The Truth About Elvis Presley's Relationship With His Manager, Colonel Tom Parker

Before getting into the relationship between the King and his manager, a quick crash course in the pre-Elvis life of Colonel Tom Parker is in order and hoo boy, what a life it was. According to Smithsonian Magazine, Parker liked to present himself as an American man called Thomas Andrew Parker, but he wasn't

Before getting into the relationship between the King and his manager, a quick crash course in the pre-Elvis life of Colonel Tom Parker is in order — and hoo boy, what a life it was. According to Smithsonian Magazine, Parker liked to present himself as an American man called Thomas Andrew Parker, but he wasn't a born-and-bred West Virginian any more than he was a military colonel. His true identity was Andreas van Kuijk, an illegal immigrant who was originally from the Netherlands, and he may or may not have decided to leave his family behind and try his luck Stateside after becoming a person of interest in a murder case in his original hometown of Breda. 

That's a whopper of a backstory, and things only got stranger when he started his new life across the pond. While he did serve in the U.S. military in the early 1930s, he never achieved any lofty ranks beyond private. Interestingly, this period in his life came to an abrupt end after he was imprisoned for desertion, diagnosed as a psychopath, and kicked out. Per Biography, however, he eventually received the honorary title of colonel from the Governor of Louisiana in 1948. 

Parker had a circus background from his years in the Netherlands, and after his unsuccessful time in the military, he resumed this career path. Per Elvis Australia, he started gravitating toward the music industry in the 1940s. 

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