APPENDIX I PROBATE COURT What is Probate? Probate is the legal process of wrapping up a person’s financial life after they pass away. It is a court-supervised checklist ensuring that the deceased person's property goes to the right people, and that any outstanding bills are settled. RETURN TO BOOK STUDY DIRECTORY APPENDIX I PROBATE COURT Elvis Presley willed everything to his daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, and named his father, Vernon Presley, as the sole executor of the estate. This must be clearly understood, or the ridiculousness and findings during Probate Court cannot be fully appreciated.
The following is a list of the agreements between Elvis Presley and Tom Parker during Elvis’s career.
RETURN TO BOOK STUDY DIRECTORY Monday, November 21, 1955: Tom Parker took over management of Elvis Presley’s career, claiming 25% of Elvis Presley’s gross income.
Monday, January 2, 1967: The Second contract was signed. Tom Parker grabbed 50% on side deals and any income beyond basic payments in the film and record contracts. A standard contract calls for the agent to receive ten percent of an artist’s gross income.
March 1973: This contract allowed Parker to take 50% of Elvis Presley’s total income from recordings and not just the side deals.
APPENDIX I PROBATE COURT RETURN TO BOOK STUDY DIRECTORY 1974: Tom Parker created “Boxcar Enterprises” to consolidate the licensing of Elvis’s image on merchandise. Parker’s cut was 56% to Elvis’s 22%. Tom Diskin who was President of Boxcar owned the other 22%. Parker awarded himself with a sizeable pay increase and as a result, in 1976 Parker collected $136,000 to Elvis’s $10,500 (Manager Ripped Off Elvis, Court Told.” Chicago Tribune, Sunday, August 2, 1981. Newspaper Section 3 p 13). Thursday, January 22, 1976: Final contract between Elvis Presley and Tom Parker gave Parker 50% of Elvis’s income from live performances. APPENDIX I PROBATE COURT RETURN TO BOOK STUDY DIRECTORY Tom Parker never seemed to have had Elvis’s best interest at heart, right down to the end when he showed up to Elvis’s funeral in a baseball cap and a Hawaiian shirt. He shoved a contract in the face of Vernon Presley who at the time was brokenhearted over the death of his son. Many viewed Parker’s actions as lacking sensitivity given the timing and circumstances surrounding Elvis’s funeral. The contract gave Tom Parker the power to keep control over the estate’s income and gave Parker the full rights of marketing Elvis’s products to Boxcar Enterprises. Fifty percent was to be equally split between Parker and the Presley estate. Even though this new contract was in writing, under the circumstances of how Parker obtained control before Elvis’s remains could even be put in the ground, some judges may not have held that contract up. The reason is Vernon was seriously grieving at the time of the signing. In many courtrooms across the country, it is this direction that at the time you can’t hold a person to reasoning about a contract and what all of it means and details if they are distressed. Whether a court would have ceased the contract is pure speculation because this contract with Vernon was never disputed.
APPENDIX I PROBATE COURT RETURN TO BOOK STUDY DIRECTORY It is understandable how Vernon Presley with limited education may not have been able to scrutinize Parker’s underhanded business practices over the years. Vernon more than likely felt the family was doing well. He may have only compared it to the impoverished state the Presley family was in before Elvis hit it big. Perhaps he only saw how fortunate they were to be out of the clutches of poverty. However, Mrs. Gladys Presley never liked nor did she trust Thomas Parker. She may not have known why, but she strongly felt something was wrong from the beginning.
Tuesday, June 26, 1979: Vernon Presley died. Before his death, he named Joe Hanks, Elvis’s accountant, the National Bank of Commerce in Memphis, and Priscilla as co-executors of Elvis’s estate. This is odd because Elvis did not include Priscilla in his Last Will and Testament, and only months earlier she sued the estate for the remainder of her alimony settlement despite holding a $500,000 lien on Graceland through a trust deed signed by Elvis (See Chapter 18: Wednesday, May 2, 1973). APPENDIX I PROBATE COURT RETURN TO BOOK STUDY DIRECTORY Even with multiple co-executors, Lisa Marie’s inheritance was not protected. In fact, only three days after Vernon’s death, the co-executors allowed Tom Parker to continue managing the estate as before. All estate income was sent to Parker first, who deducted his commission before forwarding the remainder to the estate.
