Reasons Why Dolly Parton Equals Perfection
Dolly Parton has always been an anomaly to me; how the hell does she get her hair that high? The world may never know. Well, the higher the hair the closer to Jesus I suppose. Honestly though, I have one hair look... it's straightened and parted to the side. I'm not just making this appreciation post for Dolly because her hair is off the chain, I'm making it because of all the amazing facts I learned about her after seeing a documentary and feeling inclined to keep digging a bit deeper. I have put together some of the things I find most interesting about her, let's get started.
The Porter Wagoner thing.
Dolly Parton got her start on the Porter Wagoner show back in 1967 replacing the original singer, Norma Jean. Dolly was very excited to be apart of this show that she knew would definitely sky rocket her to fame. Throughout her the time show Dolly was pumping out songs and had about 18 albums made with her boss and duet partner Porter. However, Porter was starting to become a bit over bearing to Dolly and eventually she wanted to leave the show so she can pursue a solo career. She wasn't sure how to tell Porter that she wanted to move on in her career, so she did it the best way Dolly could... by writing a bop. She ended up writing the song we all know and love today, "I Will Always Love You" (later beautifully covered by Whitney Houston in 1992) to let Porter know that she was thankful for her start but it was time to move on. He eventually agreed to let her go and even helped her produce her first couple of solo songs. However, after Dolly finally released her first album she had made hit after hit, leaving Porter a bit sour. In March 21, 1979 Porter filed a $3 million lawsuit against Dolly. He claimed she had breached a contract agreement they had together and claimed that she owed him 15% of all of her current revenue and 15% of any future royalties on her music. They did come to an agreement in which Dolly agreed to pay him one million dollars. Dolly later claimed "It took me a while to pay it off, but he got the first million dollars I ever made." Dolly went on to become a movie star when she began making a few films, such as "9 to 5", becoming one of America's biggest celebrities and finally making millions more in her career. At this time Porter seemed to be losing his fortune due to his women loving nature and not paying his taxes. Dolly then helped Porter out when he needed it the most, by buying his entire music catalogue for a ton of money, like a fortune, just so he could pay off his debt. Once he was back up on his feet he asked Dolly if she would be willing to let him buy it back, to which Dolly just said, you can have it all back for free. When Porter had become ill Dolly came to his side. She held his hand as he lay on his death bed, they prayed and sang together. Dolly said she felt like a piece of her died the day he died and recalled "It felt good that I had the opportunity to say goodbye properly." Wow... she's sweet... *Clenches heart*
She Played for John Belushi.
It was on May 12th, 1977 Dolly was hosting a three night event at The Bottom Line. She had just released her first number one album New Harvest…First Gathering and was set to preform. She was ready to be out of the shadow of the Porter Wagoner show and make a name for herself. Big name celebrities had come out to support the country star, including Mick Jagger and John Belushi. She played all of her hits “All I Can Do,” “Getting in My Way,” “Jolene,” and “I Will Always Love You.” Jagger recalled being wowed by the show, and later Dolly remembered being so nervous to go up and sing with all the big names in the house, but as soon as she walked on stage it felt like home. This is where I am getting a bit upset... I had wrote an article a while back called "7 things you may not know about some SNL cast members." When doing that research I found out through some source that John had a big crush on Dolly. For the life of me I can't find the interview that claims this but I know its true because I always had it in my head that I had to write some sort of article about that situation and use the picture above. Finally, this idea came up and I did a little jig because I could finally use the cute picture in a post... I had been sitting on this idea for a couple of months. Now here I am and you are probably thinking what the hell am I reading. Just take my word for it, he had a crush on her... this isn't a news blog it my personal blog.... there's no rules... you're in the jungle, baby.
Advertisement
She's been married for half a century.
Dolly has been America's sweetheart since the 60's and has been married for 55 years... I had no idea she was married. Her husband, Carl Thomas Dean, is known for staying out of the spotlight and being a sort of "loner," he has been with Dolly since 1964. He does not try to cash in on his millionaire wife however, as he managed an asphalt laying company since 1977. He and Dolly lived in a 23 room mansion in 77, but still he felt the need to get up everyday and manage an asphalt laying company? What an awesome dude. He has only ever seen Dolly preform a hand full of times and gets nervous watching her on stage. Dolly told Parade, "He’s not in show business. He’s not resentful of any of that. He loves to hear about the things I do. I love to hear about the things he does. So we enjoy each other’s company. We get along good.” They now like to have fun by traveling around in their RV, Dolly and Carl love sight seeing around Tennessee and Kentucky.
Her charity work.
