Elvis Blog Archives — May 2008
Entry #8: Posted May 1, 2008 While doing research for my book on Elvis’s 1957 concert tours, I found myself becoming very interested not only in Elvis but also in the men who worked with him and accompanied him on those final fifties tours. I’d like to devote this and next week’s blog entries to those men and what fate held in store for them in the five decades following that magical year of 1957. What you’ll find below was part of what I originally planned to be the final chapter of my book. However, I ultimately decided this information did not create a suitable concluding mood for the book, and so I pulled it from the manuscript prior to publication. A half century’s passage of time has brought changes unimagined by those who participated in or saw the spectacle of Elvis Presley’s stage show in 1957. The population of the United States has more than doubled. Technology has vastly changed the way Americans work and play. Rock ’n’ roll music, which coalesced in Elvis and a few others in the fifties, has fanned out into dozens of different strands. The simple recording studios and concert stages that gave life to Elvis fifty years ago seem absolutely primitive in the twenty-first century. The massive crowd sizes that only he could draw then, now can be attracted by dozens of entertainment acts. The fifty years that have passed since Elvis took to the road in 1957 have been kinder to some of the players in that drama than others. Some died too young, while others have lived long, productive lives. Some of them stayed in the Presley circle for years, while others never saw him again. None of them can ever escape being associated with the Elvis Presley rock ’n’ roll explosion that hit eighteen American and Canadian cities in 1957. This week we’ll take a look at Elvis’s band fifty years later. The Bass Player — On February 1, 1958, bass player Bill Black played on a Presley recording session in Hollywood. After that, he would never back Elvis again. In 1959 he formed The Bill Black Combo, which charted seven instrumental records between 1959-1961. “White Silver Sands” reached the highest at #9 on the Billboard charts in 1960. Through the early sixties, the group was often on the road. As an opening act for The Beatles during their North American tour in late summer 1964, Black again appeared in Vancouver, B.C.’s Empire Stadium, where he had backed Elvis in 1957. In 1965 Bill Black was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Despite two surgeries, he died on October 21, 1965, at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis. He was 39 years old. Not wanting to turn a private affair into a spectacle, Elvis did not attend the funeral, sending his father Vernon instead. Later, Elvis visited Bill’s widow and his daughters at their home. The Guitarist — While Elvis was in the Army, guitarist Scotty Moore owned and operated a small record label that competed with Sun Records in Memphis. In 1960, at Elvis’s request, Scotty backed Presley during his appearance on the Frank Sinatra TV special and his first post-army Nashville recording sessions. The following year, Scotty was part of Elvis’s band for two live concerts in Memphis and two more in Hawaii. While Elvis would not perform live again for the next nine years, Moore continued to play guitar on nearly every Presley recording session through January 1968. Meanwhile, through the sixties, Moore settled into a career as a recording studio engineer, first in Memphis, then in Nashville. In 1968 he played with Elvis for the last time on Presley’s “Comeback” TV special. He never saw Elvis again. In 1969, the same year Presley went back to the concert stage, Scotty packed his guitar away and did not perform live again for 24 years. He chose not to attend Elvis Presley’s funeral in 1977. Through most of the 1980’s, Scotty ran his own audio tape reproduction business and worked as a freelance engineer. Carl Perkins, an old friend from the early Sun Records days, approached Scotty in 1992 about recording together. Taking his guitar out of storage, Scotty joined Perkins for a session in the original Sun studio in Memphis, where Elvis and The Blue Moon Boys had recorded in 1954. During the 1990s Scotty played a leisurely schedule of concerts and recording sessions. In 1997, in collaboration with James Dickerson, Moore’s biography was published under the title, That’s Alright Elvis. Today he lives near Nashville. He celebrated his seventy-sixth