allerteuerste
04.08.2005, 12:03
ln seinem letzten outlet [Wed, 3 Aug 2005 22:07:51 –0500] schreibt bill folgendes:
One of the Elvis newsgroups has spent most of today arguing the merits (or demerits) of one Andreas Cornelius van Kuijk, alias Tom Parker.
NOTE you will never see me refer to this man as "Colonel." As I told him to his face, I rose in the ranks of the Air Force from private to colonel and worked my way right up that ladder. And all he did was have the title bestowed on him. When I met his family in the Netherlands, I told them the same thing. They respect my views.
NOW, Tom Parker: Good or Bad for Elvis?
This question comes up in 100% of the Q/A sessions I have done with Elvis fan club conventions across the world since May 1982 ... and I reply to each question with the very same answer, almost word-for-word.
"In the beginning, had there been no Parker, we would not have known ELVIS! But after the Army years, Parker was in it for as much money as HE could get out of Elvis and that's why I always call him a sonofabitch."
I was speaking to some 2,000 Dutch fans in Breda in the early '90s and I was within five minutes of the end of my allotted time, I realized, silently, here I was in van Kuijk's own home town -- Breda -- and no one had asked me one question about him.
Then, next to last question, here it came.
And I replied in the same manner, ending "I always call him a sonofabitch."
AS SOON as I finished my talk, this woman came running on stage wanting to talk to me. Normally, European fans are not that bold.
But my mouth dropped open when she said, "I want to talk to you. Tom Parker is my uncle."
Holy Cat Stuff! How was she going to take what I said? Was she going to bop me up aside my head with her purse? Spit in my face? Kick my shins?
WHATEVER, I didn't want her doing it in public in front of all those fans. So I took her arm gently and led her behind the stage curtains, ready for her assault.
I said to her, "I guess you're mad at me for calling your uncle a sonofabitch."
And she replied, "Oh, no! He IS a sonofabitch.!!
"What I need from you is his private telephone number. My mother (Parker's sister) is dying and she wants to talk to him one last time. Can you give me his private number?"
007: "Well, obviously, I don't carry private numbers around with me, but if you will contact me after I go back to Memphis, I will give you his private number."
And a week or so later, I did. And she called Las Vegas and the woman answering the phone asked who it was and what they wanted.
Niece Marie said she was calling for her mother, who was dying, and wanted to talk to her brother one last time. (He had left Holland about 1929 and had not been in touch with his family over there in person since.)
The woman in Vegas put Marie on hold; came back and said, "He said to tell you he doesn't have time for things like that," and hung up.
Marie called me right back, crying, and asked if I would call Parker and "make him" talk to his sister. I told her it would do no good for me to call; and now she knew why I always called him a sonofabitch.
THE STORY IS WRITTEN in Alanna Nash's wonderful biography about Parker how one night, just before a performance, Parker stuck his head in the dressing room door and saw Dr. Nick ducking Elvis' head in a sink full of ice, trying to get him past the effects of too many pills.
Rather than expressing concern for Elvis' health, Parker barked at Dr. Nick to have Elvis ready to put out on that stage. (Otherwise, there might be some ticket refunds due.)
LATE ON THE AFTERNOON of 7 March 1960, after the press corps had cleared out of Elvis' office out back of Graceland, only the three of us -- Elvis, Parker and me -- remained.
To Parker I said, "I guess you're glad to see your boy back so you can start getting your 10% agent's fee again."
And Elvis said to me, "TEN percent. He gets FIFTY percent!"
I was astonished and Elvis could see it. Elvis asked Parker to verify what he had just told me and Parker did.
Later, when EPE Probate Judge Joe Evans ordered EPE to sue Parker and end his relationship with the estate, I would give a deposition to Lisa Marie's lawyer, Blanchard Tual, (a law school classmate of mine at UM), to the effect that Elvis reported to me that Parker had been getting 50% of Elvis' earnings since 1960. Their only documentation until that time was 1967.
I have illustrated in my fan club talks that while the money split was 50/50, by the time Elvis paid all a performer's expenses, the split was more like 50% Parker and 25% Elvis. I challenged Parker time after time to take me to court if I were telling a lie. He never did.
