589 - De weduwe van Tom Parker aan het woord
De manager van Elvis Presley was een Nederlander: Dries van Kuijk, geboren in Breda op 26 juni 1909. De media zijn zelden vriendelijk voor hem geweest. Col. Tom Parker, zoals hij zich in Amerika liet noemen, zou een gierige en gewetenloze uitbuiter geweest zijn. Elvis zou bijvoorbeeld veel te weinig hebben overgehouden aan al het geld dat er binnenstroomde.
In het Algemeen Dagblad schreef Ruud Kuyper op 23 jauari 1997, kort na zijn overlijden: “Boze tongen beweerden dat Parker minstens 50 procent overhield aan alles wat er binnenstroomde aan gages, royalties en andere sommen gelds. Van Elvis is bekend dat hij daar of geen erg in had, of ermee akkoord was gegaan. Parker was een harde onderhandelaar, een sjacheraar zelfs, die letterlijk over een dollarcent kon vallen en overal iets wist uit te slepen. Onderweg vergokte hij enorme bedragen in de casino’s en hotels van woestijnstad Las Vegas. Na Elvis’ dood ging hij er met tweede echtgenote Loanne wonen”.
Negatief imago terecht?
Was dat negatieve imago wel terecht, vroeg ik me steeds af. Als je de teksten die over hem geschreven werden, goed las, ging je – in elk geval ik – daar aan twijfelen. Heel wat feiten kwamen, zoals gebruikelijk, pas boven water na het overlijden van de manager (21 januari 1997) en de artiest, Elvis Presley (16 augustus 1977).
Het meest recente boek van Peter Guralnick, The Colonel and The King (uit 2025), gebaseerd op originele brieven en documenten is in dat opzicht fascinerend om te lezen. Zoals wel vaker met geschiedenisboeken krijg je een beter inzicht als de personen, om wie het draait, niet meer in leven zijn.
Loanne Miller
Ruud Kuyper noemde Loanne Miller (1935-2020), de weduwe van Dries van Kuijk, in 1997. Het tweetal was in 1990 in het huwelijk getreden, zeven jaar vóór de dood van de manager.
David Adams slaagde erin Loanne te interviewen. Op 24 maart 2006 publiceerde hij zijn tekst. Die had natuurlijk een persoonlijk karakter. Ik durf er dan ook niet voor in te staan dat alles juist en/of objectief is. In elk geval droeg ze wel allerlei feiten aan, die te maken hebben met het leven en de loopbaan van een van de grote iconen uit de geschiedenis van de Amerikaanse popmuziek.
Dries en Loanne leerden elkaar in 1969 kennen. Zij werkte in die tijd voor het International Hotel in Las Vegas. Het viel haar op, zei ze, hoe hard haar (latere) echtgenoot Parker, die ze consequent ‘Colonel’ noemde, werkte. “Colonel was business from morning til night, 24 hours a day. He thought about Elvis and his business. He just didn’t turn it off. It kept going. He expected everyone to be as dedicated as he was”.
Tom Parker, een keiharde werker voor Elvis
De journalist drong aan. Was dat echt zo?
Loanne krabbelde niet terug, integendeel. “He never stopped thinking about Elvis. Never stopped thinking about what he could do. He was a perfectionist.
His focus was what can I do to better present Elvis. What can I do to better protect Elvis when it comes to contracts and business affairs. What can I do to let the people know in a better way that Elvis is going to be there. He never stopped thinking about it, ever. Never”.
Volgens haar was Parker continu bezig met zijn ‘cliënt’, dag in, dag uit, jaar in, jaar uit. “He could be thinking about a contract he was working on. He could be thinking about setting up a tour. He could be thinking about something that was going to be happening at the Hilton”.
Daar kwam nog van alles bij. “He played Santa Claus for the Christmas parties for the children. He could be thinking about something that he needed to do with his wife [Marie Mott, 1908-1986, eerste vrouw, die dementeerde] in Palm Springs to take care of her. She was an invalid for many, many years, and required around the clock care. He could be thinking about a friend that he was going to have dinner with, simultaneously”.
Tom Parker en Marie Mott
Fabelachtig geheugen
Loanne onthulde dat Dries zelden iets opschreef. Hij zou een fabelachtig geheugen gehad hebben. “Colonel never made notes. He carried everything in his mind. And when someone would ask him a question about something that occurred maybe six months ago, or 20 years ago, his replay invariably was, ‘Let me run my tapes’. He would sit for a minute, and then he would bring the answer out”.
