How Did Dolly Parton Become Such a Legend?

Dolly Parton. I mean, it's not like you have to know everything about Dolly to ride a roller coaster, but it just seemed like a good excuse to learn more about somebody who's been such a superstar for you know, not only our entire lives, but several decades before that. Yeah, and and we've actually been talking about doing this episode

for a while now. Dolly Parton's obviously a legend. I think what I find most fascinating about her is that it's really difficult to find an artist who has appealed to so many different types of people for so many decades.

It's really impressive. So, you know, in preparation for my family trip to Dollywood, because that's really what this is all about, we thought you know today was the day to talk about how Dolly became Dolly, and how she found inspiration for some of her most well known songs, and of course which African nation came to love Dolly most. So let's dive in. Hey there, podcast listeners, Welcome to

Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good friend Manges Ticketer and on the other side of the soundproof glass wearing this ruby rhine stone vest and the biggest blondest wig. I really think it's the biggest one I have ever seen. That's our friend and producer Tristan McNeil. And you know, I do have to give him credit for his boldness because that's a tough look to pull off, and believe me, he does not pull it off. But it is a lovely attribute.

So Tristan, I'm sure Dolly would be more than honored well. And when you get down to it, that's really what today's episode is all about. It's honoring Dolly Parton because at this point it's safe to say that Dolly is something of an American icon. I mean, just think about it, like she's been in the spotlight for the better part of six decades now, and during that time, she's made a name for herself, you know, not only as a prolific singer and songwriter, but as a businesswoman, a humanitarian,

and of course even a theme park owner. But you know, really, the thing that earns Dolly her American icon status is the fact that she achieved all of her success in spite of, or perhaps because of, her markedly humble beginnings. So today we're going to look past that platinum, blonde wig and any of the gaudy outfits that make Dolly so instantly recognizable, and instead we're going to focus on that highly skilled performer beneath all of that glitz and glamour.

That's right, and before we get into just how humbled all these beginnings, where I thought I'd give some perspective by running down a few of her major accomplishments. So for starters, she's been dominated for forty seven Grammy Awards, eight of which she's won. She's also been nominated for two Oscars, two Emmy's and one Tony definitely E gotting there. She's uh in the Songwriters Hall of Fame, She's in the Grammy Hall of Fame. She's also in the Country

Music Hall of Fame. And and lastly, she's composed more than three thousand songs in her life and hold over a hundred million albums worldwide. That's just phenomenal. It's just incredible. When you lay it all out like that, it's hard to think of anyone who's pulled off anything of of that magnitude in the music world. But you know, maybe what's most impressive to me is that even at seventy two,

Dolly really shows no signs of stopping. Not only she's still recording and touring on a regular basis, I mean she's still breaking records and racking up awards. Just looking at a couple of these records. It was just this past January, Dolly was recognized for not one, but two Guinness World Records. Now, the first of these was for being the female artist with the most hits on Billboard Hot Country Song Chart. This is a whopping one hundred

and six one six songs that hit that chart. But the second of these records was for having the most decades with a top twenty hit on the same chart. Now, all told, Dollies landed twenty top hits on the chart that are spread out across six decades, and that's actually enough to beat out other country legends like George Jones, Reb mc attire and even Elvis himself. That's crazy. So obviously, now we have an idea of where Dolly is today, I think we should take a little time to talk

about where she started. And that's this rural town in Tennessee. It's called Locust Ridge, just next to the Smoky Mountains National Forest. And this is important because the concept of home has really been the driving force behind Dolly Pardon's entire career. I mean, it's something I think we'll see throughout the show today. But it wasn't just the location that made Dollies earlier so formative. Like her family was

dirt poor. I mean she used that phrase all the time, and so much so that when Dolly was born in January, her dad she persuaded the local doctor to deliver her by giving him a big sack of oatmeal, like that's what he traded. I mean, I like oatmeal as much as the next guy. But let's be honest about this. I mean, the doctor really got the short end of the straw on that one. I think. So there's at least one person who might disagree with you on that.

