Dolly Parton: Here I Am

PROJECTOR WHIRS

# Here I am

# Here I am. #

MUSIC FADES OUT

# Here I am. #

Well, if I was trying to describe myself to someone that had

never seen me before, I would say, "Calm down."

9 to 5 by Dolly Parton

"Don't be scared, it's just me."

"I know I look totally bizarre and artificial,

"but I'm totally real inside."

SHE YELLS EXCITEDLY

Dolly does have a cartoon image.

I don't know if that's sometimes to her detriment that she depends

on that gag, or she's just getting in there before anyone else does.

Jolene by Dolly Parton

You can't take the Tennessee out of the girl.

Now, that's as far as I'll go with that, though.

CROWD LAUGHS

She gives away very little. There's a mystery about her.

# Your smile is like a breath of spring

# Your voice is soft like summer rain

# And I cannot compete with you, Jolene. #

Sorta like that!

The hot dogs are ready!

I never really tried to hide myself from anybody.

I think that's one of the reasons I'm still around -

people feel like they know me.

# Little sparrow... #

CROWD CHEERS

# Little sparrow. #

Dolly Parton is one of the most phenomenal songwriters, I...

Breasts included!

# And I, I-I will always... #

I actually take my songwriting more serious than anything else I do.

So I would say I am a songwriter first.

# I will always love you. #

It's my way of expressing myself, it's my therapy.

You have to search for a long time, cos I've written a lot of songs,

but, yes, there are pieces of me, of course, in everything I write.

Hey-hey! How's everybody? Hi there!

CROWD CHEERS IN DISTANCE

Hey. We're back!

When I was young, we always used to listen to the Grand Ole Opry,

and everybody would say, "That's where you've got to go if you're

"a country star if you want to try and make it in the business."

So that was always just my aim,

sort of like how Broadway people go to New York.

Well, Nashville was the Grand Ole Opry.

# Velvet cushion seats and soft arm rests... #

It is amazing to me, thinking back on my life as a little girl

when I wanted to be on the Grand Ole Opry so bad.

Now, here I am, 50 years later

and we're celebrating my 50th year on the Grand Ole Opry.

I am so honoured.

# Up on the silver screen I picture me... #

Hi, everybody!

# Living out of my passions, hopes and fantasies. #

Well, it's nearly showtime! It is! Whoo!

And you thought it was easy being in show business.

I got people all over me.

BAND REHEARSES

It's fun having us all back together, ain't it? Yes, it is.

I mean, we've all been at this at least 50 years, right?

Some of you people looking really good for my age!

LAUGHTER

I'm older than America.

SHE CHUCKLES

People just know that I'm going to be there and that I'm going

to have fun with it and I'm going to try to help them have fun.

# Just to watch 'em shatter

# You're just a step on the boss man's ladder

# But you got dreams he'll never take away... #

I've done so many things. I've been around a long time.

I guess it's just kind of, I feel like a family member to most people.

# The tide's gonna turn and it's all gonna roll you away. #

I just know it!

WHISTLING AND WHOOPING, WHIP CRACKS

Yeah...!

# Well, good mo-o-o-orning, Captain... #

I came here early on the Saturday morning

with my little beat-up suitcase of songs

and my little old guitar and ragged little clothes.

# Good morning to you, sir

# Hey, hey, yeah... # WHISTLING, WHIP CRACKS

I was hungry. Cried myself to sleep every night.

But I did learn early on that you

really had to stand up for yourself -

especially being a girl in business at that time,

and a country girl that did look like a dumb blonde.

# Yodel-a-ee

# Hee-hee... #

Dolly, thanks for coming in. Well, thank you for inviting me.

It's a pleasure to be with you.

Can we start by talking about the biggest thing about you?

Well, now, what would that be?

I think your determination. OK.

You scared me for a minute.

You know, well, what would we like to talk about?

I do definitely have a lot of determination, I just wanted

to accomplish everything that I possibly could in my life.