birthday on December 27, 2007. The Drummer — Drummer D.J. Fontana remained with Elvis’s band for the few concerts after Presley finished his army stint. Fontana continued as Elvis’s drummer for recording sessions and movie work until 1969. Ultimately, D.J. would work on 460 Presley recordings from 1956-1969. When Presley went back on the concert trail in 1969, D.J. left Elvis to become a full-time session musician in Nashville. After Elvis’s death, D.J. continued doing recording sessions in Nashville with literally hundreds of artists over the next 30 years. In recent years, D.J. has toured with Scotty Moore and the Jordanaires. He also has appeared backing many of the top Elvis tribute artists in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. In the late 1990s, D.J. and Scotty collaborated in the production of the compact disc “All the King’s Men.” In 1998 the two men received the Nashville Music Award for the best Independent Album of the Year for “All the King’s Men,” which was also nominated for a Grammy that year. Published in 2002, D.J.’s book, The Beat Behind the King, recalls his years as Presley’s drummer. The One-Night Stand Guitarist — Guitarist Hank Garland, who backed Elvis during his September 1957 appearance in Tupelo, never again played on stage with Presley. His lead guitar figured prominently, however, at the June 1958 Presley recording session in Nashville. Garland suffered brain damage in a 1961 automobile accident that effectively took away his ability to play the guitar. He died of a staph infection in 2004 at the age of seventy-four. Next time we’ll take a look at what the years ahead held in store for some of the other men who participated in Elvis’s 1957 concert tours: The Jordanaires, Colonel Parker, and the members of Elvis’s traveling entourage. — Alan Hanson
Entry #9: Posted May 8, 2008 Last time we took a look at Elvis’s band members 50 years after they backed Elvis on stage during his final fifties tours in 1957. This time we’ll check out what happened to the other group of men on stage with Elvis in 1957—The Jordanaires. We’ll also look at how the years treated Colonel Parker and four members of Elvis’s road entourage in 1957. The Back-up Singers—When Elvis went into the army, it had little effect on the career of the Jordanaires, who remained Nashville’s premier session backup vocal group. Through the 1960s they worked up to four sessions a day, including nearly every Elvis Presley session through January 1968. Overall, the Jordanaires backed Presley on 361 recordings, including the soundtrack music for 28 of his movies. When Elvis began live appearances again in 1969, the Jordanaires declined his offer to back him in Las Vegas and on the road, deciding instead to stay in Nashville with their families and the steady session work. In 2004 the group celebrated 54 years in the music business by being inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Fifty years after working Elvis’s 1957 tours, the Jordanaires are still an active performing and recording group. Their busiest month of the year is August, when they participate in the annual commemoration of Elvis’s death in Memphis. They also have made occasional Elvis tribute tours with Scotty Moore and D.J. Fontana. Gordon Stoker is the only member of the 1957 quartet who still sings with the Jordanaires. When the group is not working, Stoker and his wife divide their time between their home in the Nashville suburb of Brentwood and their condominium in Daytona Beach, Florida. He turned 82 in 2007. Hoyt Hawkins, the Jordanaires’ baritone, died in 1982 at the age of 55. The group’s second tenor, Neal Matthews, died at the age of 70 in 2000. Bass singer Hugh Jarrett left the Jordanaires in 1958. After hosting a national radio program out of Nashville for some years, Jarrett and his wife moved to Atlanta, where he put his distinctive voice to work on radio and television. In 1970 Hugh Jarrett sang with Elvis one more time. With the Imperials committed to a Nashville studio booking, Presley needed a stand-in male vocal group. Jarrett quickly put together a quartet, named it the “Hugh Jarrett Singers,” and met Elvis in Phoenix for the start of his first concert tour since 1957. Usually left out of the annual festivities in Memphis, Jarrett was invited to Graceland in 1997 to perform with the Jordanaires on the 20th anniversary of Elvis Presley’s death. The Manager—In November 1957, Colonel Tom Parker told Honolulu newspaper columnist