One of the characters that shaped Rock nRoll died 18 years ago today. In the Twenties he enrolled on a ship that sailed from Rotterdam to America. Without any papers the young boy from Breda managed to make a living there with all kinds of shady jobs. He is said to have painted sparrows yellow to sell them as canaries at fairs and carnival shows. With his smooth talk he slowly wriggled himself into the world of great entertainment. After a while, having worked as a manager for the likes of Hank Snow, he hooked his biggest fish in 1956: Elvis Presley. Elvis had full confidence in the man who called himself Tom Parker and gladly paid the 50% The Colonel demanded of all revenue. That he wanted no tours abroad for his protégé never aroused suspicion: the King swallowed the excuses of Parker and probably never knew that his manager stayed in the US as an illegal alien, always afraid that his real identity would be exposed and horrified of no longer being able to enter the country if he ever set one foot across the border. There was also this thing in Breda about the murder of a potato saleswoman shortly before he had left for America. The Dutch police would have loved to ask some questions about this to Elvis manager if they had known who he was. On January 21, 1997 however, it was too late for that when Dries van Kuijk, his real name, died after a stroke in Las Vegas, the city where he had left the better part of his 50% on the gambling tables.
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 09:27:52 +0000
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