So Dolly is actually the fourth of twelve children, and one of her sisters, Stella Pardon, later wrote about their father's deal with that same doctor. So this is what she wrote. Quote, Daddy paid Dr Thomas a sack of meal to deliver Dolly. She was an expensive baby. Sometimes we pay him with chickens whatever we had available. That's

pretty wild. I mean, I know I'm from generally the same region of the country, but I've still always been curious about these appellation exchange right, So a sack of oatmeal is actually worth more than live chickens. So I guess I stand corrected here, Mango. Well, honestly, life in locus Ridge was kind of a raw deal all around for the Pardons. I mean, Dolly's father was a sharecropper. He barely made enough money for the family to survive. He often had to barter for goods and services, just

like you know, delivering a baby or health services. The um the fourteen Pardons all lived in a one room cabin. There was no running water, no gas, no electricity, And you know that just sounds like a recipe for one of the toughest childhood's imaginable, but possibly the worst part of it for Dolly was that she and her siblings had to bunk together, and these beds made of straw, and it was usually like three or four kids to

each bed. I mean, that does sound incredibly uncomfortable, But do you really think that was worse than not having running water? I mean, that seems pretty rough. So I wondered about that too. But I actually found this quote here from UH an interviewed Dolly did with Playboy. This is from eight and UH. After you hear it, I think you'll change your mind on this. So this is Dolly recalling her childhood quote. The kids peat on me every night. There were so many of us. We slept

three and four in the bed. I would wash every night, and as soon as I go to bed, the kids will wet on me, and I'd have to get up in the morning and do the same thing. That was the only warm thing we knew. In the wintertime, that was almost a pleasure to get pete on because it was so cold. Lord, it was as cold in the room as it was outside. We'd bundle up just to go to bed. I mean, it's just heartbreaking to hear that.

You know, in light of all of that, it's maybe no wonder that Dolly took to music at such an early age as a way to soothe many of her troubles. I mean, her first exposure to music was through her mother, who was actually half Cherokee, and she played the guitar and sang and and she was also exposed to music through her grandfather, who was a songwriter and supposedly a

mean fiddle player in his own right. And so when she was seven, Dolly's uncle gave her her first guitar, and then she started writing some of her first songs, and apparently she had a real knack for it from the very start. In this interview she did with Fresh Air, Dolly reflected on how her mother was quote always fascinated with the fact that I could rhyme so much stuff. That's really sweet. And of course she's still a gifted writer. You know, we mentioned earlier that Dolly Parton is semi

two years old this year. She's been performing for a solid six decades now. It's just unimaginable, but you know that means that she was barely a preteen when she launched her professional career. In fact, just three years after receiving that first guitar. That's when Dolly was only ten

years old, she started performing professionally. She made appearances on local TV radio shows in Knoxville and and then two years after that she performed for the first time on the Grand Old Oprey And by the time she graduated high school, she'd actually cut recordings with three different record labels. Well, there's no question that Dolly found her calling and chased

it full force from the very start. In fact, I once heard her say in an interview that she graduated high school on a Friday and then hit the road for Nashville the very next morning. That's right, and obviously moving to Nashville paid off for Dolly in all sorts of ways, not the least of which was romantically, because on the very same day she arrived in Nashville, Dolly bumped into her future husband at the Wishy Washy laundromette.

He was for a few years older than Dolly and a complete stranger at the point, but she was taken with him right away, and as she later explained, quote, I was surprised and delighted that while he talked to me, he looked at my face a rare thing for me, And two years after that the pair got married, and I'm happy to say that they're still going strong some fifty odd years later. I mean, talk about imat cute. It doesn't get much cuter than the wishy washy laundromat

is the place where you meet your future husband totally. Also, can I just say how hard it is to talk about any aspect of Dolly Pardon's life without almost just letting her tell the story. I mean, she has like three different charming quotes for every single location, and I am trying to be selective here, but I couldn't decide between which of these quotes on marriage to include, so I'm actually gonna go ahead and read both of them.