Cobey Black, “My career will go on with or without Elvis, and his will go on with or without me. He’s going on 22 and I’m going on 50, so he’ll be going on a lot longer than I.” Parker was a poor prophet. He would outlive Presley by 20 years and would continue to be Elvis Presley’s personal manager until the end of the entertainer’s life in 1977. During Presley’s stint in the army, Parker remained in the U.S., maintaining his client’s popularity through periodic record releases and support of Presley fan clubs. Parker managed Presley’s career through the movie years of the 1960s and his return to the concert stage in the seventies. After Presley’s death in 1977, Parker continued to direct the marketing affairs of the estate administered by Elvis’s father. However, after Vernon Presley died on June 26, 1979, a series of lawsuits resulted in a June 1983 settlement ending Parker’s affiliation with the Presley estate. At the age of 87, Tom Parker died in Las Vegas on January 21, 1997. The Road Entourage—When Elvis went off to Germany, George Klein stayed in Memphis to build his broadcasting career. During the sixties and seventies, he hosted the “Talent Party” television show, which gave valuable public exposure to many local Memphis bands. Through those years, he often visited Elvis at Graceland and vacationed with his old high school friend. Elvis was the best man at Klein’s wedding, and George was a pallbearer at Presley’s funeral in Memphis on August 18, 1977. In later years he hosted the syndicated radio program, “George Klein’s Original Elvis Hour,” which featured Presley music and anecdotes. In 1981 he produced and narrated the TV documentary, “Elvis Memories.” In the 1990s he did promotional work for a casino in Tunica, Mississippi. Each August he was the host of the “Elvis Mafia Reunion,” held in Memphis during Elvis Week. Through the years he has worked with Elvis Presley Enterprises on occasional events. Fifty years after accompanying Elvis on his 1957 tours, George Klein is a featured DJ on Sirius Radio’s channel 13, Elvis Radio, billed as “the world’s only official, all-Elvis all-the-time radio station, broadcasting live from Graceland.” Klein lives in the Memphis suburb of Cordova. Of Elvis Presley’s companions, none served him longer than Lamar Fike. He accompanied Elvis during his army service in Germany from 1958-1960. In the 1960s, Fike became part of the infamous “Memphis Mafia” during Presley’s Hollywood years. After a dispute with his boss, Lamar left Elvis’s employ in 1962 and became Brenda Lee’s road manager for a year. Returning to the Presley entourage the following year, Fike became the singer’s liaison with the song publishing company Hill and Range. As the head of Hill and Range’s Nashville office, Fike provided Elvis with songs by Nashville writers. Most of the material Presley recorded during those years came from this source. When Elvis went back to live concerts in the 1970s, Lamar handled the lighting for his stage show. In 1977 he was one of eight pallbearers at Elvis’s funeral. Following Elvis’s death, Fike helped Albert Goldman gather information for his controversial 1981 Presley biography. Later Lamar tried his hand at a van conversion business in Waco, Texas, before moving to Nashville and getting back into the music publishing business. In the early 1990s, Fike joined with other former Elvis entourage members Red West, Sonny West and Billy Smith in forming a corporation to control and license the term “Memphis Mafia.” He is a co-author of “Elvis Aaron Presley—Revelations from the Memphis Mafia,” published in 1995. After accompanying Elvis on tour in 1957, Cliff Gleaves joined Elvis in Germany during part of his army stint there. Back in Memphis in the sixties, Gleaves pursued a career in show business that took him away from Presley’s inner circle. Still, the two men remained friends until 1972. Cliff Gleaves died of complications from diabetes on June 4, 2002. Gene Smith declined his cousin’s request to accompany him to his army posting in Germany in 1958, choosing to stay in Memphis with his family. After Elvis returned to Memphis in 1960, Smith returned to work at Graceland and was Presley’s chauffeur for many years. Eventually, Gene left Elvis’s employ to be with his family in Memphis. Afterwards, he occasionally visited Elvis at Graceland, and was a pallbearer at his cousin’s funeral in 1977. Through the following years, Gene Smith remained in Memphis working at various jobs. In 1994 he authored the book, “Elvis’s Man Friday,” in which he recalled memories of life with his famous cousin. The Fans in the Stands—Of course, there are many others who were directly connected with Elvis’s 1957 stage shows—over 250,000, as a matter of fact. That’s how many were in the stands to see him at his 28 concerts that year. No doubt their lives have gone in many directions over the past 50 years, but their stories all have one memorable event in common, that of having seen Elvis Presley in concert half a century ago. — Alan Hanson
