Authors: Alanna Nash
CHAPTER 8: DEEPER INTO AMERICA
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“Starting as a boy with his family”:
Austin and Pabst,
Gene Austin’s Ol’ Buddy.
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“a great salesman”:
Austin and Pabst,
Ol’ Buddy.
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“It was obvious”:
Austin and Pabst,
Ol’ Buddy.
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“The stars come and go”:
Gabe Tucker to author, 1997.
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as he later claimed:
“I managed him for two or three years.” Colonel Tom Parker to Ralph Emery, raw interview transcript, April 7,
1993.
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“proud, bulging bank account”:
Austin and Pabst,
Ol’ Buddy.
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“We sold out and made enough money”:
Colonel Tom Parker quoted in
Memphis Commercial Appeal,
September 14, 1984.
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“as an overstayed crewman”:
Marian Smith to author, 1998.
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in regarding Parker:
“He thought Colonel hung the damn moon, and he wanted to be like him so bad.” Gabe Tucker to author,
1997.
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“As you know, Mr. Bevis”:
Crumbaker with Tucker,
Up and Down with Elvis Presley
.
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castoffs he got free:
“He made friends with two or three florists around there in the neighborhood.” Gabe Tucker to author,
1997.
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“I wish you could have been here yesterday”:
Colonel Tom Parker quoted in Crumbaker and Tucker,
Up and Down with Elvis
Presley.
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“Colonel took care of Bevo”:
Al Dvorin to author, 1998.
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“He was always so crazy”:
Buddy Killen to Beverly Keel for author, 1998.
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“Marie yelled, ‘Hey Buddy!’ ”:
Buddy Killen to Beverly Keel for author, 1998.
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“I know he and Marie”:
Gabe Tucker to author, 1997.
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“As for kids”:
Gabe Tucker to author, 1997.
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“and be there long enough”:
Sandra Polk Ross to author, 1997.
CHAPTER 9: NASHVILLE’S NASAL WHINE: JAMUP AND HONEY, EDDY ARNOLD, AND HANK SNOW
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“Minnie, you’ll have to leave off that last part”:
Hall,
Hell-Bent for Music.
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“When I came along”:
Minnie Pearl to author, 1975.
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“It was the first time”:
Minnie Pearl to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
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“could charm the warts off a hog’s back”: Time,
date unknown.
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“Tom said the guy”:
Gabe Tucker to author, 1997.
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“When I heard that Mother was dead”:
Colonel Tom Parker to Ad van Kuijk,
Rosita.
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“Regardless of how big”:
Pee Wee King to author, 1995.
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“He introduced himself to me”:
Eddy Arnold to Mike Streissguth, raw interview transcript, 1995.
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“Tom was obviously interested”:
Eddy Arnold to Mike Streissguth, raw interview transcript, 1995.
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“I was a hungry boy”:
Eddy Arnold at Colonel Tom Parker’s Memorial Service, Las Vegas, January 25, 1997.
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“he’d constantly try”:
Justin Tubb to author, 1997.
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“We performed barefooted”:
Gabe Tucker to author, 1999.
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“Everybody said we were crazy”:
Hurst,
Nashville’s Grand Ole
Opry
.
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“Even with the tent shows”:
Pee Wee King to author, 1977.
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“and oh God, that truck smelled awful”:
Gabe Tucker to author, 1997.
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“He was trying”:
Gabe Tucker to author, 1998.
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“little wasp-nest hotels”:
Hurst,
Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry.
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“I was with him”:
Minnie Pearl to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
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“Southern people talk”:
Minnie Pearl to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
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“right out of that dog pound”:
Honey Wilds to Jack Hurst, raw interview transcript, 1974.
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“what each did”:
David Wilds to author, 1998.
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“He used to tell people in New York”:
Jack Kaplan to Dirk Vellenga, raw interview transcript, 1983.
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“He’d take a chance on anything”:
Gabe Tucker to author, 1999.
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“He would always wear”:
Nelle Poe to author, 1998.
