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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio, Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class,

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Speaker 1: a show that belts out the greatest hits of history,

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Speaker 1: one day at a time. I'm Gay Bluesier, and today

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Speaker 1: we're looking at the rise of Dolly Parton, a true

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Speaker 1: American icon known for her platinum blonde wigs, glittering outfits,

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Speaker 1: and her lilting sopranos singing voice. Her distinct fashion sense

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Speaker 1: made her instantly recognizable, but today we'll take a closer

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Speaker 1: look at the raw talent beneath all that glitz and glamor.

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Speaker 1: The day was January nineteenth, ninety six. Singer songwriter Dolly

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Speaker 1: Parton was born in Locust Ridge, Tennessee. She stormed the

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Speaker 1: country music scene at an early age and has held

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Speaker 1: onto the spotlight for nearly seventy years in County. During

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Speaker 1: that time, she's made a name for herself not only

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Speaker 1: as a prolific singer songwriter, but also as a businesswoman,

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Speaker 1: a humanitarian, and even a theme park owner. One striking

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Speaker 1: feature of Dolly's storied career is that she achieved all

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Speaker 1: her success and fame in spite of, or maybe because of,

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Speaker 1: her markedly humble upbringing. Dolly Rebecca Parton was born to

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Speaker 1: Robert Lee Parton and Avy Lee Parton on January nineteenth,

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Speaker 1: ninety six. She grew up in a rural town in

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Speaker 1: Tennessee called locust Ridge, near severe Ville and just next

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Speaker 1: to the Smoky Mountains National Forest. The concept of home

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Speaker 1: and where a person comes from later became the driving

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Speaker 1: force behind Dolly Parton's whole career. But it wasn't just

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Speaker 1: the location that made her early years so formative. The

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Speaker 1: Parton family was, as Dolly would later put it, dirt poor,

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Speaker 1: so much so that when she was born, her father

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Speaker 1: actually paid the local doctor who delivered her by giving

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Speaker 1: him a big bag of oatmeal. Dolly was the fourth

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Speaker 1: of twelve children and one of her sister's Stella Pardon,

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Speaker 1: later wrote about their father's dealings with the local doctor.

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Speaker 1: According to her quote, Daddy paid Dr Thomas a sack

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Speaker 1: of meal to deliver Dolly. She was an expensive baby.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes we'd pay him with chickens whatever we had available.

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Speaker 1: As you can no doubt tell, life and Locust Ridge

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Speaker 1: was no picnic for the Partons. Dolly's father was a

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Speaker 1: sharecropper who barely made enough money for the family to

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Speaker 1: survive and often resorted to bartering for goods and services,

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Speaker 1: like delivering a baby. The fourteen partons all lived together

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Speaker 1: in a one room cabin with no running water, no gas,

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Speaker 1: and no electricity. But possibly the worst part for Dolly

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Speaker 1: was that she and her siblings had to bunk together

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Speaker 1: and beds made from straw, typically three or four kids

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Speaker 1: to each bed. Given those hardships, it's maybe no wonder

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Speaker 1: that Dolly took to music at an early age as

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Speaker 1: a way to soothe her troubles. Her first exposure to

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Speaker 1: live music was through her mother, who played guitar and

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Speaker 1: sang to her, as well as through her grandfather, a

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Speaker 1: songwriter and a mean fiddle player too. When she was

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Speaker 1: seven years old, Dolly's uncle gave her a guitar and

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Speaker 1: she started writing her first original songs. She apparently had

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Speaker 1: a real knack for it from the start. Decades later,

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Speaker 1: Dolly reflected on how impressed her mother had been with

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Speaker 1: her early songs. In an interview with Fresh Air, Dolly said, quote,

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Speaker 1: my mother was always fascinated with the fact that I

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Speaker 1: could rhyme so much stuff. She asked stuff in a trunk,

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Speaker 1: and many years ago she said, here's some stuff you

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Speaker 1: may want to look at. Here's the stuff you used

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Speaker 1: to write before you could write it down. She used

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Speaker 1: to write it down for me. I've been doing it

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Speaker 1: all my life. It's amazing to consider just how accurate

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Speaker 1: that statement really is. By the time Dolly was just