Entry #10: Posted May 15, 2008 Pat O’Day is a radio legend in the Pacific Northwest. He was Seattle’s highest-profile DJ and dance promoter in the 1960s. Twice the national radio industry named him top radio “Program Director of the Year,” and in 1966 was voted the nation’s “Radioman of the Year.” He held such firm control over the Puget Sound radio business from his seat at KJR radio that in 1967 a federal anti-trust suit was filed against him. The next year Pat O’Day helped develop Concerts West, which would become the largest concert company in the world. The acts the company handled included Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Chicago, The Beach Boys, Boy Dylan, Elton John, Three Dog Night, Frank Sinatra, and, yes, Elvis Presley. Semi-retired, Pat today lives in the San Juan Islands in Puget Sound west of Seattle. That’s where I found him a couple of years ago while doing research for Elvis’57: The Final Fifties Tours. You can read about Pat O’Day’s connection with Elvis in 1957 in the final chapter of my book, where I quote him extensively. For this week’s Elvis blog, though, I thought you might be interested in hearing about some of Pat O’Day’s encounters with Colonel Parker through the years. In 2002, O’Day told the story of his radio and concert promoting years in It Was All Just Rock’n’Roll, published by Rock ’n’ Roll Press in Seattle. A regional story from a region publisher, Pat’s book is little known to Elvis and rock music fans in other parts of the country. If you can get your hands on a copy, however, I suggest you read it. The book is an amazingly entertaining trip through the rock’n’roll entertainment business of the 1960s and 1970s. O’Day was there at Sicks’ Stadium in Seattle for Elvis’s concert on September 1, 1957, but it wasn’t until 1962 that he first met Colonel Parker. On that occasion, he was the victim of one of the Colonel’s stunts. In town with Elvis during location shooting for It Happened At The World’s Fair, Parker called O’Day, by then the city’s top radio personality, and asked the DJ if he'd like to be in the picture with Elvis. Of course, O’Day jumped at the chance. “What more could a deejay ask for than to be in a Presley move?” he wrote in his book. At the Colonel’s instructions, he put on a coat and tie and hurried down to the set at the fairgrounds. After about an hour’s wait, Parker grabbed him and rushed him over to where Elvis was standing between takes. Elvis shook hands with Pat, and then the two were directed to face a nearby photographer. After the flashbulb popped, the Colonel shook the DJ’s hand and said, “Congratulations Pat. You’ve just been in a picture with Elvis.” When Elvis decided to go back to concert touring in 1970, O’Day’s Concerts West company wanted desperately to be Presley's promoter. When Pat approached Parker about it, the Colonel made a startling request. As an indication of good faith, he told Pat to come back the next day with a check for $1 million, made out to Parker personally. Only then would he consider doing business with Concerts West. Pat talked it over with his partners, and they decided to comply with Parker’s demand. When they walked into Parker’s hotel suite the next day, the first thing he said was, “Did you bring the money?” When the cashier’s check was handed to him, the Colonel looked at it briefly and threw it on the cluttered floor nearby. “Ok, let’s sit down and talk!” he said. When the group went downstairs later for dinner, the check was still on the floor. (One wonders if Elvis ever saw any of that $1 million or if it all just went into his manager’s pocket.) The deal was struck, though, and Concerts West handled every Elvis Presley concert from then until his death seven years later. During those years, Pat O’Day observed several examples of what he called the Colonel’s “twisted sense of humor.” One morning, O’Day wrote, Parker called the Concerts West home office in