In the mid- to late-1960s, when her uncle Bill Owens was playing guitar and touring with Carl and Pearl Butler, Dolly was appearing on early morning shows such as The Eddie Hill Show and The Ralph Emery Show. In fact, at the onset of Dolly’s career, Emery would pick her up at her Nashville apartment, take her to perform on his early morning show, and then drive her back home. When Dolly married Carl Dean in 1966, she was set to guest on Emery’s show the next morning. “I got married . . . in the afternoon, came home, and I had to get up at three that next mornin’ ’cause I was on your show,” she recalled to him in 1989. “That’s when you did that really early mornin’ show. I didn’t let marriage, love, or nothin’ stand in the way of me and you, Ralph!”
Emery has often named Dolly as one of his favorite interview guests, and, as evidenced here, the chemistry between the two is irrefutable. They were lighthearted and playful as Emery quizzed Dolly about her recent Rolling Stone feature and what it was like to be on the cover of Playboy. In a particularly candid moment, while discussing home and family life, Dolly revealed the marital problems of her parents. —Ed.
Ralph Emery: Hello, everybody. We welcome you again to our show. My name is Ralph Emery, and I’m sitting in RCA’s Nashville Studio, Studio B, with one of the hottest stars in the world, Miss Dolly Parton. Dolly, welcome back to our show.
Dolly Parton: Boy, I didn’t know I was that big a deal. You was spreadin’ that on a little thick, weren’t ya? You think I’m that hot, do you?
You wrote it down here . . .
[Laughs] You didn’t say it exactly like I told you to say.
It says, “one of the hottest stars in the world.”
I did not. How are you?
How you doing Miss Dolly?
I’m doing good!
Dolly what? Dolly Marie?
Dolly Rebecca.
Oh, Dolly Rebecca.
Dolly Rebecca Parton. A lot of people ask me if Dolly’s my real name. They think it’s a show name, but I guess my mama knew I was gonna wanna be a star, so she just named me Dolly to start with.
Well, I wanna ask you about your next movie. You’re going to go back to Hollywood and make another picture, aren’t you?
Yeah, in fact, I’m really excited about doing this next film. It’s with Burt Reynolds, and it’s from the Broadway musical comedy of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. I’m gonna be writin a lot of the music for that. I like working with Lily and Jane, but working with Burt Reynolds, that’s just something else!
You gonna do love scenes with Burt?
Oh, I sure hope so! I’ve asked Carl’s permission and I got it in writin’. [Laughs] So if I can convince Burt that he should kiss me, I think I’ll kiss him for every woman in America that ever wanted to. I’m gonna lay a good’n on him!
Did you have any sort of love scene in 9 to 5?
A sorta love scene. It wasn’t really heavy. I was married to a guy in the movie—that’s my movie husband—and he’s the real husband of one of my good friends, Diana Thomas. His name is Jeff Thomas. And [Diana’s] one of the secretaries at Katz Gallin, my management agency. People didn’t know that I knew him, so he got the part strictly on his own talent. But we didn’t know we was supposed to [kiss] and this was the very first day of the movie and boy you talk about clumsy and awkward. It’s hard enough to kiss somebody else, much less somebody else’s husband, much less on the first day of shootin’ a film and, on top of that, with all the cameras and the crew and all the people lookin’ on. I never felt so embarrassed in my whole life! But it was just sort of a sweet love scene. We were supposed to be married in the film, so it made it OK. Well, me and Burt ain’t gonna be married in [Whorehouse] so that’ll make it juicier. [Laughs]
Dolly, I picked up the paper the other day and I read a story about [how] you were runnin’ around out there in Beverly Hills in the buff.
You did?
Yes. Did you read the same story?
[Laughs] Nah, I didn’t hear nothin’ about it. I don’t know nothin’ about it, I ain’t talkin’ nothin’ about it, and I ain’t said nothin’ about it ’cause I don’t know nothin’ about it! [Laughs]
It stated that there had been a story about you in Rolling Stone magazine and you were allegedly running around out in the streets of Beverly Hills with no clothes on.
Well, now we gotta clear that up, Ralph. It wasn’t exactly like it sounds. I didn’t do it to be ugly. I didn’t do it to be dirty. It happened like this. It was when we was doing 9 to 5, the movie. And you get a little bored being away from home like like three or four months at a time. Well, I was feeling really good this particular night and my girlfriend Judy and me were coming back from a Mexican restaurant. I was riding in the car with Gregg Perry, who also produces a lot of my records and works with me, and Judy was in another car with two of our girlfriends. So Judy got to actin’ real smart and cute. And you know how stubborn I am. And I’m pretty mischievous myself. And I can’t stand to be dared.
