Publisher's Synopsis
This is a profile of Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis Presley's "business manager". His real name was Andreas van Kuijk and he was a carnival promoter from Holland who stowed away to America in 1926 where he quickly learnt the art of supersalesmanship and "shortchanging suckers". He also gained himself an honorary Louisiana commission as a colonel. But how did he maintain such a hold over Elvis, especially in view of his dislike of rock'n'roll? For 20 years they were thought of as a team like Abbott and Costello. In the second half of the book the author details their relationship.;Parker was a compulsive gambler and appears to have gambled away his fortune. Today, aged 79, he is a broken man, living in Palm Springs with his comatose wife.
