ace in the hole when trouble came and it came often. tom parker had (one) client and he took care of him. after elvis died tom parker took care of business and ran the show. later a judge acting in behalf of lisa marie took away most of the royalties that the colonel held in the selling of the elvis catalog. today all those items are sold through elvis presley enterprises in memphis. when elvis died his estate was worth around $10 million. today it’s net worth is over $450 million and growing. the colonel had a big hand in that growth. what he did with the career of elvis will never be equaled. all said and done tom parker and elvis earned over a billion dollars. thats says a lot for an immigrant from holland with little or no education and a poor boy from mississippi who had a one in a million odds to become one best know entertainers the world has ever known. colonel tom parker the best manager elvis ever had.

~ Widmarc Clark