Really?
Or if somebody were to back me in a corner to say, “I dare you to do this,” or if I’m in a contest, which is like all in fun, but I’m the kind of person I do whatever I feel like I have to, even if it harelips the devil. And sometimes it does! But anyhow, we were just doin’ things. So finally, we had done everything that a body could do, and I thought, Now what am I gonna do to top this? So I just kinda jumped out of the car . . . and I just kinda ran around the car . . . and I didn’t have on any clothes. But it didn’t last but a minute! And I got back in the car and I won the contest. But she double-dog dared me, so I had to do it.
[Laughs] What do you mean, “It didn’t last but a minute”? Who saw you?
Well I’m just saying I didn’t walk around . . .
Who saw you?
It don’t make no difference. They’ll never forget it, whoever they were! [Laughs]
Were you on a busy street?
No, actually I was at a stop sign in Bel Air, in the old sophisticated snooty part of Hollywood. Anyhow, I hope they did see it. It might be good for ’em! But actually, I don’t think anybody saw me except Judy and the two girls in the car ’cause I threatened Gregg with his life if he looked. He didn’t. I don’t think. Don’t care. It didn’t matter at that time. It only mattered after I got my clothes back on. [Laughs] Is that bad? A lot of people were real upset with me about that, but I couldn’t help myself!
I was gonna ask you if you had received a lot of criticism about that?
I did, some, but I receive a lot of criticism about most things I do, so it didn’t really matter.
You say you just hate to be dared?
Yeah, so don’t dare me now! [Laughs]
I was gonna say . . . I’m gonna dream up a good dare before I get out of here.
I mean, it’s got to be something you know that’s really bein’ played out by the other person, too, and I’ve got to win if there’s any way I can. You know how you hate to be dared.
Tell them who Judy is.
Judy is my best friend and she’s worked with me.
You grew up with her didn’t you?
Yeah, we’ve been together since we were seven years old. We grew up just as poor as the other one and we lived close to each other all our life. We went through grammar school, high school, reform school together. We’ve just been in a lot of meanness together, so she’s like the same as a sister.
Now, some people will take you very literally, so don’t say reform school.
Oh, are you kiddin’?
They’ll say, “Well, I didn’t know Dolly was in reform school!”
Well, we should have been!
But Judy has been with you a long time, hasn’t she?
Yeah, Judy’s really great. She’s worked as my personal secretary and personal assistant for years. We travel together. She’s a great, great friend.
Did you play baseball or softball?
Yeah, I was pretty good at it, as a matter of fact, when I was littler. Then it got to where I couldn’t run without blacking my eyes. I had to give it up. [Laughs]
Have you ever been on one of these television shows where the stars have to participate in games?
No, I’ve been asked to be, but you don’t have to be on them shows if you can’t do nothin’. [Laughs] But they’re always asking me to like to play ball or to play tennis or to be in the runnin’ things and all, but I’ve never participated.
I remember several years ago you used to play tennis.
Yeah, I still do that sometimes, but I don’t do it in public. I ain’t that good. I like to play golf a little bit, but I ain’t that good at that either. I like to just kinda piddle around at stuff like that. I can’t stay at it long enough to get good at it.
Can’t or don’t have the time?
I just won’t. I guess I could find the time, but I enjoy doing it the way I do it . . . just kind of hitting at it here or there.
You and Carl ever play golf together or tennis?
No, but we play tennis every once in a while and we swim together now that we got a swimmin’ pool. But what we like the most about all these modern things that success has brought . . . we got a hot tub and we just live in that thing in the summertime and up until, like, November. You got one? A hot tub? A Jacuzzi?
No, I don’t have one.
Yeah, well they don’t cost all that much, Ralph. You cheap thing! You could buy one. [Laughs] I know you make enough money off this show. I seen your check!
I have a child who has one. I’ll go use his.
Yeah, do that. Do that.
One of my favorite songs by Dolly Parton was not one of her big hit records, but it was a song [to Dolly] I used to see you do this in person: “Me and Little Andy.”
You know, we never did release the song as a single. I think if we had that it could have been a big record. It was on the Here You Come Again album, I believe, wasn’t it? Or Heartbreaker?
I’m not sure. You have so many of them.