Goedgevig man
In de media stond Van Kuijk bekend om zijn gierigheid. Volgens zijn weduwe was daar geen sprake van. Het tegendeel zou het geval geweest zijn.
Loanne: “He played Santa Claus for the children at the Christmas parties. We could be driving, or going to dinner, and he would say to me, ‘Stop, pull over’. He would see someone who was standing on the street that he knew needed something. And he’d get out of the car and go over and give them five dollars, ten dollars, twenty dollars, whatever he felt they needed.
Many times we’d be eating in the restaurant and he’d see an old couple eating a very meager meal. And he would call the waitress over and say, ‘Tell those people I’d like to buy their dinner’.
Maybe they could order a little more. He was always doing things like that. He gave hundreds and thousands of dollars to charities. Always with the stipulation, no publicity”.
Parker had volgens haar een warm hart: “His friends knew, you didn’t have to ask Colonel for something if you needed it. It was one of the things that Colonel would say: ‘If you’re a true friend, your friend never has to ask you for anything. You voluntarily tell them you’re going to give it to them’”.
Relaties in de politiek
Van Elvis is bekend dat hij in 1970 onverwacht bij het Witte Huis aanklampte en door Richard Nixon ontvangen werd.
Loanne onthulde dat ook Tom Parker goede contacten had op het hoogste niveau. Dat kwam wellicht omdat hij nu eenmaal de manager was van het idool.
Bijvoorbeeld met Lyndon B. Johson. “They were good friends. Colonel used to tell a story. President Johnson was in Los Angeles and called the Colonel and said, ‘Colonel, I’m gonna be leaving tomorrow morning’. He was staying at one of the big hotels. ‘But if you’d like to stop by, I’d like to see you for a few minutes before I leave town’.
The Colonel was in the lobby and he was just waiting, and there were a number of people there. There were of course the publicity people and so forth. And the president and his staff came down through the elevator. And Colonel said it was like a wedge, the secret service made like a wedge to go through the people”.
LBJ (h)erkende de manager, “When Lyndon Johnson saw Colonel, he stopped. He said something to one of the secret service men. And the little wedge just opened up, Colonel walked inside, he and president Johnson spoke for a while, and then the president went on his way. As the president was going out the door, one of the newsmen said to Colonel, ‘Oh, you must know the president pretty well’.
Here’s Colonel’s sense of humor, he said, ‘Well, I don’t know about that. But he sure knows me, doesn’t he?’”
Parker was ook bevriend met Ronald Reagan. Hij had hem zelfs eens zijn privé-vliegtuig geleend. “Before he was president [1963-1969], we were on the road touring in the south. Reagan was having problems getting a plane to go, he was making on one of his tours, doing speeches. We loaned him one of the planes that we were using on the tour. To go to the next town”.
Andere presidentiële relaties waren Harry Truman en Bill Clinton met diens moeder Virginia [1923-1994]. “A wonderful, wonderful woman. We attended her 70th birthday party in Las Vegas. After Colonel died, President Clinton wrote me a wonderful letter”.
Evenals bij andere presidenten zouden Tom en Loanne al eerdere contacten gehad hebben. Zoals met Bill Clinton. “President Clinton met Colonel first, before he was even president. He was then governor Clinton. One of our friends was holding a fund raising dinner here in town. As a special surprise, he asked Colonel to come to the dinner to meet the president. Because he knew the president, he was the governor then – would like to meet him.
It was a nice surprise, and they had a very long chat. They had a very long talk. That was the beginning of their friendship. Then Virginia, president’s mother came to our house often with her husband”.
Loanna & Tom Parker
Slechte rug – al in Breda
David Adams kreeg van haar ook een stukje Nederlands verleden te horen – over zijn slechte rug.
“When Colonel was a young man, he was always big for his age, he said. And tall. He was six feet tall. When he was a young man in Holland, one of his jobs was carrying big rounds of cheese from the factory onto the barges that would carry this cheese on to destination. He said they were extremely heavy. Like a hundred and fifty pounds or something. He felt that during his formative years, he was maybe 13, 14 years old, that he hurt his back during that time. That was the start. Because he had back problems all of his life”.
