Sunday, November 28, 2021

November 28 - "Das Verrückte Leben" of Colonel Parker

James L. Dickerson's 2001 book 'Colonel Tom Parker: The Curious Life of Elvis Presley's Eccentric Manager' will be re-issued in Germany as 'Colonel Tom Parker: Das verrückte Leben des exzentrischen Managers von Elvis Presley' on April 14, 2022. The translation was made by Waltraud Eckersberger. 

This is the book Warner Bros. purchased for Baz Luhrmann’s upcoming Elvis movie starring Tom Hanks as Colonel Tom Parker. 

Based on unprecedented, original research and interviews with insiders, this authoritative biography of Colonel Tom Parker (1909-1997), Elvis Presley’s lifelong manager, includes new revelations and insights into the music industry’s most notorious and mysterious manager. Investigative journalist and music writer James L. Dickerson looks at topics such as Parker’s illegal entry into the United States, his work as a carny with Royal American Shows, and his management of country singer Eddy Arnold, his partnership with Hank Snow, and how he manipulated Elvis Presley and his family to seize control of the singer’s career.

The book examines Parker’s greed, his indebtedness to behind-the-scenes players in Las Vegas, his gambling addiction, and his fear of deportation played a role in ruining Elvis’s career. Because Colonel Parker was always there with Elvis, gazing ominously over his shoulder, the book presents behind-the-scenes glimpses of the entertainer’s career that you will read nowhere else, thanks in part to the author’s personal and professional relationship with Elvis’s first guitarist, Scotty Moore, with whom the author wrote two revealing books.

(Source: Amazon)