Dolly

I don’t like most country music, not even Dolly’s. “Here You Come Again” and “9 to 5” are her only songs that I crank up and sing along with, and they’re not really country songs at all. But I loved Dolly, just like everyone else with a heart and a brain. I was 14 when the movie “9 to 5” was released, and it became a big part of my education. It was a revelation to see a woman who looked and sounded like Dolly demanding respect and equality. I didn’t have any aspirations to look like Dolly - and I couldn’t have, even if I wanted to - but I loved that Dolly’s character Doralee knew that she had every right to look the way she wanted to look and that her beauty and sex appeal didn’t make her fair game for misogynist pigs in the workplace or anywhere else. That movie radicalized me. That movie rewired my brain, and it made me a lifelong Dolly fan. 

And then there was her legendary generosity. She gave her money, her time, and herself to serve and elevate people in Tennessee and around the world. We all know about the Imagination Library distributing millions of free books to children, and then more and more about Dolly’s love for humanity came out in recent months as rumors spread that she wasn’t well. Dolly paid for college for Dollywood employees - even part-time and seasonal employees. She offered cash payments to high school students who graduated, cutting the drop-out rate in her home county from over 30 percent to less than 10 percent. She gave families affected by natural disasters generous, no-strings-attached cash payments to help them meet immediate needs and rebuild their damaged homes. And there are countless stories about her kindness to everyone she encountered. 

*****

Like everyone else, I’ve watched a million Dolly video clips this week. She was so smart, and so genuine, and SO SO SO funny. How could you not love a woman who when asked if she’d had plastic surgery responded “Of course I have - it costs a lot of money to look this cheap.” In another clip, Dolly is taking questions from an audience, and a woman asks her how long it takes to do her hair. “How would I know?” Dolly laughs, “I’m never there.” Then she explains that she lacks the time and the patience to sit still for long hairstyling sessions, so she always wears a wig. Dolly never appeared in public without her full armor of beauty and glamor. 

*****

“I’d like to know exactly what this Jolene character looked like” - comment from someone on Threads about a photo of a young Dolly, who was absolutely beautiful and would have been even without the help of wigs and makeup and fashion. 

******

Herb Ross, the director of "Steel Magnolias," who was famously a jerk to actresses, tried to intimidate Dolly. When Ross wondered out lout in front of the whole cast and crew why he'd even hired Dolly, Dolly came right back with "You hired me because I'm Dolly Parton, and they hired you to make it look like I can act." Legendary for her graciousness and kindness, Dolly was still no pushover. She came across as pretty much herself in all of her acting roles, and we wouldn’t have had it any other way. As much as we love Doralee and Truvy and all of her other characters, no character was as interesting as Dolly herself, and no story was as absorbing as her real-life story. The directors who cast her were smart enough to know that we’d watch Dolly in anything. 

*****

In one of my favorite Dolly videos, Dolly appears on a talk show with Patti LaBelle, another icon of superstar glamor. Just for fun, they sing “Shortenin’ Bread” together, using their acrylic nails as percussion instruments, laughing as they sing and play. That clip is two minutes of fun, creativity, joy, and sheer musical virtuosity. Geniuses, both of them. 

That’s the thing - it’s sad that she’s no longer with us, but how lucky am I to have grown up in a century that produced Dolly and Patti LaBelle and Carol Burnett and Cher and Bruce Springsteen and Aretha Franklin and Prince and Whitney Houston and Julie Andrews and Bob Newhart and Robin Williams and Mary Tyler Moore and Mel Brooks and Paul Simon and all of the other geniuses who did so much more than entertain us. For people my age, their music, their jokes, their characters are ingrained in our DNA. American pop culture has its flaws, but when it’s good, it’s really really good. And Dolly was the best of it.