Elvis’ Manager Said He Would Lose Graceland and His Fans After a Nasty Fall
In 1966, Elvis Presley’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker, decided he needed to exercise stronger control over his celebrity client. Elvis’ drug use had ramped up, something everyone in his life was aware of, and he fell and hurt himself while under the influence. Parker warned Elvis that if he didn’t take his advice, he would lose everything.
Elvis’ manager told him he would lose everything after he fell and hit his head
In 1966, Elvis’ friend, Joe Esposito, came to pick the singer up to go to the studio. He found him in the house, woozy, with a sizable lump on his head.
“Into 1966, he started taking downers more heavily, gradually at first,” bodyguard Sonny West said in the book Elvis: What Happened? by Steve Dunleavy. “But he started heavy into them more and more as he got more and more bored. Around about that time, he fell very badly in the bathroom and hit his head. He got a concussion and he lost his equilibrium for a while. It was a real bad fall. He said he slipped. But he had been heavy into yellow jackets and Seconals. He was half asleep when he had that fall.”
Esposito called Parker, who arranged for a doctor to come to the house. The doctor found that Elvis had a mild concussion, but was otherwise fine. Still, Parker took the opportunity to have a stern talk with Elvis.
“The Colonel went back in and talked to Elvis,” Marty Lacker recalled in the book The Colonel by Alanna Nash, “and he said, ‘Here’s the way it is. From now on, you’re going to listen to everything I say. Otherwise, I’m going to leave you, and that will ruin your career, and you’ll lose Graceland and you’ll lose your fans. And because I’m doing all this extra work for you, I want fifty percent of your contract.’”
Elvis’ manager shook up his entourage after the fall
Elvis was not the only one who received a stern talking to from Parker after his fall. Parker turned on the singer’s entourage, demanding to know how they let this happen.
“The Colonel took us out into the hall,” Lacker said, “and he said, ‘Goddamn you guys, why do you let him get this way? He’s going to mess up everything! They’ll tear up the contract!’”
He then began issuing orders to the group, giving some new obligations and stripping titles from others. Lacker said he found it all disheartening.
“To see Elvis acting that way, and to hear this old, fat bastard spewing edicts like he was Elvis’ ruler just made me sick,” he said, per the book Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley by Peter Guralnick. “In fact, it destroyed my desire to be part of the group.”
The singer allowed Colonel Parker to make all these changes without much argument
Typically, Elvis liked to be the one in charge, so his entourage was surprised to watch him cave to Parker’s requests.
“Colonel told Elvis, ‘You’ve got to behave yourself. You can only go so far,’” Elvis’ barber, Larry Geller, recalled. “And Elvis knew the Colonel was a dangerous enemy.”
Parker even ordered Elvis to stop spending time alone with Geller, as he worried the barber was filling his client’s head with spirituality. Elvis loved Geller, but he didn’t fight the demand.
“I was surprised at how attentively Elvis was listening,” Priscilla Presley wrote in the book Elvis and Me. “Elvis had always argued with anyone, even me, who said anything against Larry. At one point, it seemed Elvis would cut off his right arm for Larry. But now Elvis promised the Colonel he wouldn’t spend any more time than he had to with him. He kept his promise. He only used Larry to style his hair and was never alone with him again.”
How to get help: In the U.S., contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration helpline at 1-800-662-4357.