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Speaker 1: ten years old, she was already making appearances local TV

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Speaker 1: and radio shows in Knoxville. Then, when she was eleven,

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Speaker 1: she professionally recorded her first single, Puppy Love, a song

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Speaker 1: she had written with her uncle. That same year, Here's

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Speaker 1: a Taste. Two years later, Dolly performed for the first

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Speaker 1: time on the Grand Ole Opry, and by the time

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Speaker 1: she graduated high school, she'd already cut recordings with three

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Speaker 1: different record labels. Dolly had found her calling early, and

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Speaker 1: she chased it full force from then on. According to

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Speaker 1: the singer, she graduated high school on a Friday and

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Speaker 1: then hit the road for Nashville the very next morning.

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Speaker 1: Moving to Music City paid off for Dolly in all

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Speaker 1: sorts of ways, not the least of which was romantically.

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Speaker 1: On the very same day she arrived in Nashville, Dolly

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Speaker 1: bumped into her future husband, Carl Dean at the Wishy

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Speaker 1: Washy Laundromat. He was a few years older than her

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Speaker 1: and a total stranger at the time, but Dolly was

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Speaker 1: taken with him right away. As she later explained, quote,

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Speaker 1: I was surprised and delighted that while he talked to me,

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Speaker 1: he looked at my face, A rare thing for me.

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Speaker 1: Two years after their chance encounter, the pair got married,

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Speaker 1: and believe it or not, they're still going strong some

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Speaker 1: fifty seven odd years later. The Today Show asked Dolly

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Speaker 1: about the secret to her long marriage. She replied, quote,

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Speaker 1: we know each other so well. I know every line

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Speaker 1: in his face, and he knows every hair in my wig.

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Speaker 1: Getting back to Nashville, Dolly's career really started to take

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Speaker 1: off when she moved to the city. During her first

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Speaker 1: two years there, she was under contract with Monument Records,

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Speaker 1: which tried to mark her as more of a pop

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Speaker 1: star than a country singer. Dolly went along with the plan,

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Speaker 1: but in her spare time, she started recording and selling

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Speaker 1: her own country songs in Nashville. Two years later, in

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Speaker 1: nineteen sixty six, Dolly caught the attention of listeners all

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Speaker 1: over the country with a song called put It Off

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Speaker 1: Until Tomorrow. Then a year after that, she followed it

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Speaker 1: up with dumb Blonde, a song she wrote about being

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Speaker 1: underestimated based on her looks. It was her first solo

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Speaker 1: hit to make the charts, and it marked the beginning

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Speaker 1: of her transition from a regional star to a national one.

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Speaker 1: Take a Listen to make Me Fear Sorry, just don't Body.

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Speaker 1: It was around that same time Dolly partnered up with

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Speaker 1: another country singer, Porter Wagoner Mr grand Ole op Free himself.

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Speaker 1: At the time, he was the host of a half

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Speaker 1: hour country music show called, fittingly enough, the Porter Wagner Show.

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Speaker 1: He invited Dolly on to be one of the show's

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Speaker 1: regular performers, and the two of them went on to

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Speaker 1: record a slew of hit country songs together over the

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Speaker 1: next eight years or so. In fact, in the late

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Speaker 1: nineteen sixties and early seventies, Dolly was releasing an average

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Speaker 1: of three or more album's worth of new material each year,

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Speaker 1: and most of that colossal output was thanks to her

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Speaker 1: partnership with Wagner. The two performers went their separate ways

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Speaker 1: in the mid seventies, largely because Dolly had become such

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Speaker 1: a huge star in her own right that she wanted

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Speaker 1: to focus on her solo career full time. As you

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Speaker 1: might expect that decision created some bad blood between her

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Speaker 1: and Wagner, but they did eventually make up in the

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Speaker 1: nineteen eighties and even performed together a few times afterward.

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Speaker 1: The split from Wagner was also an early indicator of

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Speaker 1: just how shrewd a businesswoman Dolly Parton was and is.

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Speaker 1: That's because early in her career, Dolly started her own

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Speaker 1: publishing company so that she could control the rights to

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Speaker 1: her ever growing catalog of songs. As a result, she

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Speaker 1: still owns just about every song she's ever recorded, which

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Speaker 1: of course, has Nedditor millions and millions of dollars in royalties.