Dolly is not only a good actress, singer, friend, and married to a cool guy, she also does so many good deeds for the world. She started by launching a program for her home county, Sevier County, Tennessee called the Buddy Program in 1988. The program would offer any middle schooler that followed through and finished high school $500, this brought her county drop out rate from 35% of students to only 6%. She also offered $500 to any student who wanted to go to Hiwassee College. She continued by offering different types of scholarships to college throughout the years. She had many different benefits including the benefit concert for Sevier County hospital, (man this women loves her town) she raised one million dollars putting $250,000 of her own money to build her town a new hospital. The next good deed Dolly did was to run a telethon for families that had lost their home to a wild fire in Tennessee raising more than 11 million dollars. From this she started the My People Fund, giving families that lost their homes in the Tennessee fire $1,000 for 6 months straight. Dolly also donated $1 million to the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital, due to a member of her family falling ill, she wanted to help others, who couldn't afford much pay for treatment. Finally, her most recent good deed, donating another million dollars to coronavirus research at Vanderbilt University which was a big help in finishing the Moderna vaccine.
She has a theme park.
Dollywood is the largest employer in Sevier County... again, wow this women sure does love her hometown. She said she built Dollywood to help bring jobs to her community... and boy did she ever. Before Dolly had purchased the park it had been three different parks. Starting out as the Rebel Railroad in 1961, the park had a beautiful railroad built into it which you can still ride to this day! The park changed hands and turned into the Gold Rush Junction in the 1970's, the theme park got a facelift to a Wild West atmosphere, including a chapel that was named for a well-known local doctor, who also was the man who delivered Dolly, how strange! The third park name was the Silver Dollar City, this is when the famous mill was built that makes that iconic cinnamon bread that Dolly still sells today. I've only heard legends of the cinnamon bread, I've never had the pleasure of experiencing it myself. Finally, when Dolly got her hands on the park with her partners, the Herschend brothers, it became the famed Dollywood and on May 3, 1986 the doors opened. Dolly's devotion to her hometown really showed in how much she put into this park. The park continues to expand each few years with talks of opening more soon. Oh, and here's a little fun fact, Dolly refuses to ride the rides at her own theme park! Yep... she has motion sickness.
Dolly entered a Dolly look-alike drag queen contest... and lost.
In Dolly's memoir, "Dream More", she recalls an hilarious incident that had happened a few years back in Los Angeles. She had heard about a drag queen look-a-like contest and thought that if she had exaggerated her complete look that she could pass for a queen. She made her hair bigger, did her make up way more exaggerated, and even made her beauty mark bigger. She claims the queens were all so tall and beautiful; they were all set to be judged by applause. When she walked down the stage about a foot shorter than the rest, no one had clapped for her. She told ABC News "They just thought I was some little short gay guy," and later recalled “All these beautiful drag queens had worked for weeks and months getting their clothes. So I just got in the line and I just walked across… but I got the least applause.” Wow, I can not believe the contestants didn't know she was the real Dolly!
Advertisement
She was in Playboy.
I have always been a big fan of vintage Playboy, which I know can be problematic to some for the hate Hugh Hefner is getting lately. But, I just love the old pictures... I mean articles. Right, articles. Well, when Dolly was 32 years old she was on the October 1978 cover, and I am all about it. She looks awesome in the classic bunny suit, although she didn't pose nude. She recalls, “I wasn’t naked; all you saw was me in my bunny suit, with my boobs sticking out a little. I wouldn’t do a layout. I’m not that brave, nor do I look that good!” She had decided to do the cover as a way to get herself in the public eye, back in the day Playboy had great pull and could help with any celebrity career. She really loved the article Playboy had written for her and saw it as something fun to do. She claimed that she wanted to pose again for the Playboy cover on her 75th birthday if they would go for it. Not surprisingly Playboy publicly responded and said that whenever Dolly gave them the word she could have another cover, however I can't find anything about if she has responded to them or not. They told her at the beginning of 2020 that she could have the cover on her 75th birthday, when she wanted it. Well, that would have been January 2021... What I'm thinking is that Dolly thought with all the COVID-19 business going on it would be insensitive to have a big moment like that. But maybe for her 77th or something fun like that?
So, she's awesome, right?
So, now that we know all the awesome things she has done we can all agree that she is entitled to the true America's sweetheart title, correct? She changed my perceptions of country music way back when I was a child and heard "Jolene" for the first time, she always has a place in my heart. I loved going down the timeline of her life and learning more about her. Hopefully you did too. One thing I didn't mention was that she is the god mother to Miley Cyrus... but everyone knew that right? Yea, thats why I left it out. Live music is coming back around now so I hope I can catch a live show very soon. I included my favorite Dolly song below, enjoy and make sure to let me know what you think!