So this is from two fourteen, when the Today Show asked Dollie about her seecret for staying married so long, and this is how she replied, we know each other so well. I know every line in his face and he knows every hair in my wig. I just thought that was so cute. And the quote is when she and Called renewed their vows in two thousand sixteen, and this is what Dolly told the press. We're really proud of our marriage, it's the first for both of us and the last, which is just so sweet. Uh yeah,

those are both pretty great quotes. And really, when you're talking about someone who has a way with words like Dolly Parton's, it's it's kind of a disservice not to include at least a few of them. But so getting back to Nashville, we we should mention that this is where Dolly's career really started to take off. And you think about her first two years there. Dolly was under contract with Monument Records. Now they tried to market her more as a pop singer than as a country singer,

and Dolly actually went along with this arrangement. But on the side, she did start recording and selling her own country songs, and she was mostly doing this around Nashville. So you fast forward a couple of years. It was nineteen sixty six and Dolly caught the attention of listeners all over the country with a song called put It Off Until Tomorrow. Then a year after that, she followed it up with a song called dumb Blonde. Now, this was a song she wrote about being underestimated based on

her looks. It was her first solo hit to make the charts, and it kind of marked the beginning of this transition from more regional star to definitely more of a national one, right, And I do think it was around this time that she started partnering up with that other country singer, right like I and I've got his name in the notes, but it's like Porter or something, Yeah,

Porter Wagner. This was Mr grand Old Opry himself and Porter host of this half hour country music show at the time that was called, creatively enough, the Porter Wagner Show. And so it's fortunate that Porter was the host of it, but he invited Dolly to come on to be a regular performer on the show, and the two of them also recorded this whole slew of hit country songs over

the next eight years or so. And in fact, in the late sixties and early seventies, Dolly was releasing it was like three or more albums worth of new material every single year, and that colossal output was thanks in no small part to that partnership with Wagner. So I know the two went through separate ways in the seventies, but did you get a sense of what caused that split, Like,

was it over money or songwrites or what what was it? Honestly, you know, I think Dolly just became such a huge star in her own right, and so she really just wanted to focus full time on that solo career for a while. And you know, as you might expect, that decision created some bad blood between the two of them, but they did eventually make up some time in the eighties, and they even performed together a few times after that.

But actually, I'm glad you mentioned the Songwrits because that's one of the first cases where Dolly showed what a shrewd businesswoman she could be. And I say that because early in her career, Dolly started her own publishing company, and she did this so she could protect the rights to that ever growing catalog of songs, and so as a result, she owns just about every song she's ever recorded, and that's of course netted her millions and millions of

dollars and royalties over the years. That's pretty amazing. I feel like I've heard stories of like Michael Stipe taking Kirt Cobain or someone aside and telling them about managing their rights or whatever, and it's this recurring thing that keeps happening. But you know, for Dolly Parton to do that such a long time ago is just so smart

is It's impressing? But you know not, now that we've covered the basics in the first half of Dolly's career, what do you say we slow things down and go a little more in depth about a few of the songs that really made her famous. I'm definitely for that, But first, let's take a quick break. You're listening to part Time Genius, and we're talking about the life and times of the Smoky Mountains song Bird, the Queen of Nashville, herself,

the Iron Butterfly. This is miss Dolly Parton. But don't let any of those fancy nicknames for you, because despite her fame and success, Dolly's never forgotten her modest roots. Is that she found ways to channel them into her music early on, you know, crafting songs that gave voice to these overlooked female perspectives. And this was, of course, at a time when country music was largely still a boy's club. Now, she took inspiration from the female country

pioneers that came before her. You think of names like Molly o Day, Kitty Wells, and of course Patsy Klein. But then she took her place alongside them and became this progressive messenger to rural and working class listeners. And this would be male and female alike. Yeah, and I think you were saying the way that Dolly's background informs of music is just such a big part of her appeal.