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Speaker 1: Speaking of Wagner, though, did you know the song I

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Speaker 1: Will Always Love You was actually written about him? Dolly

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Speaker 1: wrote it as a goodbye of sorts when the singers

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Speaker 1: were parting ways, and supposedly Wagoner cried the first time

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Speaker 1: she played it for him. Let's see if it has

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Speaker 1: the same effect on you. Good, don't crow, We both

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Speaker 1: know what you need. We could probably spend all day

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Speaker 1: talking about the hit songs from Dolly's solo career, from

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Speaker 1: Code of Many Colors to Joe Lene. There were quite

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Speaker 1: a few to choose from, but I want to make

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Speaker 1: sure we cover at least a few of the non

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Speaker 1: musical contributions she's made as well. So let's talk about

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Speaker 1: a few times when Dolly branched out from her singing

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Speaker 1: career and tried her hand at something new. One of

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Speaker 1: the earliest examples of her stepping out was in the

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Speaker 1: nineteen eighties, when she crossed over from the stage to

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Speaker 1: the movie screen. She made her debut starring alongside Jane

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Speaker 1: Fonda and Lily Tomlin in nine to five, an office

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Speaker 1: satire about three working women who get so fed up

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Speaker 1: with their sexist boss they decided to abduct him and

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Speaker 1: take over the business themselves. The movie was a hit

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Speaker 1: at the box office, and the title song Dolly wrote

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Speaker 1: for it climbed to number one on both the Pop

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Speaker 1: and Country three charts. It even earned her an Oscar

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Speaker 1: nomination for Best Song. And that's part of the reason

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Speaker 1: why nine to five, both the song and the movie

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Speaker 1: became a lasting part of pop culture, eventually spawning a

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Speaker 1: five season TV series and even a Broadway show. And

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Speaker 1: I know we're supposed to be focusing on Dolly's non

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Speaker 1: musical ventures, but nine to five is such a fun

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Speaker 1: song and many of you are on your morning commutes

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Speaker 1: right now, So let's hear a cliff anyway, tumble out

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Speaker 1: a bit and a stumble to the cage, and for

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Speaker 1: myself a cup of ambition and your own and stretch

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Speaker 1: and try to come to vee jumping shower, and the

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Speaker 1: blood starts pomp and add on the streets of traffic

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Speaker 1: starts stuff, and folks liked me on the jobs and

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Speaker 1: nine to fine working, fine living, heavy getting by all right.

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Speaker 1: So I can't let this episode go by without talking

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Speaker 1: at least a little it about Dollywood, because while plenty

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Speaker 1: of singers have made the jump from music to TV

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Speaker 1: and movies, Dolly really stands alone in terms of theme

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Speaker 1: park ownership. So what led her to make such an

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Speaker 1: unusual business move for a musician. You might think she

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Speaker 1: was just really into roller coasters or something like that,

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Speaker 1: but definitely wasn't it. In fact, even though Dollies owned

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Speaker 1: her own theme park for going on forty years, she's

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Speaker 1: never been on a single ride. Apparently she suffers from

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Speaker 1: severe motion sickness and used to get sick just from

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Speaker 1: riding the school bus, so thrill rides are pretty much

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Speaker 1: out of the question. So how did she end up

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Speaker 1: with the theme park. Well, first, it helps to know

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Speaker 1: that Dollywood wasn't always Dollywood. The original, unrelated park opened

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Speaker 1: in Pigeon Forged, Tennessee in nineteen sixty one as the

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Speaker 1: Rebel Railroad, and then changed names and owners a few

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Speaker 1: times as the decades went by. Dolly finally took over

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Speaker 1: in Night six, which was when she re themed the

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Speaker 1: park around the history of the Smoky Mountains and dubbed

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Speaker 1: it Dollywood. Dolly wasn't living in the area when the

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Speaker 1: original park opened, but it was located close to that

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Speaker 1: one room cabin she used to live in in the

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Speaker 1: same county. In fact, that proximity attracted Dolly to the

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Speaker 1: park for a couple of reasons. For one thing, it

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Speaker 1: featured a chapel that was built and named in honor

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Speaker 1: of doctor Robert Thomas, the same doctor who delivered Dolly

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Speaker 1: in exchange for a sack of votes. The other, equally

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Speaker 1: sentimental reason she got involved was that she wanted to

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Speaker 1: do something positive for the place where she grew up.