Bellevue, Washington, with a strange request. He had learned of a farm near Portland, Oregon, that raised miniature horses. He wanted someone to go down there, buy two of the three-foot high animals, and ship them to Barron Hilton in Las Vegas. The partners drew straws, and the loser was off to do the Colonel’s bidding. Parker knew Hilton would be out of town when the tiny horses arrived in Las Vegas. The Colonel had arranged for a couple bales of straw and a wooden fence to be set up in Hilton’s office, and the horses were placed inside. When the Barron returned, he found his office filled with straw, horses, and the smell of manure and urine. He also found a birthday card from the Colonel and Elvis. Hilton didn’t know what to think. He knew his hotel and casino made millions off of Elvis, so he didn’t want to insult Parker. He decided to move to another office and leave the horses in possession of his old one. A month or so later, when the Colonel showed up unannounced to see Hilton, he was surprised to see the horses were still there. After being directed to Hilton’s new office, he said, “Barron, you still have those dumb horses in your office! For God’s sake, get rid of them! Can’t you take a joke?” Then he walked out. O’Day’s book contains other examples of practical jokes pulled off by Colonel Parker. The point of all these stories is that anyone who wanted to do business with Elvis was afraid of offending the Colonel, who had complete control over Elvis’s bookings. That left them vulnerable to Parker’s “twisted sense of humor.” — Alan Hanson
Entry #11: Posted May 22, 2008 A couple of years ago, when I first started looking through newspaper microfilm archives for my Elvis ’57 book, I learned to check the editorial page in the 10 days or so after Elvis performed in a city. Invariably, I would find “letters-to-the-editor” commenting on the concert or the newspaper’s coverage of it. Most were first-hand accounts by people who had attended Presley’s show, and as such, were a great resource from which I often quoted in my book. I still regularly look through 1950s newspaper microfilm searching for articles about Elvis. When I find one, I always scan the editorial pages for reader letters reacting to the article. Rarely did these Elvis letters appear in isolation. They usually came in a pattern. The first letter printed might be critical of Elvis. A couple of days later, two or three letters supporting Presley would appear, to be followed a day or two later by more letters for and against him. These letters often formed a thread on the editorial page that could run up to several weeks. The counter-punching in these Elvis letter threads is often entertaining and certainly revealing about the strong attitudes Americans had toward Elvis back then. In this Elvis blog, I thought I’d share with you excerpts from one month-long Elvis thread in the “Today’s Letters” column of the New York Daily Mirror in September 1956. This series of letters actually started the previous month, but the microfilm available to me started with the September issues. Apparently, sometime in August the Mirror printed a letter critical of Elvis. It was signed, “Jess Barton the Freethinker, Stony Ridge, Ky.” Barton’s criticism was countered in the following letter printed in the Mirror on September 4. “Why must people make my Elvis suffer so? Stop criticizing him. I love him and he loves me. He told me so himself—a thousand times in every song he’s ever sung. I bleed when I hear unkind words uttered against my love.”—Bertha Fleish, N.Y.C. On September 7, other letter writers went after “Freethinker” Barton. “Last week you stated that I was a misguided creature. Well, I come from a respected religious family. Far from being a half-grade I am a good student in an important school. I’m still an Elvis Presley fan and the world can do without your brand of ‘intellectualism’.”—Angela Falisey, B’klyn “Jess Barton should rename himself ‘Freestinker.’ Elvis is a swell guy who gives his parents all he can. He doesn’t drink, smoke or take dope. Can Jess Barton say the same for himself?”—Rose Heagney, Troy, N.Y. On September 13, two more letters—one for and one against Elvis—appeared in the Mirror. “I agree with the Freethinker. Elvis Presley is a monster and his singing is horrible. How anyone could be a fan of his is beyond me.”