AND THEN THERE'S the story of a tour near the end of Elvis' life where a show had been booked -- I believe it was Baltimore -- and it sold out almost immediately.
Without approaching Elvis about it, Parker scheduled an earlier show the same day and sold that one out, too.
Elvis went to Parker complaining, saying, in effect, "Do you realize how HOT it is wearing those jumpsuits under those lights? And you're putting me right back out there just a couple of hours after I finish the first show."
To which, I was told, Parker's reply was, "Then YOU go out there and tell those people who bought tickets for the 2nd show that you're not going to perform for them."
Elvis did the show.
I ATTENDED ELVIS' last performance in Las Vegas in December 1976. As everyone knows by now, I was disappointed in the finished product on stage.
But what had bothered me was, the price fans were paying to see Elvis at the Hilton.
Say each performance (2 a night) was standing room only. Multiply the number of seats times the cost of admission, then multiply that by 14 shows (one week) . . . and the final figure was far short of what the Hilton was paying Elvis to perform for one week.
Mr. Henry Leuwen, then a vice president of the Hilton, drove me to our private airplane the next day and enroute to McCarren Field I told him of my financial observations and said, "No WAY you can make money paying Elvis what you do."
And he readily agreed and said, "You're right, Bill, but what you don't know is, we book Elvis in order to get Parker to the (gambling) tables. What we lose on Elvis, we more than make it back on Parker at the tables."
And my mind flashed back over the 4 nights I had been there and no matter the time of day or night I went into the Hilton casino, there Parker would be at the roulette wheel, putting a stack of $100 chips (probably $1,000 per stack) on 3 or 4 numbers each time the wheel was spun.
And not ONCE during the many times I watched him did he win !!
I printed that story in my book, "Elvis: Thru My Eyes." Parker never disputed it.
If Elvis were addicted to prescribed pills, then Parker was equally addicted to gambling.
And if Elvis wasn't kept out on the road performing 180-220 shows per year (far, far more than almost any other entertainer in history), then Parker's 50% was nil and he had to have that 50% to feed his addiction.
When I printed that in my book, one of Parker's old time carny friends, who had known him as far back as the 30s, told me, "I thought you knew of his addiction all the time. Everyone else did."
ELVIS TOLD ME, in our last face-to-face conversation in May 1977, that he was thinking of a tour of Australia and Japan. Knowing I was an international pilot, he was asking me if I thought his "Lisa Marie" airplane could stand up to such a trip.
I assured him it would.
He said he was going out on tour in the next couple of days; he would call me when he got back from the tour. Instead, he passed out on stage during that tour and they rushed him back to the hospital in Memphis.
He never tried calling me again until a few days before August 17. We never made contact.
I will never know what he wanted to talk about.
007
******************
Bill E. Burk
Publisher, Elvis World Magazine
[anmerkung: die hervorhebungen stammen von mir]
ein paar dieser aussagen sind für mich NEU und in folgedessen noch nicht überprüft, bzw eigentlich auch nicht überprüfbar (hpsl die geschichten um parker)
was mich aber etwas verwundert, sind behauptungen von tatsachen, die sich für mich bisher anders dar gestellt haben.
was stimmt nun? wer sagt die wahrheit?
ich liste mal die punkte auf, die mich befremdlich anmuten:
1) bekam parker wirklich schon 1960 50% der einnahmen?
2) laut meinen aufzeichnungen gab es in baltimore keine 2 konzerte. verwechselt burk den ort? das jahr? meint er eventuell doch 1976? oder sind fehler in meiner aufzeichnung?
3) laut meinen aufzeichnungen lag die höchstzahl der konzerte, die elvis nach 1969 pro jahr gab, im jahre 1972 bei 164 und im jahre 1973 bei 168. burk´s ziffern sind zu hoch
4) es ist typisch für vegas, das geld an den spieltischen zu machen und nicht mit den stars, elvis war da keine ausnahme. die behauptung, er würde nur wegen parker (und nicht wegen der der tausend anderen gäste) gebucht, klingt sehr pathetisch, ist aber bestimmt so nicht richtig.
