To Honor Elvis’ Memory, Star’s Mentor Puts on a Show Himself

Bill Jackson has gawked at the gold records and guns at Graceland. He’s purchased a king-size souvenir blanket and a large-as-life portrait on black velvet closer to his home in Monterey.

But not until this week--and for a limited time only--had the 41-year-old part-time cook and full-time Elvis Presley fanatic been afforded the opportunity to view the king of rock ‘n’ roll’s still-spry, 78-year-old manager on display, live, for $5 a crack.

As Elvis memorial-mania sweeps the nation on the 10th anniversary of the legendary rocker’s Aug. 16 death, Col. Tom Parker, who has been called everything from the brains behind the throne to an unvarnished money-grubbing huckster, is at it himself, hosting a tribute exhibition of his somewhat limited collection of Elvis memorabilia in the Elvis Presley Suite of the Las Vegas Hilton.

Star’s Penthouse

“Single line, single line, howdy, howdy,” barked the one-time carny, as he held court this week in the four-bedroom penthouse where Presley lived, loved and, reportedly, shot out the chandeliers for target practice while ensconced for a series of 700 sellout performances between 1969 and 1977.

At the opening of the six-day exhibit, hundreds of faithful fans flocked through the marble-floored foyer, some from as far away as Paris.

There was Jackson, a yearly visitor to Presley’s home in Memphis, who said he drove 12 hours non-stop to Las Vegas to arrive in time for the opening tour Tuesday morning.

There were Johnny and Sharon Mascaro of Des Moines, Iowa, both 43, and on their honeymoon following a wedding ceremony last week in which four Presley recordings, including “Can’t Help Falling in Love” and “Viva Las Vegas,” were featured. “Prior to this,” an ebullient Johnny Mascaro confided after receiving the colonel’s autograph, “my greatest Elvis thrill was when I got my picture taken at Graceland next to Elvis’ horse.”

And there were Thomas and Gina Thorp, who happened on the exhibition while in town for, of all things, a poetry convention billed by promoters as “the largest gathering of poets ever to assemble in the history of the world, going all the way back to Sophocles in Greece.”

The Thorps presented Parker with a framed poster containing a poem Thomas Thorp had written minutes after Presley’s death. They had had the poster air-shipped from their home in New Hartford, N.Y., after learning of the colonel’s presence.

It read in part:

The emptiness within our hearts,

Such a tribute to the man.

He’s auditioned for the greatest part,

For our Lord, the master plan.

Most visitors seemed downright thrilled with the exhibition, which concludes Sunday.

“My heart is full right now,” Thomas Thorp told Parker after he placed their poster in a position of prominence next to Parker’s autograph-signing table, on which a painting entitled, “Elvis: The King Lives On,” was propped.

The colonel, who has rarely appeared in public, seemed enraptured at taking center stage.

In the past, he explained to reporters, “I stayed in the background. Now Elvis is gone and I’m sure he’s enjoying very much what I’m doing today because he would want it that way, because I’m a spokesman for him when he’s gone.”

These days, Parker limps along with a wooden cane and is somewhat hard of hearing. But when it comes to business, he’s still crafty.

To promote the exhibition, the colonel held what he described as his first-ever no-holds-barred press conference. And he is also promoting a show this week entitled, “Col. Tom Parker Presents Wayne Newton in a Tribute to His Friend Elvis,” for which he has blanketed the town with billboards--as well as a massive marquee, fittingly enough, on Paradise Road.

As it happened, Newton, sporting canary yellow sunglasses, managed to stop by the colonel’s press conference just long enough to declare that he loved Elvis as a friend and fan for many years. Then, citing the need to rehearse, Newton said “ Danke schoen “ and split.

At the half-hour press conference before the first tour, Col. Parker turned a deaf ear when asked about Presley’s drug use, snapping, “We’re here to honor his memory. I think I didn’t hear you very well, thank you.”

But the colonel did delve into Presley’s weight problems during his later years.

“He complained one night to me,” Parker confided. “He was kind of unhappy about it. I said . . . you could be a big performer; look at Kate Smith.”

Asked what Presley liked to eat, the colonel replied, “Everything.”

Moreover, the craggy-faced Parker spoke candidly about the pair’s propensity for taking care of business.

“If he were here tonight, that means we wouldn’t be sitting here because we’d be working. . . . Las Vegas is a very friendly town. A lot of nice people (live) here. But mostly what he liked about it--and I did too--was our check every week.”

Parker gave mixed messages about his motives for this latest venture.

On one hand, he emphatically declared that his exhibition was truly special because it was not commercial.

“You know what’s different about this?” he asked reporters. “We’re not selling anything. . . . We could have made $100,000 easy (with) vendors (who) wanted to buy space.”

Still, the cowboy-hatted, red bandana-bedecked Parker frequently plugged plans to open his own museum in Madison, Tenn., next year--unless, of course, “somebody wants to buy all of (the memorabilia, and then) I’ll talk to them.”

And, when asked about his financial stake in the tribute show, Parker conceded without batting an eyelash, “When you ask me if I get paid, I always get paid.”

In the display, which he said represented about 15% of his collection, were such items as a mid-1950s placard in which Presley was billed as “the nation’s only atomic-powered singer,” and a banner from the Elvis Midget Fan Club.

Much of the colonel’s collection was of photos of himself posed with a plethora of famous personalities other than Presley, including Frank Sinatra, Jackie Gleason, Ricky Nelson and Paul Newman. During a press tour of the suite, Parker remarked to no one in particular as he passed Newman’s photo, “I understand he’s selling vinegar now.”

The colorful booty was tacked and taped to the walls and china cabinets of the otherwise tastefully decorated $2,500-a-night penthouse 30 floors above the asphalt.

Although the suite’s layout remains similar, the drapes, furniture (including Presley’s bed) and other accouterments have been replaced since The King departed, hotel officials said.

“The Elvis suite is actually our star suite; it’s where all our stars stay,” explained hotel publicity director Bruce E. Banke. “It was available this particular week because Wayne (Newton) is in our showroom and Wayne lives in Vegas.”

At his press conference, Parker said he rarely visited Presley’s living quarters himself and thus was in no position to confirm or deny the wilder tales concerning Presley’s conduct and predelictions.

“I never was up here when he was having a party because I went to bed,” he explained. “Elvis lived his own life and I lived mine and we kept our personal lives separated.”

Finally, the colonel tackled the weightiest question of all--whether Presley had any unfulfilled goals.

“I would assume,” Parker proclaimed, “he would have liked to stay alive.”