—Bobby Breen, B’klyn “Speaking for all us jive bombers, we didn’t know people like the Freethinker existed. If you think Elvis’ singing is no where, wake up cat, because you’re the one who’s no where. Six feet under may not be deep enough for him because even there he’ll be remembered while a square like you would only be pushing up daisies.”—Gracelyn Sanzone, B’klyn The next day, the Mirror printed a telegram it had received from the beleaguered “Freethinker.” “To the New York Daily Mirror: How dare you print a photo of that scourge of youth, Elvis Presley? I am shocked at your lack of taste! You have made Presley’s fans—my enemies—joyous and I shall not forgive you for it. I intend to start an immediate all out campaign against this person—by mail, phone and wire. I even intend buying anti-Presley time on the radio and TV. You haven’t heard the last of me, Mirror!”—Jess Barton, the Freethinker On September 16, the paper printed a letter from an Elvis fan with a request. “Mirror, if you would print a few articles on our beloved Elvis Presley, I and all my friends would just love you for it. I’m sure everyone of Elvis’ fans would go down on their knees to you and read you every live-long day. Wouldn’t we, jive bombers?”—Bernice Yertz, Bronx In fact, the Mirror was already planning to do just that. Starting September 23, the paper ran articles about Elvis for eight straight days! Meanwhile, back on September 18, the Freethinker turned his ire on the Mirror itself, which answered him with an editor’s note. “Why do you print so many pro-Presley letters, Mirror? Do you do this to embarrass me? Next you’ll be nominating this yelling yelp for President. Cut it out immediately or I shall stop reading your paper.”—Jess Barton, the Freethinker Sorry, Jess, you can think as freely as you wish but everyone gets his say in this column.—Ed. The Elvis debate raged on in the Mirror the next day, September 19. “If Jess Barton, the Freethinker, does anything to hurt Elvis Presley’s career he will make an enemy of every teen-ager. What did Elvis ever do to him anyway?”—T. F., N.Y.C. “I hope the Freethinker really gives Elvis a whopping. Someone should shut that idiot’s big yelling mouth.”—Georgie Dunbar, Bronx More letters were printed on September 23. By then the debate was heating up and becoming increasingly personal. “Presley is nothing but a yelling whelp—a half-rate bird—a gyrating jerk—and an insult to the intelligence of the modern teenager. Rid him from the airwaves, TV and movies! Kill the ugly sound he generates! Drive him from the world of music!”—Jess Barton, the Freethinker “If the Freethinker doesn’t cut out his anti-Presley campaign we Presley fans are going to track him down and burn him alive.”—Rocky and 16 other guys “Elvis Presley is a screaming hyena. His disgusting exhibitions could only appeal to the lowest type of individual.”—Frank Spence, Bronx When the Mirror received the following letter, it probably realized the Presley dispute it was hosting had gotten out of hand. The letter was printed on September 25. “Someone by the name of Bobby Breen wrote an anti-Presley letter recently and people have been annoying the death out of me and my husband because of it. There are other Breens in this city—some of them Bobbies—so please stop annoying us.”—Mrs. Joceyn Breen, N.Y.C. The Mirror printed two more Elvis letters on September 27 but put end to the running debate after that. No doubt they continued to receive Elvis letters and could have kept the back-and-forth going indefinitely. By that time, though, it was surely clear to the paper’s readership that there was no middle ground when it came to Elvis Presley. — Alan Hanson
Entry #12: Posted May 29, 2008 Two weeks ago I shared some of Pat O’Day’s remembrances of Colonel Parker. The preeminent DJ in the Puget Sound area during the 1960s and co-founder of Concerts West, O’Day and his company had close contact with the Colonel during the 1970s while Concerts West was promoting Elvis’s concert appearances. This week I’d like to share more Colonel Parker encounters from O’Day’s book, It Was All Just Rock’n’Roll, published in 2002. As mentioned in the Elvis blog of May 15, many executives in various areas of the entertainment world were dependent on Elvis for a good deal of their companies’ profits, and that made them vulnerable to Parker’s practical jokes. O’Day writes of one “nasty trick” the Colonel pulled on RCA Victor. Parker used the occasion of his birthday to call RCA’s Hollywood offices, according to O’Day. The Colonel demanded he be put through to the president of the record division. Once he had the man on the phone, Parker said: “This is Colonel Parker. You know, Elvis and I for the past 20 years have shown great loyalty and love for RCA. We have been reliable, honest and done our best to make our relationship with you one that could be a model. So why, after all I have always done for you and for your company—why in God’s name!