De vader van Dries van Kuijk werkte in Breda voor Van Gend & Loos.
Tom Parker in actie
Slechte rug of niet, Parker kwam onmiddellijk in actie als het nodig was. Dat was onder meer het geval bij de opnamen van de documentaire ‘That’s The Way It Is’ (1970).
Parker hield nauwkeurig in de gaten wat er gebeurde. “He always sat right on the outside of the booth so he could slip out at any minute”.
Een stelletje fans drong ineens naar voren.
Met dat soort dingen moest je bij zijn manager niet aankomen. “Colonel jumped up, ran up, picked up Elvis and put him on the other side of the barrier”.
Loanne was verbaasd – mede door die slechte rug. “Colonel, your back. Are you alright?”, met die woorden zou ze gereageerd hebben.
Hij antwoordde: “I had to help him”.
Parker paraat
Dat was typerend, legde Loanne uit. Haar man was er altijd bij als Elvis op de bühne stond.
Aan de journalist vertelde ze: “At personal appearances, Colonel would sit in front of the stage. He always was watching the audience to see what was happening with the audience. He knew Elvis was taking care of his show on stage. That wasn’t his business. His business was to protect Elvis, to make sure that things didn’t get out of hand”.
De manager wist hoe hij met de Presley-aanhang moest omgaan. “Colonel appreciated the fans. He knew that without the fans, it wouldn’t be the same. There would be no business. There the fans bought the albums. The fans supported Elvis. The fans were there. He enjoyed them. He appreciated them. He would, at the showroom at the International Hotel, it was like any showroom in Las Vegas”.
Loanne gaf een voorbeeld. Dat had ze zelf meegemaakt toen ze nog werkte voor het hotel, waar Elvis optrad. “You made a reservation. You stood in line. When you got to the maître d’, you did the best you could to get a good seat. A lot of times this cost a little bit.
Colonel got very annoyed with this practice. He didn’t like it at all. But he couldn’t do anything about it. It was Las Vegas practice.
So, many times he would see a fan standing in line, and maybe recognize the fan as being a hardcore loyal fan. He would walk them through the line, and say to the maître d’, ‘Where are you going to put these people?’ The maître d’ couldn’t say anything but, ‘The best seat, Colonel’.
Colonel would wait and to make sure they got a good seat. Or, he had two booths at his disposal for every show. He made sure that if he wasn’t going to use the booth, I called the showroom and released the booth, so the fans could have it. Many times he would put the fans into his own booth”.
Vóórwerk
Als jongeman had Dries geleerd hoe belangrijk vóórwerk was. Iedereen moest weten dat Elvis Presley op komst was. In het boek van Guralnick kun je er meer over te weten komen.
Loanne “When we were on the road, when we were touring, we would do a pre-tour. And this was the nucleus of Colonels group. I would go. Pat Kelleher from RCA Records would go. George Parkhill, who was part of Colonel’s staff, would go. Quite often we would take one of Elvis men. One of his staff. Then we would take someone from Concerts West, Management III, which would be Tom Hulett, one of those men.
We would take a jet. A small jet. We might do six towns in one day. That was not unusual. We had a system. We would fly into the town. I stayed on the plane. Typed up notes from the previous town. The rest of the men would get into a prearranged car. They would go to the building, they would talk to the building manager. They would make the concession deal.
They would physically see the rooms where Elvis would be staying. They would make sure security could be handled properly there. They would look around to see what restaurants were in the area. In fact, they would check everything. They would check the time from the airport to the building. The time from the airport to the hotel. All this was done in advance. So that when the show actually came into town, it was very easy for them”.
16 augustus 1977
kaartje voor concert dat niet plaats vond
Op de dag dat Presley overleed waren Loanne en Tom nog niet getrouwd. Ze werkten wel samen. Het tweetal bevond zich in Portland (Maine) ter voorbereiding van een optreden van Elvis.
Loanne: “The day that Elvis died, Colonel and his basic staff were in Portland waiting for Elvis to arrive. I was in my room. I was doing some work. Colonel was in the room that usually we would have, he would have a suite and, we would use the living room area as a temporary office.
He came to my room, knocked on the door and I could see he was physically upset. He said, ‘They have some bad news. I’ve got a call and they think, they’re not sure that Elvis is going to live. I’ll keep you updated’. And he went back to his temporary office”.