Yeah, I think it was on the Here You Come Again album. But I get as many requests for that little song as anything I ever wrote. When I used to be with Porter years ago, we used to sing those songs about kids and in that little girl voice. Songs like “Jeannie’s Afraid of the Dark” and some of the stuff we used to record. But I wrote this song ’cause I just thought it would be a good thing to do. I still do it on stage and it’s one of my special songs.
Is there a story about the character?
Well, I sorta linked it to some kids back home where their mama was pretty wild and their daddy was a drunkard. They’re just as poor as we were and as big of family as we had. They used to kinda hang around our house a lot and mama always kinda took ’em in. But it wasn’t like the exact story, but it was because of that, in the back of my mind, and it’s called “Me and Little Andy.” [ . . . ] It’s sad, boy. When I do it on stage I look out in the audience and I see ’bout five or six people just a-slinging tears and that other stuff they sling. [Laughs] And sometimes when I’m singin’ it, I sling some of it myself!
Do you ever get emotional on stage?
Ooh yeah! It depends if I’ve been out on the road for a long time or if I’m kinda feeling bad or real emotional or something. Sometimes a song like “Coat of Many Colors” does it if I ain’t seen Mama and Daddy in a long time, or my folks, or if something has just built up in me emotionally. I’m very sensitive and emotional, as most people are, and sometimes, like right in the middle of a song, it’s just all I can do . . . I’ve just had to turn away from the microphone a time or two on songs like “Coat of Many Colors.”
There used to be a song about a dog, “Crackerjack”?
“Crackerjack,” well, that one didn’t make me cry, but I liked that song.
Did you have a dog named Crackerjack?
It was about my sisters little dog and it got killed. It was kinda a sad story and she loved it a lot. Only, its name was something else and I called it “Crackerjack” to protect the innocent. I changed his name.
Dolly, Jim Reeves passed away in ’64. You came to Nashville in ’65, so you didn’t really know Jim Reeves, did you?
Well, I came to Nashville in ’64 and I got here just before he died. But I had made trips back and forth to Nashville before I ever moved here, and I remember seeing him once. I never talked to him or nothin’, but I always thought he was awful good.
Well RCA still releases his records.
He’s still a big star in a lot of places in the world.
Right. The Jim Reeves fan club is very active throughout the world.
You’d be surprised, Ralph. I know this sounds a little bizarre and a little bit unbelievable, but I see people all the time in different parts of the world . . . They don’t really realize because of the distance . . . They don’t get what [songs] was hits years and years ago. [Certain songs are] just now being big hits in certain places, and it amazed me to find how few people know that some of our bigger stars are dead. A friend of mine from Ireland was sayin’ they couldn’t wait for Jim Reeves to come to Ireland. They don’t even realize that he is dead because his records are so hot. And also, it’s the same with Patsy Cline. I had somebody say once somethin’ ’bout did I ever see Patsy Cline or somethin’. Don’t you find that amazing that they don’t even realize that they’re dead?
That is strange. There’s a revival among the Patsy Cline fans. She’s become a cult figure as the result of Loretta’s picture [Coal Miner’s Daughter].
Didn’t you love Loretta’s picture? By the way, I love Loretta in it and Patsy Cline. Two greats.
We were talking about how fans think and feel about stars and about people they don’t see often. I would imagine you have a hard time convincing people that your husband exists.
You know, that’s beginning to be a bigger deal now than it used to be. In fact, I was at RCA today . . . I spent a couple of days just makin’ phone calls and callin’ disc jockeys and just checkin’ in with people and sayin thanks and all that . . . and I had about four different people in two days say, “Is this something you and your manager dreamed up, this husband thing? We don’t believe that there is a husband or Carl Dean. We think this is a mystery that you’ve built up,” and this and that. And you’d be surprised at how many people really think that. But there really is a Carl Dean. And you know it for a fact, don’t you?
Well, I’ve met Carl.
Yeah, you’ve met Carl. But, now, you don’t know . . . that could have been a “rent-a-husband.” [Laughs] I wanna get some kids, some “rent-a-kids,” you know and make a whole [family]. But now really, Carl don’t wanna be in the limelight. He’s proud of me and he likes the fact that’s what I wanna do. And I don’t interfere with what he likes. But he knows if he ever started doing interviews and if people started photographing him and all that, then he wouldn’t be able to go to the auto parts store or the ballgames and the places he wants to go without bein’ bothered. And he don’t wanna be a star. And so it’s his choice and I respect that.
Dolly, it’s like being on the perimeter of an atom bomb, though. I mean, he’s got to work at staying out of the spotlight.
