Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis was released in June 2022 and quickly started receiving renown as one of the all-time great music biopics. The film chronicles the rise of music superstar Elvis Presley, documenting how his music inspired him and enabled him to connect to his fans. At every turn, Presley’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker, was there — providing the machinations behind the scenes that helped the star become an icon. The relationship between Presley and Parker was notoriously contentious, and in the film, one of the most dramatic scenes involves Presley losing his cool and firing Parker abruptly in the middle of a show. In real life, this didn’t exactly happen — but Presley and Parker did have one very notable confrontation.
‘Elvis’ featured a dramatic scene where Elvis Presley fired his manager Colonel Tom Parker
Toward the end of the film Elvis, Presley, consumed by the pressure of performing shows in Las Vegas on a nightly basis, implodes on his manager, the devious Colonel Parker. The rock star, high on prescription substances and going through the motions on stage, calls Parker out from where he sits in the audience, calling into question his citizenship and cursing at the older man before abruptly firing him.
The scene after that details how Presley, determined to scrub the Colonel from his life, realizes that he can’t afford to fire his manager because the Colonel has racked up a series of extravagant charges dating back to the very first year he started working with the promoter. Dejected, Presley realizes that he is stuck with Parker, for better or worse.
Did Elvis Presley fire his manager in real life?
Although the scene where Presley fires Parker was very dramatic in the movie, things went down a little bit differently in real life. As reported by USA Today, Presley biographer Alanna Nash denies that the artist would have ever fired the Colonel in such a public manner. “No, he never would have done that,” Nash said, also denying that Presley would have ever suggested that he was aware of Colonel Parker’s immigration problems.
“He fully believed the colonel’s story that Parker hailed from Huntington, West Virginia; Elvis died not knowing the truth,” she said. “That didn’t come out in this country until 1981.” However, there was an incident when Presley became furious at both Colonel Parker and Barron Hilton, whose property Presley had a contract to perform at.
Reportedly, Presley had visited the home of an employee whose wife was struggling with cancer, and Hilton retaliated by firing the employee because the contract banned hotel employees from having any sort of contact with the talent — which in this case, meant Presley. The star, furious at how Hilton had treated the employee, launched a verbal tirade on Hilton from the stage, which incurred the wrath of Parker. Presley and Parker argued late into the night over the matter, an argument that culminated in Presley firing his manager. Ultimately, however, just like in the movie, Presley realized that he couldn’t afford to fire Colonel Parker and continued his association with him.
Colonel Tom Parker remains an enigma to the Presley family
Colonel Parker remained an enigmatic figure in Presley’s life right up until the end — and while some members of the singer’s inner circle, including Priscilla Presley, thought that Colonel Parker took good care of Presley, others claimed that the manager prevented him from tackling projects that he was really interested in. Reportedly, Colonel Parker didn’t share much about his life or history with Presley, and in 1977, the legend died without ever knowing where his mysterious manager came from or what his motivations were.