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Speaker 1: I mean, she wanted to make money too, but there's

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Speaker 1: no doubt she chose that specific investment as a way

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Speaker 1: to give back to the community. Dolly said as much

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Speaker 1: herself too. She explained how she had quote always thought

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Speaker 1: that if I made it big or got successful at

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Speaker 1: what I had started out to do, that I wanted

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Speaker 1: to come back to my part of the country and

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Speaker 1: do something great, something that would bring a lot of

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Speaker 1: jobs into the area. And to her credit, that's exactly

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Speaker 1: what she did. To this day, Dollywood is still the

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Speaker 1: number one employer and sever year county. Also, for any

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Speaker 1: listeners planning their next vacation, remember that dogs are not

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Speaker 1: allowed in Dollywood. Dolly's got you covered, though, You can

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Speaker 1: drop your pups off ahead of time at the parks

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Speaker 1: on site kennel, which is named, wait for it, doggy Wood.

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Speaker 1: So Dollywood was born, at least in part from Dolly's

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Speaker 1: desire to give back to Tennessee. But there are also

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Speaker 1: more straightforward charity efforts that Dolly has been involved with

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Speaker 1: over the years, and I want to highlight just a

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Speaker 1: couple of them. The first is called the My People Fund,

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Speaker 1: which was a campaign she launched in late twenties sixteen

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Speaker 1: following a really awful wildfire in the Smoky Mountains region.

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Speaker 1: The fire left hundreds of residents homeless, but Dolly's campaign

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Speaker 1: used outside donations as well as her own money to

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Speaker 1: provide displaced families with a thousand dollars per month for

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Speaker 1: half a year. All in all, the My People Fund

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Speaker 1: distributed just under nine million dollars to the fire victims

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Speaker 1: and provided an additional three million dollars to the region's

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Speaker 1: Mountain Recovery Team. Dolly's humanitarian efforts aren't limited to helping

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Speaker 1: her own home state either. She started a program called

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Speaker 1: Dolly's Imagination Library to help improve literacy rates among children,

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Speaker 1: and she's run her own charity organization called The Dollywood

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Speaker 1: Foundation since nine six. Over the years, those organizations have

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Speaker 1: donated more than a hundred million books to children nationwide

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Speaker 1: and have provided millions of dollars in school scholarships, hospital donations,

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Speaker 1: and supplies for classrooms. Over her long career, Dolly Parton's

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Speaker 1: racked up a ton of nicknames, including the Smoky Mountain Songbird,

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Speaker 1: the Queen of Nashville, and the Iron Butterfly. But don't

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Speaker 1: let the fancy titles fool you. Despite all her fame

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Speaker 1: and success, Dolly's never forgotten her modest roots. Instead, she

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Speaker 1: found ways to channel them into her music. Early on,

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Speaker 1: crafting so songs from a woman's perspective at a time

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Speaker 1: when country music was largely still a boys club. She

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Speaker 1: took inspiration from the female country pioneers that had come

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Speaker 1: before her, such as Molly o Day, Hitty Wells, and

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Speaker 1: Patsy Klein, and then she took her own place alongside them,

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Speaker 1: becoming one of the greatest entertainers of the twentieth century

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Speaker 1: and a positive role model to listeners from all walks

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Speaker 1: of life. I'm Gabe Louisier and hopefully you now know

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Speaker 1: a little more about history today than you did yesterday.

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Speaker 1: You can learn even more about history by following us

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Speaker 1: on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at t D i HC Show,

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Speaker 1: and if you have any comments or suggestions, you can

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Speaker 1: always send them my way at this Day at I

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Speaker 1: heart media dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays for producing

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Speaker 1: the show, and thanks to you for listening. I'll see

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Speaker 1: you back here again tomorrow for another Day in History class.

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Speaker 1: Student at the UT