Well, not really. I respect his privacy and he respects mine. We have a gate around our house. It’s not that he can’t be seen or anything. It’s not that pictures of him have not been in certain magazines. It’s just that we don’t build it up. We try to keep a separation in our private life. I think it’s healthy and smart. For everybody else’s husband or wife that’s involved in the business too, it creates a whole lot of problems, a lot tension and strain. We don’t want to be in the same business. So we’re happy and our marriage is working.
How long you been married now?
Well, we’ve been married since 1966.
When’s your wedding anniversary?
May the thirtieth.
Where’d you get married?
Ringgold, Georgia.
You just run off one night?
One day. We had plans . . . I’ll tell you a funny story here . . . I don’t know if I ever told you this or not but I was with Monument Records at the time with Fred Foster, who is a wonderful man, was great to me back then, and is still a good friend of mine today. But I had just started with him and they didn’t think I could sell country music, so we started doing some rockabilly or some kind of rock stuff, like “Happy, Happy Birthday, Baby.” Those songs are good, and [Fred will] rerelease them one of these days. I won’t mind, ’cause they were pretty good. I just wasn’t ready for that particular thing at the time, but he was putting a lot of money and a lot of time and effort. I was so in love with Carl I couldn’t see straight and I was gonna get married. I wanted to get married in church and have a big wedding, and my folks couldn’t afford to pay for a weddin’, but Carl’s mother and daddy were gonna have a wedding for us at the church. They were gonna pay for my dress and the invitations and all that. So Mama Dean, Carl’s mother, was just real excited about it and she’d already got the invitations done and the cake and the whole thing. Well I told Fred Foster that I was gonna get married and he didn’t like it at all. He said, “I just don’t think you should get married. We’re puttin’ all this time and this effort,” and this and that. He said, “Just promise me you’ll wait for a year.” And I thought Wow, I don’t want to mess up. So I told Carl the situation. I said, “We’ll go get married anyway, but we just won’t have a church weddin’ and we just won’t get married in Tennessee. So we told our folks what we were gonna do and that we were gonna keep it a secret, pretty much, for a year. We went the same weekend I told Fred we’d wait for a year. We went to Ringgold and got married [in Georgia] so it wouldn’t be in the Tennessee papers. Well, then everybody thought that we had to get married, and everybody kept waiting for the baby that never did come. [Laughs] They didn’t realize that we just wanted to do it without everybody knowing it. And so after a year had passed, we were so happy and I was so feeling so good and so content. I had done twice as good of work and all that. So after things were going good, Fred said, “Now, see . . . ain’t you glad you waited to get married?” He said, “You still want to get married?” I said, “I got married the same weekend you told me not to!” [Laughs] So we always laughed about that. Not that it was funny, Ralph. [Laughs]
You open more can-o-worms every time you open your mouth. Your mommy and daddy doing all right now?
Well, they’re havin’ their trouble. You know the thing with Mama and Daddy . . . They’re the best in the world. They were the best parents and they got married so young and started having kids immediately. Mama was fifteen and Daddy was seventeen when they married, had their twelfth kid when Mama was thirty-five, the same age I am right now, and Daddy was thirty-seven . . . with twelve kids! Then, after we all left home, they realized they didn’t have that much in common. They just have a hard time keepin’ it together, so they’re gonna divorce every week but they’re so in love, they never do it.
That’s cute, that’s cute. Dolly, you earlier alluded to the fact that you were not going to play a nude scene in the picture you’re gonna make with Burt Reynolds. Have you been asked to do nude scenes?
No, I’ve never been asked to do that. I think people know that I respect myself, and people usually respect people that respect themselves. But I would never even do any really heavy, serious love scenes, like even slobberin’ kissin’ scenes and all. I certainly wouldn’t do anything as outrageous as being naked. It’s fine for some people, if that’s what they wanna do, but I always think of my Mom and Dad and my people and the way I was brought up. And besides that, I have a great deal of respect for me. I’ve never really gone through a lot of disrespectful things. People have always treated me nice.
Several years ago, did Playboy magazine ask you to pose for them?
They didn’t ask me to pose nude, they just asked me to do the cover of a Playboy, and I wouldn’t do that for a good while. I gave that a lot of thought, too. I thought, well, if they’re gonna do a good story and if I can pick the way that I do the cover, design my own outfit—in keeping with their magazine but in keeping with myself as well—then I’ll do it. That’s when we picked the little bunny suit. It was like a bathing suit and the little ears. It was certainly a full little bathing suit . . .