PS: obwohl ich bill ebenfalls frage, interessiert mich eure meinung.
One of the Elvis newsgroups has spent most of today arguing the merits (or demerits) of one Andreas Cornelius van Kuijk, alias Tom Parker.
NOTE you will never see me refer to this man as "Colonel." As I told him to his face, I rose in the ranks of the Air Force from private to colonel and worked my way right up that ladder. And all he did was have the title bestowed on him. When I met his family in the Netherlands, I told them the same thing. They respect my views.
NOW, Tom Parker: Good or Bad for Elvis?
This question comes up in 100% of the Q/A sessions I have done with Elvis fan club conventions across the world since May 1982 ... and I reply to each question with the very same answer, almost word-for-word.
"In the beginning, had there been no Parker, we would not have known ELVIS! But after the Army years, Parker was in it for as much money as HE could get out of Elvis and that's why I always call him a sonofabitch."
I was speaking to some 2,000 Dutch fans in Breda in the early '90s and I was within five minutes of the end of my allotted time, I realized, silently, here I was in van Kuijk's own home town -- Breda -- and no one had asked me one question about him.
Then, next to last question, here it came.
And I replied in the same manner, ending "I always call him a sonofabitch."
AS SOON as I finished my talk, this woman came running on stage wanting to talk to me. Normally, European fans are not that bold.
But my mouth dropped open when she said, "I want to talk to you. Tom Parker is my uncle."
Holy Cat Stuff! How was she going to take what I said? Was she going to bop me up aside my head with her purse? Spit in my face? Kick my shins?
WHATEVER, I didn't want her doing it in public in front of all those fans. So I took her arm gently and led her behind the stage curtains, ready for her assault.
I said to her, "I guess you're mad at me for calling your uncle a sonofabitch."
And she replied, "Oh, no! He IS a sonofabitch.!!
"What I need from you is his private telephone number. My mother (Parker's sister) is dying and she wants to talk to him one last time. Can you give me his private number?"
007: "Well, obviously, I don't carry private numbers around with me, but if you will contact me after I go back to Memphis, I will give you his private number."
And a week or so later, I did. And she called Las Vegas and the woman answering the phone asked who it was and what they wanted.
Niece Marie said she was calling for her mother, who was dying, and wanted to talk to her brother one last time. (He had left Holland about 1929 and had not been in touch with his family over there in person since.)
The woman in Vegas put Marie on hold; came back and said, "He said to tell you he doesn't have time for things like that," and hung up.
Marie called me right back, crying, and asked if I would call Parker and "make him" talk to his sister. I told her it would do no good for me to call; and now she knew why I always called him a sonofabitch.
THE STORY IS WRITTEN in Alanna Nash's wonderful biography about Parker how one night, just before a performance, Parker stuck his head in the dressing room door and saw Dr. Nick ducking Elvis' head in a sink full of ice, trying to get him past the effects of too many pills.
Rather than expressing concern for Elvis' health, Parker barked at Dr. Nick to have Elvis ready to put out on that stage. (Otherwise, there might be some ticket refunds due.)
LATE ON THE AFTERNOON of 7 March 1960, after the press corps had cleared out of Elvis' office out back of Graceland, only the three of us -- Elvis, Parker and me -- remained.
To Parker I said, "I guess you're glad to see your boy back so you can start getting your 10% agent's fee again."
And Elvis said to me, "TEN percent. He gets FIFTY percent!"
I was astonished and Elvis could see it. Elvis asked Parker to verify what he had just told me and Parker did.
Later, when EPE Probate Judge Joe Evans ordered EPE to sue Parker and end his relationship with the estate, I would give a deposition to Lisa Marie's lawyer, Blanchard Tual, (a law school classmate of mine at UM), to the effect that Elvis reported to me that Parker had been getting 50% of Elvis' earnings since 1960. Their only documentation until that time was 1967.
I have illustrated in my fan club talks that while the money split was 50/50, by the time Elvis paid all a performer's expenses, the split was more like 50% Parker and 25% Elvis. I challenged Parker time after time to take me to court if I were telling a lie. He never did.