Schok
Loanne was geschokt bekende ze in 2006. “Of course I was in shock. I remember I just paced the floor. I was in shock because honest to God we never thought Elvis would die. He had almost become bigger than life to us and he felt he could handle everything. In hindsight you can look back and say, well, that wasn’t too intelligent of them.
But you had to be there, you would have to have felt the emotional impact that we felt on the tours. You would have to realize that our every moment was guided by what Elvis needed, what we could do for him.
I was not personally involved with his daily activities the way his own staff was. But from a business point of view, it was always in our minds, always. And suddenly to think that it would be gone was just inconceivable, you couldn’t believe it. I felt it’s going to be all right.
Colonel came and he said, ‘He’s gone’. He said, ‘I talked to Joe [Esposito, 1938-2016], I talked to [vader] Vernon [1916-1979]’. His biggest concern at that moment was Vernon. He said, ‘I don’t know if he can make it’. Because we knew Vernon’s health was not good.
He said, ‘He’s so distraught, I don’t know what’s going to happen to Vernon’”.
Geen reactie naar buiten in Portland
De werkvoorbereiders wisten die dag niet hoe ze zich moesten gedragen. Volgens Loanne nam Parker het initiatief. Tijdens de maaltijd in het hotel mochten ze niets van hun verdriet laten merken.
“Colonel said to that staff that were there, ‘We’re going to go to the restaurant here in the hotel and we’re going to have dinner. We’re going to eat, you’re not going to put on a sad face, you’re not going to be depressed, no one is going to sit and cry. We’re doing this for Elvis’.
Everyone in that restaurant is going to be watching us. He’s going to be proud. And we did it. Need I say, no one ate very much and we all lost weight over that meal, we pushed food away on our plates, but we maintained a normal exterior. It was true, everyone in the restaurant was focused on our table”.
De uitvaart
Uiteraard werd de groep bij de uitvaart verwacht. Ver weg van Memphis was men niet voorbereid. Ze liepen rond in hun werkplunje. Parker kreeg de vraag voorgelegd: “Colonel, I need to get a suit. I don’t have a suit with me, we can’t go to the funeral in the clothes we wear on tour”.
De manager had andere ideeën: “These clothes were good enough for us to work for Elvis, they’re good enough for us to wear at his funeral, he would understand. If he saw me in a suit, he wouldn’t recognize me”.
Zo ging het dan ook, liet Loanne optekenen. “We went to the funeral in our work clothes. I had slacks, I had nothing else. Colonel wore one of his caps, he always wore a cap. He wore a sport shirt, you know, a pair of slacks. On the plane when we were flying to Memphis, Colonel gave us a little talk. He said, ‘I want Elvis to be proud of us today. Everything that you do, think of him. But I want you to maintain a very calm exterior. No one breaks down, no one cries. This is our chance to act the part that he would want us to’”.
Tom Parker (rechts) bij uitvaart Elvis Presley
Parker stelde zich bewust bescheiden op tijdens de uitvaart. “At the funeral they asked Colonel to ride in one of the limousines, in one of the front limousines with family. Colonel said, ‘No, I have always been behind the scenes with Elvis, that’s the way I want to maintain it’. He rode in the limousine but not with the family group”.
Op verzoek van vader Presley bleef Parker de zaken regelen, is in het interview met David Adams te lezen. “He was working for Elvis in his own way until the day he died”.
Celine Dion
In augustus 1987, tien jaar na het overlijden van Presley, bevond het tweetal zich in het Las Vegas hotel, waar Elvis had opgetreden. “They cleared everything out of the, what we used to call the Elvis suite at the Las Vegas Hilton. Colonel brought in memorabilia, pictures and all kinds of things. They allowed the fans to tour and go through and look at all of these things.
Colonel sat at a table and as the fans came by he shook hands with them. He talked with them and it was very nice. Wayne Newton did a tribute to Elvis in the showroom. We went to the shows every night and sat in the booth where Colonel always sat at Elvis shows because he wanted the world to know that he was still there for Elvis”.
Tom Parker werd bij die gelegenheid aangeklampt door een Canadees. Van hem kreeg hij te horen: “Colonel, I’ve got a young singer star who’s going to be a sensation, she’s fabulous”.
