In the history of pop culture stardom, behind every great icon is a master puppeteer standing in the background.
Rubbing their hands together at the prospect of making a fortune, they send their willing artists into the trenches of commercialism and manipulation. In recent years, talent show moguls have come and gone, but ultimately, it was a formula laid out by Elvis Presley’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker.
From the very minute he laid eyes on Elvis Presley, he thought exactly what the rest of the world thought: this kid was a star. But rather than marvel at the genuine charismatic talent of his burgeoning blues musician, he crafted a plan that would ultimately shape the next 20 years of his career.
He exploited the Tennessee native to a point where he couped a reported 50% of his earnings, when at that time, a more modest 10% was the standard. The lines quickly became blurred as Parker attributed this premium to Elvis’s rapidly growing popularity. Because, of course, it was in Parker’s interest to make it a chicken and egg scenario, citing the eye-watering levels of exposure Elvis endured as a product of his planning, as opposed to Elvis’s genuine stardom. And so Elvis was forever trapped in this cycle, being betrayed by his own success and its connection with Parker.
Ultimately, we all know how this ended. When Elvis returned from his stint in the army, he was tirelessly overworked by Parker, who set him a gruelling work schedule that eventually ended on the big screen. Parker realised that by starring Elvis in movies, and ensuring he wrote the soundtrack, he could reap most of the profits from its eventual success.
It completely stifled any creative freedom within Elvis’s career and, sadly, limited him to the confines of the United States. Despite Elvis’s global stardom, he never had the chance to play in front of fans outside of America because of Parker’s strict and financially streamlined marketing plan.
This was the story for most of the 1960s, the decade when Elvis could have truly dominated the airwaves. By the 1970s, things started to change. Elvis’s personal health began to steadily decline, and the global appetite for his fame was waning. Naturally, this put pressure on the artist and manager relationship, finally coming to a head in 1973.
During a show at his Las Vegas residency, Elvis decided to alter the lyrics to his heartfelt ballad ‘Love Me Tender’. He sang: “Adios, you motherf***er, bye bye, Papa, too / To hell with the whole Hilton Hotel, and screw the showroom, too.”
While many would consider it a frank dig at a commercial conglomerate, Parker was astute enough to know it was a veiled attack on him and the contractual agreements he had laid out for the star. It was an outright attempt to leave him in the lurch, explaining to the hotel chain why his star would publicly slander them.
What followed was a shouting match for the ages, one that finally saw the stifled artist stand up to his manipulative manager. When the dust settled soon after, a meeting was set between Elvis, Elvis’s father, and Parker, during which Parker demanded a fee of $5million, with half payable within 30 days. Parker cited this as a fair deal for which he could help facilitate his transition of management, which ultimately never happened.
Bridges were rebuilt, Parker continued with his relentless flogging of Elvis, and the singer continued to descend into mental and physical health crises. In the years that followed, Elvis Presley eventually died, bringing an end to one of the most glittering and frustrating careers in music.