You know, her ear music can be heartbreaking when it focuses on the uglier sides of life, but she never seems to dwell on those negative emotions and instead she sings about I guess learning from that pain, or you know, staying positive about what the future holds and when you

get down to it. Obviously those are universal concepts and in fact, there was this article a while back in the Journal of Pop Culture and it talks about how the people of Zimbabwe are apparently huge, huge Dolly parton fans. That just makes me so happy. And the good senses is that, uh, I guess zimbabweins identifies so strongly with her because of how open and earnest she is about

her own like underprivileged past, and it's pretty pretty remarkable. Yeah, I never knew Dolly was so big and Zimbabwe, but if you, if you stop and think about it, that reasoning definitely makes sense. I mean, she even talked about that kind of kinship herself in this interview she did with Biography a few years back. So she was asked about how growing up in poverty prepared her for a career as a performer, and here's what she had to

say about it. I think being brought up dirt poor left me with a feeling of what it was like to go without, so I can relate when people are having a hard time. In my case being a songwriter, I'm able to write not only four and about myself before what I know other people are feeling, even if they don't always have the means to get their voices heard. Being brought up poor, I recognize and appreciate the value of a dollar I never spend without thinking about it.

I appreciate all the things I have because I have been without right and maybe one of the best examples of Dolly's music being influenced by our hardships of her youth is that classic song from nineventy one, Code of Many Colors. It's actually based on a real incident from Dolly's childhood and tells the story of the time when her mother stitched a new coat for her and made

from all these assorted scraps of cloth. And as we've said, the family was cash strapped, so they couldn't afford a new coat for Dolly to wear during the school year that year. But when the colorful patchwork coat was finished, you know, it pretty much looked like a big quilt. I mean to most people, who would have been obvious from one look that this was a coat born of necessity.

But Dolly's mom wanted her to feel proud of who she was and where she came from, and really not to feel that shame or that constant weight of her family's poverty. So when she presented this makeshift coat to Dolly, she she actually compared it to that story of in the Old Testament of Joseph, and I guess that that technicolor dreamcoat that that he receives. Yeah, And you know, if you think about it, Dolly grew up in an incredibly religious environment, so that kind of comparison was likely

pretty impressive to her. I mean, who knows how many times she'd heard that story of Joseph while she was growing up. Yeah, definitely. And the problem was that Dolly's classmates didn't share that sentiment. You know what, when she showed up at school in her coat of many colors, the other thought for what it was that, you know, this clear sign of just how poor the Pardons were.

And so the other kids laughed, they made fun of the code and and Dolly just got totally confused by this response, and as she puts it in the song, and oh, I couldn't understand it, for I felt I was rich, and I told them of the love my mama sewed in every stitch, but they didn't understand it. And I tried to make them see that one is

only poor only if they choose to be. Yeah, it's a beautiful song, and I know it's one of Dolly's personal favorites too, and she even brought it back as an illustrated children's book in the early nineties, And of course they're more recently as a made for TV movie And You're really the songs taken on kind of this second life in schools as somewhat of an anti bullying anthem,

and it just seems very appropriate as that. And so all in all, it's not a bad legacy for for kind of a ratty old coat, but it kind of makes you wonder what happened to the original thing. So there actually is a coat of many colors in the Dolly Pardon Museum, but it's actually a replica of that coat that her mom made for her. So apparently the original was ripped up at some point and the scraps were reused to make baby blankets for a few of

Dolly's siblings. But you know, the replica's there, and it's right next to Porter Wagner's laundry slip, which is what Dolly had used to scribble out the lyrics when she wrote the song. Oh that's interesting, actually, speaking of Porter, did you know that that song I Will Always Love You was actually written about him? You're talking about that Wheney Houston song from the Bodyguard soundtract. That's it. It's really a Dolly Parton song. It was not a Whitney

Houston song. Dolly had written it as a sort of a goodbye when she and Porter were parting ways, and supposedly he cried the first time she played it for him. So that does make me wonder, like, how did her husband Carl feel about it, because you know, it's a pretty romantic song to write about a business partner. It definitely is and you know, there were always rumors that Dolly and Porter were maybe more than just friends, but

there was never any proof to back that hearsay. But you know, whatever the case, the song was a huge hit for Dolly back in nineteen seventy four, and then a couple of decades later for Houston in Nino. And actually there was another big name artists who wanted to cover the song in the years in between, but Dolly turned him down cold. You might have actually heard of this performer. His name was Elvis Pressley. I mean, it does ring about so well, why why would you turn

down the king? I'm curious, Like, I feel like having him cover your song would just make it huge, right, that's true? But you got to think about his notoriously bullish manager that I know we've talked about a little bit before, and that was Colonel Tom Parker. And it wasn't just that he wanted permission to cover the song.