De voormalige inwoner van Breda toonde zijn interesse. “Tell me about her”.Volgens zijn tweede vrouw was de manager altijd geïnteresseerd in veelbelovende nieuwe artiesten. Ze hadden een lang gesprek. Tegen het einde zou Parker gezegd hebben: “If I can help you in any way, just let me know”.
Loanne legde uit wie de man was: René Angelil (1942-2016), de ontdekker, manager en later echtgenoot van Celine Dion. Ze zouden blijvend contact hebben, ook met de zangeres. “When Celine did a show here in Las Vegas, she wished Colonel a happy birthday from the stage and we visited with them. They’re wonderful people”, zei ze in 2006.
De media over Tom Parker
Het kon niet uitblijven. Adams vroeg haar hoe Tom Parker omging met al die negatieve opmerkingen in de media over de manier waarop hij Elvis Presley uitgebuit zou hebben.
Loanne: “Colonel was always hurt by the way the tabloids talked about him”.
Dat was onder meer het geval bij de erfenis die Lisa Marie, de dochter van Elvis, ten deel was gevallen. “The facts were very much distorted by the press. It was a very sad time for the Colonel”.
Hij was dan ook blij dat allerlei vrienden hem troostten en te hulp schoten. Onder hen zanger Eddy Arnold die hem telefonisch liet weten: “Colonel, if you need some help, let me know”.
Tom Parker begreep het wel, zei ze. De persmensen deden nu eenmaal wat je kon verwachten.
In het begin zou Parker veel moeite gehad hebben met de houding van de media. Hij wist niet hoe hij zich moest verdedigen tegen de aantijgingen. “Why should I? I’ve done nothing wrong”. Later zou hij zijn mond open gedaan hebben, maar de pers negeerde wat hij te vertellen had, vertelde Loanne.
De weduwe reageerde als volgt: “The press reports what the general public wants to hear, and that’s what they were doing”. Haar voormalige echtgenoot was niet verbaasd. “He knew they were doing the job they had to do”. Maar het zou zijn hart gebroken hebben.
Verdeling van de inkomsten
Loanne vond dat ze voor eens en voor altijd moest afrekenen met allerlei onwaarheden. Vooral die over de verdeling van de inkomsten. “Colonel Parker never took 50% of Elvis earnings, never. It’s true, they did sign a contract in the 70s which was a partnership contract where they each were to receive 50%. But Colonel never collected his 50% because it was about that time that Elvis needed extra money for his divorce settlement with Priscilla. Colonel took his regular third and he never, never took 50%”.
Er waren wel projecten, waarbij Parker inderdaad de helft van de inkomsten mocht houden. “They did have an understanding that if Colonel initiated project wherein Elvis needed to lend only his likeness or his name, that Colonel receive 50%. This would be photo albums, merchandise, things like that. Colonel conceived the ideas, Colonel followed through on the ideas. And Elvis had contrbuted nothing but his name and likeness, which without it, of course, would have been impossible. When those kinds of things came about, Elvis was quite willing to have Colonel take 50%”.
merchandise
Mensen die geïnterviewed worden, krijgen vaak nog een laatste kans om wat te zeggen. Die kans kreeg Loanne van David Adams. En ze greep hem aan. Allereerst benadrukte ze dat haar man er altijd voor Elvis was – ‘in every way he could be’.
Elvis was zijn vriend. “I want the fans to know that he cared about Elvis always, and that he did his utmost to prolong Elvis’ life, to keep things going. They had a great partnership – he never interfered with the creative part of Elvis. He said, ‘Elvis is a star, he knows exactly what he’s doing. I’m not going to tell him what to sing or how to dress or how to act. He knows how to do those things. I just do the business part”.
Harry Knipschild
26 januari 2026
Clips
* Elvis Presley, Don't be cruel
* Interview met Col, Tom Parker, 1987
* Documentaire over Dries van Kuijk
* Prter Guralnick over Col. Tom Parker
Literatuur
Ruud Kuyper, ‘Elvis’ weduwe zal Tom Parker missen’, Algemeen Dagblad, 23 januari 1997
David Adams, ‘Interview with Loanne Parker, Colonel Tom Parkers Widow’, Elvis Australia, 24 maart 2006
Peter Guralnick, The Colonel and the King, Londen 2025
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