AND THEN THERE'S the story of a tour near the end of Elvis' life where a show had been booked -- I believe it was Baltimore -- and it sold out almost immediately.
Without approaching Elvis about it, Parker scheduled an earlier show the same day and sold that one out, too.
Elvis went to Parker complaining, saying, in effect, "Do you realize how HOT it is wearing those jumpsuits under those lights? And you're putting me right back out there just a couple of hours after I finish the first show."
To which, I was told, Parker's reply was, "Then YOU go out there and tell those people who bought tickets for the 2nd show that you're not going to perform for them."
Elvis did the show.
I ATTENDED ELVIS' last performance in Las Vegas in December 1976. As everyone knows by now, I was disappointed in the finished product on stage.
But what had bothered me was, the price fans were paying to see Elvis at the Hilton.
Say each performance (2 a night) was standing room only. Multiply the number of seats times the cost of admission, then multiply that by 14 shows (one week) . . . and the final figure was far short of what the Hilton was paying Elvis to perform for one week.
Mr. Henry Leuwen, then a vice president of the Hilton, drove me to our private airplane the next day and enroute to McCarren Field I told him of my financial observations and said, "No WAY you can make money paying Elvis what you do."
And he readily agreed and said, "You're right, Bill, but what you don't know is, we book Elvis in order to get Parker to the (gambling) tables. What we lose on Elvis, we more than make it back on Parker at the tables."
And my mind flashed back over the 4 nights I had been there and no matter the time of day or night I went into the Hilton casino, there Parker would be at the roulette wheel, putting a stack of $100 chips (probably $1,000 per stack) on 3 or 4 numbers each time the wheel was spun.
And not ONCE during the many times I watched him did he win !!
I printed that story in my book, "Elvis: Thru My Eyes." Parker never disputed it.
If Elvis were addicted to prescribed pills, then Parker was equally addicted to gambling.
And if Elvis wasn't kept out on the road performing 180-220 shows per year (far, far more than almost any other entertainer in history), then Parker's 50% was nil and he had to have that 50% to feed his addiction.
When I printed that in my book, one of Parker's old time carny friends, who had known him as far back as the 30s, told me, "I thought you knew of his addiction all the time. Everyone else did."
ELVIS TOLD ME, in our last face-to-face conversation in May 1977, that he was thinking of a tour of Australia and Japan. Knowing I was an international pilot, he was asking me if I thought his "Lisa Marie" airplane could stand up to such a trip.
I assured him it would.
He said he was going out on tour in the next couple of days; he would call me when he got back from the tour. Instead, he passed out on stage during that tour and they rushed him back to the hospital in Memphis.
He never tried calling me again until a few days before August 17. We never made contact.
I will never know what he wanted to talk about.
007
******************
Bill E. Burk
Publisher, Elvis World Magazine
[anmerkung: die hervorhebungen stammen von mir]
ein paar dieser aussagen sind für mich NEU und in folgedessen noch nicht überprüft, bzw eigentlich auch nicht überprüfbar (hpsl die geschichten um parker)
was mich aber etwas verwundert, sind behauptungen von tatsachen, die sich für mich bisher anders dar gestellt haben.
was stimmt nun? wer sagt die wahrheit?
ich liste mal die punkte auf, die mich befremdlich anmuten:
1) bekam parker wirklich schon 1960 50% der einnahmen?
2) laut meinen aufzeichnungen gab es in baltimore keine 2 konzerte. verwechselt burk den ort? das jahr? meint er eventuell doch 1976? oder sind fehler in meiner aufzeichnung?
3) laut meinen aufzeichnungen lag die höchstzahl der konzerte, die elvis nach 1969 pro jahr gab, im jahre 1972 bei 164 und im jahre 1973 bei 168. burk´s ziffern sind zu hoch
4) es ist typisch für vegas, das geld an den spieltischen zu machen und nicht mit den stars, elvis war da keine ausnahme. die behauptung, er würde nur wegen parker (und nicht wegen der der tausend anderen gäste) gebucht, klingt sehr pathetisch, ist aber bestimmt so nicht richtig.
PS: obwohl ich bill ebenfalls frage, interessiert mich eure meinung.