He actually wanted Dolly to hand over half of the publishing rights as well, and of course this was a total non starter for Dolly, so she refused the deal outright, and it turned out to be a smart move as well, because by retaining those full rights, Dolly was free to cash in on the royalties when the song became a

massive hit for Houston decades later. Yeah, So, I was doing this interview where someone asked Allie if she had any favorite cover versions of her own songs, and she kind of gave this halfhearted answer before she finally admitted that, like, honestly, her favorites are whichever one's maker the most money, and that would probably my favorite. I'm being honest too if

I were in the same situation. But you know, since we're on the subject of covers, we should talk a little bit about the Dolly Parton song that's been recorded by other artists more than any other songs she's written. And that's, of course that nineteen seventy three hit Joe Lane, and just really have been a ton of other versions released over the years. And just looking at the list of these and think about the ones that we've heard.

You've got the White Stripes to Olivia Newton John's disco remix to even a Gawth rendition, which I have to admit I haven't heard. I want to go back and listen to this by the Sisters of Mercy. Yeah, I

haven't heard that goth version either any listeners together. But well, why do you think the song in particular has had such a long life, you know, in terms of the music scene, Well for starters, joe Lyne is part of this long line of so called cheating songs, which of course are a staple in country music, right up there

with all the patriotic ballads. And in fact, there was a study of the four hundred most popular country songs released between nineteen sixty and and cheating situations were found to be one of the most popular subjects, and they were actually second only to the more straightforward love song. So it's it's pretty interesting how many of them there are out there. But what makes Jolene stand up from the crowd is it's really that vulnerability and kind of

those feelings of inadequacy that are conveyed in it. And And you know, for anybody who hasn't heard some form of this song, you've got Joe Lene, who's this you know, red haired, pale skin woman and the singer fears that she's stolen the heart of her husband. But rather than kind of being this saddlement or a tale of revenge like so many of the other cheating songs, that are out there. Dolly song is really this heartfelt plead directly to the or woman so and the singer literally begs

Jolene not to steal her man. And many of us have heard these lyrics, but some of them go, you could have your choice of men, but I could never love again. He's the only one for me, Joe Lane. And you know, you think about that kind of diplomatic and self debasing approach, that was really something new for the genre. And I think that feeling of not measuring up to your perceptions of someone else was was pretty

relatable for a lot of people. And it was probably kind of endearing or maybe even cathartic to know that somebody is glamorous his Dolly parton could still fall prey to these insecurities. Yeah, I mean it is interesting just you know, you have these topics that everyone covers, but there's always an unusual way to voice it, and that Dolly pardon just gets that right. But you know, from what you were saying, I was curious, is it actually

autobiographical as well? Well, it's not exactly, but it was definitely based on a few events from Dolly's life, like Jolene's name, and physical features were inspired by this little girl who would ask for Dolly's autograph after a show one night, and then this idea of a woman showing interest in her husband that was supposedly crib from this real life bank teller who had this habit of flirting

with Carl Dean. So here's how Dolly puts it, she got this terrible crush on my husband, and he just loved going to the bank because she paid him so much attention. So it's kind of like a running joke between us when I was saying, Hell, you're spending a lot of time at the bank. I don't believe we have that kind of money. So it's really an innocent song all around, but it sounds like a dreadful and

that's really funny. Well, you know, we could probably spend all day talking about Dollis hit songs, but I do want to make sure we cover at least a few of the non musical contributions she's made as well. All right, well, let's do that, but first let's take a quick break, okay, Mago, So let's talk about a few of the times when Dolly's kind of branched out from her singing career and

