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Our American Stories

The Most Famous Partnership in Showbiz History—The Real Story of Colonel Parker and Elvis Presley

Our American Stories

iHeartPodcasts

Society & Culture, Documentary

4.6817 Ratings

🗓️ 19 February 2025

⏱️ 39 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On this episode of Our American Stories, ingrained lore has it that Parker took advantage of "poor country boy" Elvis to sign the singer who became "The King". For the first time, Colonel Parker's story is told by an insider, Greg McDonald, who worked under Parker and Elvis for years. Greg's never-before-heard stories of Parker's collaboration with Elvis reveal the man behind the legend.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

This is an IHeart podcast.

0:04.5

Adventure should never come with a pause button.

0:07.1

Remember Movie Pass?

0:08.4

All the movies you wanted for just nine bucks?

0:11.1

I'm Bridget Todd, host of There Are No Girls on the Internet.

0:13.9

And this season, I'm digging into the tech stories we weren't told.

0:17.4

Starting with Stacey Spikes, the black founder of movie pass who got pushed out of the company

0:21.6

he built.

0:22.8

Everybody's trying to knock you down and it's not going to work and no one's going to like it.

0:27.3

And then boom, it's everywhere.

0:29.3

And that was that moment.

0:30.7

Listen to there are no girls on the internet on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

0:44.6

Music or wherever you get your podcast. This is Lee Habib, and this is our American Stories, the show where America is the star

0:50.3

and the American people.

0:52.6

Up next, we have an insider's look at the most legendary partnership in show business history.

0:58.2

I'm talking about the relationship between Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley.

1:02.9

If you see in the movie or read about this at all, Colonel Tom Parker is always the bad guy.

1:09.6

Here to tell the true story is an insider who knew both men.

1:16.0

My name is Greg MacDonald. I was a longtime friend and associate and employee of Colonel Tom Parker.

1:25.7

And after Elvis passed away, I was coming home to Palm Springs where the

1:32.5

colonel and I lived. And I'd been out on the road with Ricky Nelson for, you know, a tour.

1:40.1

Well, after Elvis died, people would come into the dress, Ricky's dressing room and really give us a hard time about the colonel because they knew that we were close to him.

...

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