Tom Parker

b. Andreas Cornelius van Kuijk, 26 June 1909, Breda, the Netherlands, d. 21 January 1997, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. Since his death, there still remains bitter division about Parker. Was he Sam Katzman’s ‘biggest con artist in the world’ or merely an unsophisticated fairground barker sucked into a vortex of circumstances he was unwilling to resist? Arguments supporting either view might be construed from the icy ruthlessness formidable to those accustomed to Tin Pan Alley’s glib bonhomie, and his blunt stance in negotiation on behalf of Elvis Presley, his most famous managerial client. ‘Don’t...