Yes, it certainly was!
But I didn’t think it was vulgar. I got a lot of good reaction from that. I didn’t get any criticism from that that I knew of.
It was a cute picture. No, it was a cute picture.
And the story was good. And it was honest. In a magazine like that, of course, you talk about stuff that you don’t in Ladies’ Home Journal.
Have you read Ladies’ Home Journal lately?
No.
It’s getting pretty spicy, I hear.
Well good! Then I’ve got some stuff to tell them then! [Laughs] I’ll fix their goat.
We’re spending a week here with Dolly Parton. Boy. I can think of guys that would pay a thousand dollars for this.
You can? Well, can I have their numbers? [Laughs] I need the money. It goes to a needy family . . . my own!
Dolly, are you gonna write your autobiography?
I couldn’t, Ralph, without hanging myself and a whole lot of other people. I am writin’ it in a lot of ways. I’m writin’ my life story as a musical and it’s called Wildflowers. It’s about me, and a lifestyle, and the way I grew up, and a lot of people combined. But if I told my real life story I would want to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. And in order to do that, that would be the truth as I saw it. It wouldn’t necessarily be somebody else’s view of it. It’s hard when you try to tell your life story and involve other people and you can’t just leave chapters out, you know, like certain relationships or certain people, whether it would be Porter or family or whatever. I just think it’s kind of tough to do it. And the way I would want to write it, it would be too hard and too sticky to do it.
You afraid of hurting a lot of feelings?
I’m afraid that I might hurt a lot of feelings without intendin’ to. And besides that, I’m too young to write my life story. I ain’t lived my life yet.
OK, all right. Well, we are living in an era of books: Loretta’s book, Johnny Cash’s book, Tammy Wynette’s book. And there was a book out about you, which I heard was not authorized.
Well there’s been about three or four books out and most of ’em written by people I never even heard tell of, much less know. Some of them I knew were being put out and we were kind of put out about it, ’cause some of the stuff that was in it kind of hurt the feelings of family and embarrassed a lot of people. That’s what I’m sayin’. It’s just real touchy.
When you don’t cooperate with a writer, where do they get the information they put in the books?
Well, they gather up information from every interview that you’ve done in the past, things that other reporters have written about you, and then they give their own opinion of what they think about the stuff and the way they see it, which is fine, you know. That’s freedom of the press. But all I’m sayin’ is the books of mine that have been out have not been authorized. It’s always tricky. But when I’m real old, as I may be real soon [Laughs], then I may write my life story. But it’s too soon. It’s just too soon.
Dolly, there is a record and it’s in the country charts these days by you and Porter Wagoner. It follows one that was out earlier, called “Making Plans.” Why are we hearing records by Porter and Dolly again after a hiatus of some two or three years?
Well, the songs that’s in that album, and the “If You Go, I’ll Follow You” and “Making Plans,” these were songs that we did years and years ago that we had, as they say, “in the can.” That means songs that you’ve recorded at different times during your career that didn’t make it into an album, or you just had too many songs and they just kept being put aside. But when we were in the lawsuit together, when we were settlin’ that with our business things . . .
Did you and Porter Wagoner sue each other?
No, he sued me. It turned out, well, it was just kind of an embarrassing thing that I wish had never happened. In a way, it was kinda good that it did, but that’s hindsight. Anyhow, when we were settlin’ the lawsuit, that was part of the agreement . . . that he could take those songs we had in the can and redo them, put new music to ’em, and release them as an album. And I thought the album was very good. I was real proud of that album, and it’s doing really good. I don’t know that there’ll be any duets in the future. It’s certainly not an impossible thing. I don’t feel that we’re enemies.
Are you saying you would record with Porter in the future?
It’s certainly not impossible. I would if we could come to some sort of an agreement on how we would do it and where we both had control of what we were doing.
Creative control?
Yeah. I wouldn’t want to just go in and do it again with just Porter and get back in the same situations that we had.
I assume that when you made records with him, he had all of the creative control then. He was the boss.
Well, he was the boss, but he didn’t have all the creativity. He had control. [Laughs] Let’s put it that way. But we had some wonderful times. I’ll always respect Porter. We went through some bad times. We spent seven of the best and the worst years I ever had in my life. There’s a lot to be said about Porter, both ways. [Laughs] But I’m sure there’s a lot to be said about me, so it was pretty equal. I think that we did a lot of good for each other. I will always be grateful for the good things that I was always grateful for.
Porter gave you a big break, didn’t he?
