The Parallel Lives

Elvis Presley died on August 16, 1977, at the age of 42, in his Graceland Mansion in Memphis, Tennessee. His heart gave out after years of obesity and prescription drugs. 

     His long-time talent agent and promoter, cigar-chomping Colonel Tom Parker, lived for another twenty years, passing away on January 21, 1997, at the age of 87, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

     Together they accomplished a lot: 31 movies between 1956 and 1969, countless albums, numerous performances, an immense amount of income. Elvis said this of Parker, “I don’t think I would have ever been huge if it wasn’t for him. He’s a brilliant man.” That was most likely true.

     Parker said this of Elvis, “It’s unexplainable. They say anybody else could have done it. Perhaps. So, I was to be the one who was with him. He did his part. I did mine, and we were lucky with great talent, and we had a great show and a lot of fun.”

     Colonel Tom Parker made Elvis Presley King of Rock and Roll.

     After Elvis passed on, Parker worked the estate, collecting his cut on all memorabilia and record sales, while his father, Vernon Presley, was the estate’s actual executor. 

     Vernon died in 1979, but he named Priscilla, Elvis’s ex-wife, and Lisa Marie, Elvis’s daughter, then 9 years old, as co-executors. At once, Priscilla learned the estate was nearing bankruptcy due in part to Elvis’s lavish spending, and the fees paid to Tom Parker. 

     In 1981, it fell to Judge Joseph Evans of Shelby County Probate Court, in Memphis, to sort out the claims against Elvis’s estate. He appointed an attorney named Blanchard E. Tual to serve as Lisa Marie’s guardian ad litem and to investigate Tom Parker’s role in the estate.

     After four months, Tual presented a 300-page report to the court. He found that Parker had charged Elvis and then his estate 50% of all income, since January 2, 1967.

     Tual said that this arrangement was “excessive, imprudent, unfair to the estate, and beyond all reasonable bounds of industry standards,” that Parker was “self-dealing and overreaching.” 

     Also, Tual found that Parker had set up side deals that cheated Elvis out of millions.

     He found that on March 1, 1973, Parker had contracted with RCA to buy Elvis’s music catalog, in essence forfeiting all his rights to further royalties on the pre-1973 music sales.

     RCA agreed to pay the following amounts. “To Elvis: $2,800,000; to Parker: $2,600,000,” for a total of $5,400,000. In hindsight, that music catalog was worth far more than that.

     Tual found that Elvis missed out on millions he could have earned if Tom Parker would have allowed him to perform in foreign countries. Tom Parker was born in the Netherlands, came to the U.S. in 1929, illegally, and had never obtained a U.S. passport. He dared not cross the border.

     Tual found Elvis was often “without the benefit of independent counsel or business advice.”

     Tual recommended, and Judge Joseph Evans agreed, that Priscilla should fire Tom Parker and bring suit against him for “fraud and mismanagement.” The case was settled out of court in 1983. 

     RCA agreed to pay Parker $2 million for his “collection of master recordings, memorabilia, video-taped concerts, and film rights.” RCA also agreed to pay Elvis’s estate $110,000 per year for a decade to settle RCA’s claims on Presley’s earnings. 

     On June 7, 1982, Priscilla opened up Graceland for tours, a wise move, instead of selling the mansion. Elvis Presley Enterprises is now solvent and earns in excess of $10 million each year.

     If he had lived, Elvis would celebrate his 91st birthday in a few days, on January 8.