tried her hand. It's something new, sure. So one of the earliest examples of Dolly stepping out was in the nineties when she crossed over from the stage to the movie screen. And this is when she made her debut, starting alongside Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin. You might remember this. It was the movie of Course. Of Course is a

comedy classic. You know. It's got three working women finally fed up with their sexist boss and then they start to pull all these schemes to get even The movie was a huge hit of the box office, and and the title song Dolly wrote for it went to number one on both the pop and the country charts, you know, and of course it even earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Song. It was such a fun song, and

it's got that great first line. It's tumble out of bed and stumbled at the kitchen, pour myself a cup of ambition and yawn and stretch and try to come to life. I mean, I feel like she was speaking for a lot of us with those lyrics. Definitely, and that's part of the reason why nine both the song and the movie have become such a lasting part of pop culture. You know I've forgotten this, but there was actually a nine to five TV show that ran for

five seasons and I didn't remember that. Yeah, Gabe actually told me about it, and Dolly wrote new songs for the Broadway version that opened in two thousand nine. But just a couple of weeks ago, Dollie announced that there's even a sequel in the works with she Fonda, Lily Tomlin. They're all going to reprise their roles. Oh man, that's awesome, but you know it's so many years later. I guess I guess it is better late than never. But actually a little surprise that Dolly is willing to get back

into the pants suit. It was pretty hilarious just reading about the experience from that movie, and she had kind of sworn them off after filming the first movie. And as she put it, I loved the movie and enjoyed doing it, but I couldn't wait to get out of those little suits and get into my trashy stuff. I mean, that's obviously like classic Dolly Pardon you know she has that quote. Uh, I just looked like the girl next door. If you happen to live next door to an amusement park,

that's pretty great. Thanks for the Thanks for the set up there. Because speaking of amusement parks, or really theme parks in this case, we definitely can't let this episode go without talking at least a little bit about Dollywood because plenty of singers have made that jump from music to TV and of course even movies, Dolly pretty much

stands alone in terms of the theme park ownership thing. Yeah, and it's obviously an unusual business move for a musician, but uh, I am sure that, like if Beyonce decided to have at theme park it would also be amazing. Yeah, I'd show up. So I am curious, like what made Dolly go for it? Like, like like what was she just really into roller coasters or what was it? It definitely wasn't the roller coaster thing. In fact, even though Dollies owned the theme park for over thirty years now, she's

never written a single ride there. Apparently she suffers from really bad motion sickness, and she said she used to get sick from riding on the school bus, so roller coasters are pretty much out of the question for her. But we go back to this idea of why she bought the park. There were a few things really, but you know. First, it actually helps to know that Dollywood wasn't always Dollywood. The original totally unrelated park it opened there in nineteen sixty one. It was called Rebel Railroad.

Then it changed names and owners a few times over the decades, and Dolly finally took over in nineteen eighties six, and it was then that she re themed the park really more around the history of the Smoky Mountains, and she decided to call it Dollywood. Actually, this kind of a random aside. The parks located in a Tennessee town called Pigeon Forge, and apparently it was named for this iron forge from the eighteen hundreds and for the flocks

of passenger pigeons that were native to the region. Neither of these things still exist today. I think the forge was eventually demolished and the pigeons, unfortunately just all went extinct. Did Dolly grow up near the park? I I mean, I I know she went around when it opened, but like, was it close to where she actually grew up? He definitely was. In fact, it was even in the same county, and so it was that proximity that attracted Dolly to

the park. For a couple of reasons. I mean, you know, for one thing, the park featured a chapel that was built and named and on or of doctor Robert Thomas, who was that same doctor who delivered Dolly in exchange for the bag of votes that we talked about earlier. And then the other kind of equally sentimental reasons she got involved was that she wanted to do something positive

for the area where she grew up. I mean, of course she wanted to make money too, but there's no doubt that she chose this investment in particular as a way to give back to the community. And Dollie said this much herself. There was a quote from two thousand and ten where she explained that she had quote always thought that if I made it big or got successful at what I had started out to do, that I wanted to come back to my part of the country and do something great, something I would bring a lot

of jobs into this area. And to her credit, that's exactly what she did. I mean, to this day, Dollywood is still the number one employer in that same county in Tennessee. That's pretty incredible, you know, and I'm pretty sure it's going to be the same case for a very long time. Now because earlier this month, Ali announced that she's adding a new adventure land to the park. It's called Wildwood Grove. It's supposed to add eleven new attractions.