I feel that we are all here for a reason

and I aim to put everything that I can into my life.

# Yee-hee hee-hee-hee hee

# Mule skinner blues. #

My first meeting with Dolly Parton was sometime in the middle of 1964.

A producer from upstairs at Capitol Records brought her down,

and he said, "I want you to meet this girl singer," he says,

"She's got so much talent. I can't get anyone interested in her."

Dolly was just a beautiful little 18-year-old girl who seemed

quite naive and uneducated.

Her language was kind of crude and gutter language, you know,

for guys, and didn't seem to match her.

The first time I saw Dolly, I thought, "This is a teenager."

She was very pleasant,

she was, you know, seemed happy to meet us

and then she started to sing

and it was, "Whoa!"

# You kindle the fire of love inside me... #

She wasn't a bit bashful either when it came to singing...you know.

Because that's a lot of what this business takes -

you have to believe you have something to offer,

and I think she believed it.

# You must know how I feel... #

When I started out, it never crossed my mind I couldn't do it

because I was a woman.

I was just going to do what I did, what I felt I did best,

and I never once thought that that was going to ever,

you know, not work for me.

And I didn't care. I wasn't afraid of anybody.

I mean, what was you going to do to me?

You going to kill me? And if you kill me, what are you going to do?

Eat me? Are you going to cook me and eat me? No.

I mean, it's like I'll either succeed or I will fail.

# Don't try to cry

# Your way out of this

# And don't try to lie

# Or I'll catch you... #

Back in the day when she started out,

it must have been really tough to be a woman in this industry,

but she became a kind of pioneer for feminism.

Dolly was able to deliver a feminist message pretty much in disguise.

# This dumb blonde ain't nobody's fool... #

You underestimate Dolly at your peril,

and Dumb Blonde is a perfect way to launch a career.

She's so smart.

# Somehow I lived through it

# And you know if there's one thing this blonde has learned

# Blondes have more fun... #

Dumb Blonde was my first chart record,

and Curly Putman wrote the song.

He wrote it for me to record,

and that was perfect for me,

because it does say, "Just because I'm blonde,

"don't think I'm dumb, cos this dumb blonde ain't nobody's fool."

Everybody thinks I wrote that song, and I would have.

I could have. I should have.

# Just because I'm blonde don't think I'm dumb

# Cos this dumb blonde ain't nobody's fool. #

APPLAUSE Thank you very much.

CHURCH BELLS RING

I went to the laundromat.

The first time I'd ever been in a laundromat.

Took my little dirty clothes I'd brought from home,

and it was called the Wishy Washy Washateria.

And so I met my husband that first day, which I've always joked

about that, that it's been wishy-washy ever since!

Dolly was not looking for a husband when she came to Nashville.

She was looking for a career.

It so happened that she met Carl early on

and they did date for a couple of years and then got married.

# How I love to run backward through the meadow... #

Her producers also did not want her to get married,

and she went ahead and did it anyway,

because when Dolly wants to do something, I think she does it.

She kept the marriage a secret for a year,

but I think that was also very clever,

because she demonstrated to her producers that

she could in fact have a marriage and still be successful.

# For I love every minute that I live in this big world

# And I want to see all there is to see... #

SHE HUMS TUNE

# Yes, I want to see all there is to see. #

She knew very early on in her career that she was going to have to

carve out boundaries before she got eaten alive.

But it's like she foresaw her whole career and said,

"This is what I'm going to do

"to keep my sanity, my privacy and my space."

I've never seen Carl Dean, nor ever met him.

I know he exists, but I don't know anybody that's ever seen Carl Dean.

He didn't go to any shows with her.

I never met the man,

so I don't know anything about him.

Carl Dean?

Yes, I know Carl... Why do I know Carl Dean?

I have met Carl. Carl is very handsome.

I spent the night at their home in Nashville.

And Carl cooked us breakfast.

Very delicious breakfast - the first time I had fried green tomatoes.

And I remember sitting at the breakfast table