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“As soon as Ernest”:
Nelle Poe to author, 1998.
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“He always said to me”:
Nelle Poe to author, 1998.
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“It’s free today”:
Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Joey Hoffman to author, 1997.
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“He was a ball of fire”:
Eddy Arnold quoted in
Atlanta Journal,
January 22, 1997. See also
The Life and Times of
Eddy Arnold
(Nashville Network) and Eddy Arnold to Constant Meijers, raw interview transcript from the documentary
Looking for Colonel Parker,
1999.
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“When he was settin’ up a tour”:
Gabe Tucker to author, 1997.
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“We got somebody”:
Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Gabe Tucker to author, 1997.
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“It was really too much”:
Roy Wiggins to author, 1998.
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“Tom came back backstage”:
Eddy Arnold at Colonel Tom Parker’s Memorial Service, Las Vegas, January 25, 1997.
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“We used to play”:
Bitsy Mott to Dirk Vellenga, raw interview transcript, 1983.
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“Tommy told him, ‘Plowboy’ ”:
Gabe Tucker to author, 1997.
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“I said to him once”:
Arnold,
It’s a Long Way from Chester County.
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best-selling “folk” music:
“Folk” in the chart name was changed to “Country & Western” in 1949.
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“You like your room?”:
Roy Wiggins to author, 1998.
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“He turned around”:
Gabe Tucker to author, 1997.
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“The specter of Tom”:
Bob McCluskey in e-mail to author, 1999.
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“all of us would run”:
Gabe Tucker to author, 1997.
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“Where do you think you’re going”:
Tom Diskin to Roy Wiggins, quoted by Michael Streissguth, “I’d Trade All of
My Tomorrows (for Just One Yesterday): The Ting-a-Ling and Tears of Little Roy Wiggins,”
Journal of Country Music,
vol. 21 (no. 2), 2000.
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“Well, fuck the Coinnal!”:
Bob Moore to author, 1998.
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“I’ll kill that big, fat, sloppy mother”:
Roy Wiggins quoted in Streissguth, “I’d Trade All of My
Tomorrows.”
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“It’s one of the things”:
Roy Wiggins to author, 1998.
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“Don’t you know about insurance?”:
Colonel Tom Parker quoted in Streissguth, “I’d Trade All of My
Tomorrows.”
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“Don’t run that ‘snowplow’ at me”:
Roy Wiggins to author, 1998.
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“I want to talk to you”:
Colonel Tom Parker quoted in Streissguth, “I’d Trade All of My
Tomorrows.”
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“Did you say, ‘Fuck the Coinnal?’ ”:
Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Bob Moore to author, 1998.
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“I had embarrassed him”:
Roy Wiggins quoted in Streissguth, “I’d Trade All of My Tomorrows.”
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“It was really for nothing”:
Julian Aberbach to author, 1997.
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“almost every release of any importance was a Hill and Range song”:
Bob McCluskey in e-mail to author, 1999.
Hill and Range would come to represent a staggering number of classic songs, from “Frosty the Snowman” to “Arrivederci Roma.”
Steve Sholes was thirty-four years old in 1945, the year he assumed the head of RCA’s country and R&B divisions, which the company quietly referred to as “hillbilly and
race,” without either prejudice or hopes for spectacular sales. The real power and prestige belonged to the pop division, and hardly anyone paid the folk, or “hillbilly,”
category any mind. Sholes was born in Washington, D.C., grew up in Camden, New Jersey, where his father worked in the Victor Talking Machine Company plant. At Rutgers University, he wangled a
part-time job with the record company, mostly as a messenger boy, and played saxophone and clarinet in regional dance bands. After graduation, Sholes went to work in the factory storeroom of
RCA’s radio department, and drifted into a clerk’s job in the record department. Soon, Frank Walker, learning of Sholes’s musical background, had him producing jazz, pop, and
ethnic acts, first out of New York, and later in Chicago and Atlanta, where country acts lined up to make “field recordings” in a rented hotel room.
