The Florida history of The King and The Colonel

Kealing, who wrote "Elvis Ignited: The Rise of an Icon in Florida," reminds us what the movie bypassed: that the Dutch-born Parker entered the Army in the Florida Panhandle in 1931, but was discharged after he was diagnosed as a psychopath in 1933.

Sometime after, he made a home in Tampa and married a "cigar girl" he met at the Florida State Fairgrounds, and the two started running carny scams around Tampa Bay.

• In 1940, the carnival barker took a job at the Hillsborough County Humane Society and started the area's first pet cemetery — also a scam, because he'd bilk grieving people on the headstones and funeral services.

In that role, in 1941, he organized a charity hillbilly show starring Minnie Pearl at Tampa's Homer Hesterly National Guard Armory.

• That show's success drove him to produce more shows, and more, until one day in 1955, when he watched a new performer named Elvis Presley get mobbed by girls at one of his shows at a baseball stadium in Jacksonville.

The rest is history.

Of note: Don't miss that amazing illustration of The Colonel and Elvis by Ringling instructor Regan Dunnick.