It's expected to cost thirty seven million dollars, which I guess we'll make this the biggest expansion in the park's history. And since Dollywood gets about two point five million visitors each year, I'm sure this new area is going to be put to good use for sure. But actually, for any listeners planning their next vacation, you should keep in mind dogs are not allowed in Dollywood, but that's not something really to worry about because Dolly has you covered

on this front. You can actually just drop your pups off ahead of time at the park's kennel, which is appropriately named Doggie Wood. I like that, you know, I I know. We already said that Dollywood was born at least in part from Dolly's desire to give back to Tennessee. But they're also these more straightforward charities that Dolly has been involved in, and I do want to highlight just a couple of them. So the first is called My

People Fund. It was a campaign that she launched in two thousand and sixteen following the really awful wildfire in the Smokey Bonds region and if I left hundreds of

residents homeless. But Dolly's campaign used outside donations as well as some of her own money to provide all these displaced families with a thousand dollars per month stipends for a full six months and on all the My People Fund distributed just under nine million dollars to the fire victims, and it provided an additional three million to the region's

mountain recovery team. It's pretty incredible, and you know, I'd expect nothing less from an official ambassador to the Smokey Mountain National Park, which, of course Dolly Parton is so I I love that idea, but it's official, like national

parks actually have ambassadors. Apparently they do. So they were looking for somebody to represent the Smokey Mountain Park for this big seventy fifth anniversary back in I guess it was two thousand nine, and so park officials asked themselves, if we could pick one person who is the most recognizable and personifies the love of the Smokies, who would it be. And the answer was unanimous. It was Dolly Parton, not Smoky the Bear, not Smokey fair Well, they definitely

picked the right person for the job. But I do want to mention that dollis humanitarian first, aren't limited to helping just those from her own state. You know, she's actually run her own charity organization. It's called the Dollywood Foundation, and she's done this since ninety and over the years it's provide millions in school scholarships, hospital donations, supplies for classrooms. But the outreach program that I've always been most impressed

by is her Imagination Library. And this is a program she started twenty three years ago, and the whole goal was improving literacy rates among children. And the way it works is that anyone who signs up for the service receives one book. It's free, it's hand picked, and they get it in the mail every month until he or she turns five years old. And these days, the organization gives out more than ten million books annually. And just

this February, the program reached this major major milestone. It donated it's hundred million book And uh, I just love, I know, I just love how much thought went into this program's approach, Like you should just listen how Dolly explains it. Quote, even if you're not able to go to college, if you can read, you can find out about any subject that you're interested in. And if a book is coming to the mailbox every month, then it's got your name on it, then you're going to find

someone to help you read it to you. I think what really strikes me is just how many times in this episode we've talked about Dolly Parton with phrases like, you know, just this year, or just last month, or even a few weeks ago. I mean, you're talking about a seventy two year old country singer, and she's still making headlines for music and movies and TV and of

course even theme parks. Yeah, even theme parks. I mean, the whole idea of her as some kind of unstoppable powerhouse is actually one that Dolly seems to hold for herself. And I know we've been quoting her a lot today, but I think this last one just really sums up Dolly and also the main message she wants to convey through her art. And so here's how it goes. Quote. My favorite book is The Little Engine That Could, and it's the first book we give to children who participate

in my imagination library. I think I can. I Think I can. It's a motto that I live by, and I personally believe that positive thinking can change anyone's life. I've always follow in my heart that the only that that could ever stand in my way is simply me. It does seem appropriate for Dolly to get the last word, but we're not done just yet, because we've got a few more dollaryisms to share in today's fact off. So are you're ready to get started? Mango? I think I can.

