The Secret Past of Colonel Tom Parker Before he managed Elvis Presley, Colonel Tom Parker lived a life built on a lie. His real name was Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk, born in the Netherlands in 1909. He entered the United States illegally around 1929 and reinvented himself as “Thomas Andrew Parker,” a name he borrowed when he enlisted in the U.S. Army. After going AWOL, he was discharged for “psychogenic depression,” and spent years working as a carnival promoter, mastering the showmanship and hus