—would you stoop so low? This is an obvious attempt to humiliate me! The shocked RCA exec quickly assured Parker that the company had the utmost respect for him, and then gently inquired what happened to upset him so. The Colonel explained that he had never asked anything of RCA, had always been generous with the company, and so on, and really his birthday was not so important. But when someone from RCA had called to tell him the company was going to erect a giant billboard saying “Happy Birthday Colonel Parker, RCA Loves You” on the highway near his Palm Springs home, he gathered some of his closest friends and drove them out to see how much RCA loved him. And what did he discover—no billboard. Feigning humiliation and tears, Parker hung up. Of course, the RCA exec immediately called a Palm Springs billboard company and ordered Colonel Parker’s message put up on the largest billboard the company owned. The exec then called Parker back, apologized, and explained the billboard would be up by noon. “I accept your apology,” wept the Colonel. “I never asked for anything, you know, but thank you. I feel better.” Parker then called three friends and they all piled in his Cadillac and drove to the outskirts of Palm Springs. There they laughed convulsively as they watched the Colonel’s giant birthday card being painted by the side of the highway. Not all of Colonel Parker’s shenanigans were as humorous to Pat O’Day. The promoter remembers a big problem Concerts West had with the state of Tennessee in the early seventies. It seems the state’s Attorney General and Department of Revenue had discovered that tickets for the first four rows of some Presley concerts were forged and sold without paying the state the required admission taxes. It didn’t take long for O’Day and his partners to discover that Colonel Parker was behind the scam. In cahoots with a Concerts West executive, Parker was printing the tickets, selling them on the sly, and pocketing the cash. When called on the carpet, the Concerts West exec claimed the whole thing was Parker’s idea, and he had no choice but to go along with it. The money went to pay off gambling debts, he claimed. It is an example of how Parker’s control of Elvis made business associates vulnerable not only to the Colonel's practical jokes but also to his shady business deals. By the end of Elvis’s life, however, Pat O’Day, who had called Colonel Parker a “genius” back in 1957, became very disillusioned with the man. Below are O’Day’s final thoughts in his book about Elvis and his manager: “The side of the Colonel that wasn’t so funny found him doing next to nothing as his golden goose slowly killed himself. It was no mystery what was going on with Elvis. When I visited with him in 1970, I met with a shy, thin, dynamic, proud, energized icon of rock ’n’ roll. When I tried to talk with him again six years later, I encountered a bloated, overweight, shockingly pale, psychotic mess. “Colonel Parker continued to book one tour after another for a desperately ill man. Never has someone needed intervention more than Elvis did then, and the Colonel had the power over him to accomplish it if he chose. One is left to wonder whether Parker feared he would lose that power over a sober Elvis. We’ll never know. “That Elvis of the early ’70s was the finest single performer I ever witnessed, with one of the world’s most wonderful voices, little boy charm and a certain charisma God has gifted to so few … We might have had this wonderful entertainer for many more years had someone close stepped in and helped. The only person close enough was Colonel Tom Parker, who chose to do nothing.” Did the Colonel have the power, as Pat O’Day believes, to get Elvis’s life back on track? My personal opinion is that Parker, on his own, did not have the power to do so. It would have taken a concerted commitment among everyone around Elvis to turn his life around. Certainly, Colonel Parker, along with all the others, earned his share of regret by not doing all he could to help Elvis in those final, fatal years. — Alan Hanson Go to Current Elvis Blog
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