May 1980: It was a shame the newly named co-executors didn’t see something was wrong with Tom Parker’s deal. If they did, they sure didn’t act on those wrongful findings.
Parker’s world began to crumble when the Presley Estate co-executors asked the probate court to continue his 50% share of the estate’s annual income. Tennessee Judge Joseph Evans denied the request, believing Lisa Marie Presley’s inheritance needed protection. Attorney Blanchard E. Tual was then appointed her guardian ad litem until she turned eighteen ("A Bit Late, Elvis Starts To Rake In Money,” The Chicago Tribune. Stephen G. Tompkins of Scripps-Howard News Service. February 21, 1988). APPENDIX I PROBATE COURT RETURN TO BOOK STUDY DIRECTORY Atty. Tual worked with some of the top entertainment industry attorneys and talent agents from Atlanta, Los Angeles, and New York while he researched Parker’s financial history with Elvis (Manager Ripped Off Elvis, Court Told.” Chicago Tribune, Sunday, August 2, 1981. Section 3 p 13).
Tuesday, September 30, 1980: Atty. Tual filed a three hundred-page report with the court. Tual argued that it wasn’t right for the co-executors to proceed full association with Parker taking into account the Thursday, January 22, 1976, contract he had with Elvis. By 1970, Elvis’s RCA royalty rate was far below any other performer at his sales level. Tual’s report called Parker’s 50% manager’s fee exorbitant and unreasonable. The co-executors had never investigated Parker’s finances or verified whether his figures were gross or net. Tual argued estate income should no longer pass through Parker’s hands and that all agreements with Elvis ended at his death. He also demanded a full audit of Parker, RCA, the William Morris Agency, Factors, the movie studios, and Concerts West, accusing Parker of self-dealing and violating his duty to Elvis.
APPENDIX I PROBATE COURT RETURN TO BOOK STUDY DIRECTORY Atty. Tual learned that Parker received money and benefits from those who had to go through him to get to Elvis (“RCA, the William Morris Agency, the motion picture companies, the television networks and Las Vegas hotels,” he explains, “all catered to Parker and proved various monetary and non-monetary incentives to keep Parker happy and therefore get to Elvis.” Lloyd Shearer, “The Man Who Owned Fifty Percent of Elvis,” Parade. December 21, 1980 pp 7-8).
Friday, July 31, 1981: Atty. Tual’s second eighty-five-page report consisted of the most heart-breaking and bungling decision made in music history, “The RCA Buyout.” This was Elvis’s entire catalog from the beginning of his career including his first Sun hits to Thursday, March 1, 1973. The music was sold for a paltry $5.4 million to RCA. After the sale, RCA owned the music outright and would never have to pay Elvis a single dime in royalties for the songs ever again. Of course, Parker got 50% of that sale. Elvis got 50%, which was used up in income taxes (“Presley’s Manager Accused Of Bilking Star’s Estate,” The Kokomo Tribune, 1981. Newspaper p 15) and to help him pay Priscilla off in the divorce (Torgoff, Elvis We Love You Tender. Hardcover p 171. West, Elvis: Still Taking Care Of Business. Hardcover p 289). Not only was it a bad deal for Elvis, later it proved to be a bad deal for Lisa Marie as well. She lost millions of dollars when her father passed away. The demand for Elvis’s music after his death was so high it took weeks to fill the orders, and not one red cent went to the estate.