To Sholes, country music was an essential and important part of cultural America. While privately he was not above doing dead-on imitations of Southern dialects (“Well, I guess
I’ll go out and plow the back forty now”), the big fat fellow whose eyes squinted when he grinned formed an affinity for the country people. His mild-mannered and diplomatic
demeanor quieted the mistrust of those Southerners who still regarded Yankees with disdain. Universally liked and viewed by many as a workaholic who neglected his own health for the sake of his
artists (“He was one of the greatest men I ever knew,” says his protégé, Chet Atkins), Sholes saw himself merely as a hard worker who dedicated himself to turning
around Victor’s struggling status in the early ’40s.
Sholes had signed Arnold to a new one-year contract at the end of 1945, just as Tom Parker took over Eddy’s management. Parker’s opposite in nearly every way, the quiet
executive, two years younger, listened to Parker’s demands for his artist and put up with his rude bluster, but refused to be intimidated by any of it. Sholes had managed to negotiate his
career without playing corporate politics—a move that earned him the respect of the men in his employ—and he wasn’t about to start kowtowing to a singer’s manager, even
if he represented the division’s biggest star.
“I don’t think Steve could have been intimidated by Parker, because he understood him,” says Charles Grean, Sholes’s assistant from 1947 to 1952 who also doubled as
an A&R man and studio bass player, building on his background as a copyist for the Glenn Miller Band. “We all knew what he was—a pusher and a blowhard. He made a lot of noise,
but that was his way of doing the job. Half of the time we didn’t pay any attention to him.”
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“If Eddy got the twenty grand”:
Bob McCluskey in e-mail to author, 1999.
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“which was more than justified”:
Julian Aberbach to author, 1997.
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“All Eddy takes care of”:
Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Bill Kimbro to author, 1997.
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“Which one of our planes”:
Roy Wiggins to author, 1998.
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“Tell the Colonel”:
Roy Wiggins to author, 1998. Arnold denied to biographer Michael Streissguth that he was about to hit
Parker, but in interviews with both Streissguth and the author, Wiggins was adamant about what he saw. “They were about to have fisticuffs, I think,” he told the author, “and
Marie stepped up and said, ‘Don’t hit him.’ She kind of stopped it.”
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“treated him like a flea-bitten alley dog”:
Gabe Tucker to author, 1997.
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“as he’d already gotten a reputation”:
Bob McCluskey in e-mail to author, January 13, 1999.
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“He got the money up front”:
Bob McCluskey in e-mail to author, January 9, 1999.
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“Plowboy”:
Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Gabe Tucker to author, 1997.
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“Colonel Tom got me out”:
Marty Robbins to author, 1997.
CHAPTER 10: THE MAN IN THE SHADOWS
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‘Bob, this guy is incredible’:
Oscar Davis to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
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“It was really Oscar who found Elvis”:
Charlie Lamb on tape made for author, 1998.
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“We would see him”:
D. J. Fontana to author, 1998.
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“razzle, dazzle character”:
Bob Neal to author, 1977.
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“one of the big resort hotels in Nevada”:
Bob Neal in letter to Ed McLemore, quoted in Guralnick and Jorgensen,
Elvis Day by
Day.
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“I always felt that Elvis”:
Bob Neal to author, 1977.
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“Oscar lived high, wide, and handsome”:
Richard H. Frank Sr. to Charlene Blevins for author, 1999.
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“He was a deserter, plain and simple”:
Oscar Davis Jr. to author, 1999.
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“I became completely discouraged”:
Oscar Davis to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
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“I thought, hey”:
Sam Phillips in the documentary
Mr. Rock & Roll,
1999.
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“We must have met”:
Norman Racusin to author, 1997.
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“Did I buy the wrong boy?”:
Steve Sholes to Sam Phillips, quoted by Chet Atkins to author, 1981.
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“Girls, I’ll see you all backstage”:
Elvis quoted in Cotton,
All Shook Up.
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“He was on top”:
Marty Robbins to author, 1977.
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“Perhaps it is to lighten our burdens”: Look
November 13, 1956.
