25% Of The King: Col. Tom Parker

COLONEL TOM PARKER, the flamboyant tent-show hustler who was Elvis Presley's Svengalian manager, has died in Las Vegas at the age of almost 90. He took the gauche hillbilly from being a regional star in the Deep South, and saw him become the most potent superstar in post-war America. Depending on your point of view, Parker did this either with visionary genius and disarming guile or with a blighting, tawdry short-sightedness.