APPENDIX I PROBATE COURT RETURN TO BOOK STUDY DIRECTORY Atty. Tual speculated Parker sold Elvis cheaply to the Hilton to help cover gambling debts reportedly in the millions. Elvis earned about $130,000 less per night than newer stars, while Parker profited heavily from contracts he ensured were never audited. Parker also failed to register Elvis with BMI for performer’s songwriting royalties, costing him hundreds of thousands of dollars on 33 credited songs from 1955 to 1978. Parker and RCA were accused of collusion, fraud, bad faith, and conflicts of interest, with claims that RCA paid Parker to keep Elvis compliant while cheating him financially. Friday, August 14, 1981: Judge Evans’s next order was for the estate to stop further payments to Parker because his compensation was over-the-top and shocked the conscience of the court. Judge Evans also required the executors to file a suit within forty-five days (“Elvis’ Manager Is Cited,” Daily News, 1981. Newspaper p 3) against Parker for fraudulent business practices, ordered an investigation into RCA Record’s dealing with Elvis and the estate, and warned the executors not to “enter into any further agreements with Parker” without the court’s approval.
APPENDIX I PROBATE COURT RETURN TO BOOK STUDY DIRECTORY Parker’s attorney of course denied all allegations. Regardless of how Parker tried to twist this, RCA and Parker had cheated Elvis for years and the truth finally came out.
1982: Enter the Internal Revenue Service (I.R.S.). Five years after Elvis’s death, the I.R.S. estimated the Presley estate a lot higher than the co-executors. The I.R.S. demanded $14.6 million in additional taxes. Still, numerous claims are stating Elvis almost being bankrupt when he died, or the estate only being worth $10 million. Ten million in 1977 is equivalent to $55,679,381 in 2026.
While Elvis was alive, his performances took care of any financial needs of the estate. After he died, that income died with him, but nobody has mentioned what he left. The I.R.S. said of Graceland, Elvis’s royalty rights for films, records, and television had been undervalued. The estate always had sufficient income when Elvis was alive. All he had to do was make a movie, go on tour, cut a record and the bill was paid, but not exactly a good long-term financial plan. Nobody questioned what happened to the ten acres Elvis purchased across from Graceland in 1961–62.
APPENDIX I PROBATE COURT RETURN TO BOOK STUDY DIRECTORY March 1982: Parker claimed he and Elvis were in a partnership and used the January 2, 1967, contract to try to prove his case. Atty. Tual responded with, “I never saw anything to indicate it was a partnership” (Nash, The Colonel: The Extraordinary Story Of Colonel Tom Parker And Elvis Presley Hardcover p 325). Then Parker demanded $1.6 million he claimed he advanced Elvis in the months before he died and asked the Nevada court to order Presley’s estate to be liquidated. While Parker made this move, he tried to get the right to promote Presley’s name and gain full control of the business he alleged he and Elvis shared. Parker claimed the profits were to be divided between himself and Lisa Marie.
May 1982: RCA Records filed an interpleader in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against Joseph A. Hanks, National Bank of Commerce of Memphis, Tennessee, Priscilla Presley, Thomas A. Parker All-Star Shows, and Blanchard E. Tual. Basically what the action claimed was that RCA Records owed certain royalties in an agreement between itself and Elvis, but they couldn’t determine who was entitled to the money.
APPENDIX I PROBATE COURT RETURN TO BOOK STUDY DIRECTORY Parker’s next move was to try to have the case moved to Nevada where none of the claimants resided. He attempted to dismiss RCA’s interpleader, based on a jurisdiction rule, because he wasn’t a citizen of any state in the U.S. and he wasn’t a citizen of any foreign nation ( An alien is a “person born out of the United States and unnaturalized under our Constitution and laws. Black’s Law Dictionary at 95. 4th ed. 1968). Therefore, he could not be sued. Parker’s efforts failed. The case wasn’t dismissed because at least one of the claimants could be sued.
June 1982: The estate sued Parker asking that any right to any contract with Elvis’s estate be forfeited. A settlement was reached in November 1982, with the estate essentially buying Parker out for two million. The final agreement was signed in June 1983, and after twenty-seven years, Parker’s business relationship with Presley’s estate officially ended.
1983: Parker eventually agreed to sell his master copies of some of Elvis’s major recordings to RCA for $2 million. Parker passed on most of his Elvis assets to Elvis Presley Enterprises (EPE). He also agreed to drop any claims he had to Presley’s estate (Piers Beagly, “The Dark Side of Colonel Parker,” An EIN Spotlight. www.elvisinfonet.com/spotlight_thedarksideofcolonelparker.html)