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“He really was tone deaf”:
Joan Deary in the documentary
Mr. Rock & Roll,
1999.
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“My boy”:
Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Tommy Sands to author, 1998.
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“I thought I’d have to be Mr. Clean”:
Tommy Sands to author, 1998.
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“Since Elvis Presley is pretty securely tied up”:
Stephen H. Sholes in letter to Tom Diskin, pictured in Guralnick and
Jorgensen,
Elvis Day by Day. The Definitive Record of His Life and Music
(New York: Ballantine Books, 1999).
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offered the “possibility that we could record Tommy”:
Stephen H. Sholes in letter to Tom Diskin, pictured in Guralnick and
Jorgensen,
Elvis Day by Day.
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“but my voice hadn’t changed”:
Tommy Sands to author, 1998.
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“He was just one of those pretty faces”:
Chet Atkins to author, 1998.
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“The fact that”:
Gabe Tucker to author, 1997.
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“priming me for whatever the next move was going to be”:
Tommy Sands to author, 1998.
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“That really made him”:
Cliffie Stone to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
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“the actor who is going to play me”:
Colonel Tom Parker quoted in Edward Linn, “Colonel Tom Parker, Pitchman
Extraordinary,”
Saga,
January 1958.
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“a very special type of voice”:
Harry Kalcheim in letter to Colonel Tom Parker, quoted in Guralnick and Jorgensen,
Elvis Day
by Day.
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“exploited properly”:
Colonel Tom Parker in letter to Harry Kalcheim, quoted in Guralnick and Jorgensen,
Elvis Day by
Day.
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“interested in making a picture with this boy”:
Colonel Tom Parker in letter to Harry Kalcheim, quoted in Guralnick and
Jorgensen,
Elvis Day by Day.
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“if you ever follow one of my hunches”:
Colonel Tom Parker in letter to Harry Kalcheim, quoted in Guralnick and Jorgensen,
Elvis Day by Day.
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“just tied up a youngster, Elvis Presley”:
Harry Kalcheim in letter to Sam Fuller, quoted in Guernsey’s,
Official
Auction Catalogue.
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“I don’t think this artist”:
Colonel Tom Parker in letter to Harry Kalcheim, December 16, 1955, pictured in Guralnick and
Jorgensen,
Elvis Day by Day.
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“You know as well as I do”:
Colonel Tom Parker in letter to Harry Kalcheim, December 16, 1955, pictured in Guralnick and
Jorgensen,
Elvis Day by Day.
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“final approval of all contracts”:
Nat Lefkowitz of the William Morris Agency in memo to Colonel Tom Parker, January 31, 1956,
pictured in Butterfield’s auction on eBay, December 19, 2000.
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“idiot savant”:
Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, quoted in Jorgensen,
Elvis Presley.
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“why buy a cow”:
Elvis Presley quoted in Guralnick and Jorgensen,
Elvis Day by Day.
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Yet it was nothing for him:
“He was, for all his talent and sensitivity, this goof who would sit and laugh like a retarded
person.” Anonymous source, 1999.
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“There was absolutely no access”:
Bob Schulman to author, 1997.
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“did they spell his name right?”:
Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Gabe Tucker to author, 1997.
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“If it’s a question”:
Colonel Tom Parker to Red Robinson,
From the Bottom of My Heart,
vol. 2, Savanah Records,
1997.
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“I don’t think the Colonel is going to like this”:
Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Freddy Bienstock to author, 1997.
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the cost of an Elvis Presley appearance:
The money paid for television appearances escalated. In a 1997 letter to the author, Steve Allen
recalled his dealings with the Colonel and how the
Sullivan Show
appearance came about: “I don’t recall ever having any problems with Colonel Parker myself. As you probably
know, the generally agreed upon top price on television shows in the ’50s—regardless of the stature of the performer involved—was $7,500. That’s why it produced
repercussions when Ed Sullivan, apparently out of the desperation caused by his realizing he’d made a serious mistake in publicly criticizing Elvis, not only changed his mind on that
point—so much for principle—but actually called the Colonel backstage at our theater the night his client appeared and broke his own and the industry’s price-ceiling, which,
for all I know, may have been actionable price-fixing.