I Think I can. H So you can now take an honors course at the University of Tennessee that's called Dollies America. And it's this seminar where they use Dolly's life story to help better understand Appalachian culture. So Dolly grew up about half an hour or so from Knoxville, where the university's main campuses, and the class actually looks at things like stereotypes of Hillbillies and the way they represented in popular culture. It's it's a class I'd probably

like to take. So this is gonna sound strange, but we actually have Dolly to thank, at least partially for the existence of Buffy. Buffy like that, like Vampire Slayer Buffy.

M Hm, that's the one. So back in the eighties, Dolly in her former measure and roommate Sandy Gallen, founded this production company called sand Dollar, and sand Dollar actually co produced Buffy as well as it's been off Angel and Gallen was listed as an exact producer, but Pardoner she stayed out of the spotlight, even though she she

deserved some of the credit. Wow, you know, I think we've talked about this before, but of course you remember Dolly, who was the sheep that was the first successful cloning of a mammal. Well, it was in fact named after Dolly Parton. Now, the sheep's original name was six L three, which is not quite as catchy in my opinion, but supposedly one of the stockman who was there at the time of six L three's birth decided to give her

the name Dolly because she was cloned from a mammary cell. Now, I don't think we have to explain that one, but it makes you wonder like if Dolly Parton would have been offended by this, But as she always does, she just rolled with it and said I was honored. There's no such thing as bad publicity, So I like that she even made it into a little joke there. So I think it's funny that Dolly once decided to enter a Dolly Pardon lookalike contest in Los Angeles and this

was just for the fun of it. But the best part, obviously is that she didn't come anywhere close to winning. Apparently they felt that she was too short to be convincing, and the winner ended up being someone in drag and she of course just found this entirely hilarious, you know. But but the good thing was that she actually got to walk around some of her biggest fans and no one, no one in the audience noticed her. That's awesome. Oh,

here's something that I'm excited about. There's apparently an anthology series based on Dolly songs that's being developed for Netflix and supposedly will be released next year. There will be an eight part series and each episode will be based on a different Dolly parton song and they haven't announced which songs yet, and there are obviously so many to choose from, but I'm really looking forward to seeing it. Yeah,

it's incredible. Well, as if we need any more proof that Dolly always remembers where she came from and hasn't forgotten how to do things herself. Do you know that before she goes on tour, Dollie actually cooks a bunch of food, puts it all in freezer bags, and then loads it up on the bus. And she says, quote, I do cook for a week before I go on tour, so I put stuff in the freezer so we'll have great country food if we don't have what I want at all the places we stop. Oh man, that is

so wonderful. Yeah. I can't decide which fact I love most in all of this, but just thinking about like the fact that she is partially responsible for Buffy being out there but taking almost no credit as a producer, the whole humility around the lookalike contest, and of course always remembering where she came from. With that last fact, man, I think I have to give you the trophy this week. I was so nervous you're gonna say, I think I have to give it to Tristan because he's still wearing

the wig. But it's to take a side. Now. I might have given it to him, but the wig is just it's really kind of fallen out of place, So it's just just getting worse now, you know what. As always, we love hearing facts from our listeners, so we'd love to hear something from you about Dolly Parton or any fun stories you may have had from over the years as a fan of Dolly Parton. You can always email us part Time Genius at how stuff Works dot com or hit us up on Facebook or Twitter. But as always,

thanks so much for listening. Thanks again for listening. Part Time Genius is a production of How Stuff Works and wouldn't be possible without several brilliant people who do the important things we couldn't even begin to understand. Tristan McNeil does the editing thing. Noel Brown made the theme song and does the mixy mixy sound thing. Jerry Rowland does

the exact producer thing. Gabelues Years our lead researcher, with support from the Research Army including Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and Lucas Adams and Eve Jeff Cook gets the show to your ears. Good job, Eves. If you like what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe, And if you really really like what you've heard, maybe could leave a good review for us. Do we do we forget Jason, Jason who