“When the Colonel told us about the matter after our show was off the air, he said, ‘I’ve talked to Elvis about this and we want to be fair to you guys. After all, you
hired Elvis when Sullivan wouldn’t, so if you want to keep us with you, we’ll be happy to go along with that decision.’ I’m only about 97 percent
certain that he added something like, ‘Of course, we would have to agree to accept the fee from you that Sullivan is offering.’ I’m pretty sure that that fee was
$10,000.
“When our producer, Bill Harbach, told me about what the Colonel had said, I thought the matter over for about thirty seconds and then decided not to accept it although the
Colonel’s thought about the $10,000 price had nothing whatever to do with my decision. I said to Bill, ‘Tell the Colonel that I really do appreciate the way he’s handling
this, but it’s okay with me if Elvis now accepts Sullivan’s offer.’
“The reason was that while Sullivan’s was a typical vaudeville variety show—and quite a good one—ours was something else altogether, a comedy show. I didn’t
want to have to figure out ways to make Elvis funny for four or five more appearances. It may be argued that I made a mistake in not keeping Elvis as part of our guest-family because of his
enormous ratings potential.”
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“you put a lump in my throat”:
Quoted in
TV Guide,
November 30, 1968.
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“Elvis was still standing there”:
Norman Racusin to author, 1997.
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“Elvis is just one”:
Carolyn Asmus in letter to Kay Wheeler, October 25, 1955, quoted in Harbinson and Wheeler,
Growing Up
with the Memphis Flash
.
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“a couple of times a day”:
Bill Denny to author, 1998.
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mostly by assembly line:
“We had a sort of assembly line.” Bill Denny to author, 1998.
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“this thing became a beautiful, successful nightmare”:
Charlie Lamb to author, 1998.
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“a real stroke of genius”:
Sam Phillips in the documentary
Mr. Rock & Roll,
1999.
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“You don’t have to be”:
Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Minnie Pearl to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
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“As long as Elvis”:
Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Byron Raphael to author, 1998.
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“Dear Colonel, Words can never tell you”:
Elvis Presley, telegram to Colonel Tom Parker, quoted in Guralnick and Jorgensen,
Elvis Day by Day.
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“When someone would ask”:
Bill Denny to author, 1998.
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“I don’t want to end up with cider in my ear”:
Colonel Tom Parker quoted by Byron Raphael to author, 1998.
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“Let’s say she wasn’t”:
Anne Fulchino to author, 1998.
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“She had a twelve-foot closet just for coats”:
Sandra Polk Ross to author, 1997.
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“She was the only person I knew”:
Ann Dodelin to author, 1999.
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She was happiest, some say:
June Carter Cash to author, 1998.
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“the Colonel’s stable base”:
Hubert Long to Jerry Hopkins, JHC/UM.
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“a goner, just a pile of shit mixed with alcohol and pills”:
Connie B. Gay quoted in Joe Sasfy,
Regardie’s,
March
1987.
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“It was the only time”:
Connie B. Gay quoted in Joe Sasfy,
Regardie’s.
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“Later, Mother said”:
Judy Gay Burkley to author, 1997.
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“an old, fat, nice guy”:
Judy Gay Burkley to author, 1997.
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“One reason Tom always stayed with us”:
Jan Gay to author, 1997.
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“was getting a little belligerent”:
Bitsy Mott to Dirk Vellenga, raw interview transcript, 1983.
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“I didn’t want people comin’ knockin’ on the door, you know”:
Colonel Tom Parker to author, 1994.
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“$20,000 or $30,000 worth”:
Colonel Tom Parker to author, 1994.
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“a small truckload of Elvis memorabilia”:
Monsignor George Rohling to author, 1997.
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“I thought it was rather unusual”:
Monsignor George Rohling to author, 1997.
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“pictures of family members”:
Monsignor George Rohling to author, 1997.