Yes, he did. And I appreciate it.
Dolly, let me ask you something about yourself. You seem to have an awful lot of confidence and you have mentioned that in this interview. You have a lot of confidence in Dolly Parton. I don’t detect any insecurities. Is that a fair statement?
Well, I have a lot of confidence in myself. I have a lot of confidence in people. I think that, no matter what we are, we can be more. I think you have to be sure of what you can do. I know my limitations. I don’t like other people placing limitations on me. [When it comes to] the things that I feel like I want and that I can do, I feel that I should get out and try. As a human being, I feel like I should find out what my purpose and reason is in life. I want to know that I have done everything that I can with all the things that God has given me. Otherwise, I feel like it would be a sin. But I like people, I enjoy life, I like to give more than I take . . . I’m happy! I have all the reason to be. I got a good family, was brought up with good parents, and my personality and all that comes from my background in church and believin’ that all things are possible. I just kind of work with that attitude.
Positive thinker.
Yeah, but that’s good!
I think it’s very good.
But I’m not a person with a lot of emotions or a lot of feelings. People say, “Don’t you ever get depressed?” or whatever. I’m very emotional. I don’t make a career out of being depressed. I refuse to waller around in it. But yeah, I get hurt deep. You gotta work at being happy, just like you gotta work at being miserable. Some people are pros at that. But I just choose a different way, I guess.
[Laughs] I’m glad you said that. I think that’s true. Some people are happy being miserable.
You know, that is true. But I’m not happy being miserable. I hurt bad. I hurt deep. And I cry hard at times. But I get it out and get it over with and get back to better things.
Dolly, I’ve known you a long time and there is a mean streak!
Ralph!
And I’m gonna tell you what I’m talking about. I really think, particularly with reporters who don’t know you well, or people who interview you who don’t know you well, I really think you would take the occasion to put them on. Is that right?
Well, it would depend on . . . If it was something very serious I wouldn’t.
You ever just make up stuff to tell reporters?
I might! [Laughs] Why, what have you got in mind?
No, I’m just talking about your personality!
Oh, I will pull your leg in a minute, but not if it was somethin’ you were sincerely asking me about. Well, it’s possible. I would be a great creative liar.
If you thought the story was whimsical, and if it was the type of story that the answer didn’t really matter, I suppose you would take that occasion to put people on, wouldn’t you?
I suppose I might. You wanna make something out of it, Ralph? [Laughs] Are you callin’ me a liar?
No!
Well, at least you did say I was creative with it. But no. I pull people’s legs. Yeah, I’m full of bull. But if it’s something that matters and if it’s something serious, then I give you a very honest answer. Sometimes I like to kid people just to see if they’ll know or pick up on it. I usually won’t let it go all that far either if I see they really fell for it. I’m always doing it to Johnny Carson. When I do Johnny’s show, I’m always tellin’ him some rigmarole and he really believes me, like some people do. I just let them fall right into it and then I’ll usually let them come out of it.
He likes you.
I like him, too.
If what I seen on television is an example, he looks like he likes you.
Well, we like each other, but, you know, I don’t know him except on the panel and when they go into commercials. We talk at the panel. I’ve never seen him otherwise. People think we’re like these long, long friends.
What did he say . . . he’d give a year’s pay [to peek under your blouse]?
[Laughs] Yeah, that was funny!
Well, shoot! We’re just about to the end of our visit with Dolly. Miss Parton. Dolly, how many wigs have you got now?
Oh, the same old cheap ones. I don’t really know. I just say that I have 365, one for each day of the year. But I don’t know.
I saw you when you were on The Tonight Show, talking about your wigs, and you refer to them as these “old cheap wigs.”
[Laughs] Well, they’re a dollar a dozen!
I wondered if people really believe that.
Well, they are cheap wigs! I ain’t kiddin’. They’re like the Eva Gabor and all those wigs like that. The way I wear my hair and the look that I’ve got used to, I could buy whatever I wanted to as far as wigs are concerned right now, but they ain’t as convenient. These are just synthetic wigs and I like ’em. They’re handy and they’re not expensive. The way I get ’em, they’re like thirty dollars a wig. Now that’s the honest truth. But when you consider the people that wear expensive wigs, they cost like $1,000 for a hand-done wig. Now, I have a few of them, especially for the movies and stuff, but they still look cheap the way I wear ’em.
Are they all blonde?
Yeah, they’re all blonde.
Got any dark wigs?
I got a red one and I got a brown wig, but I don’t look good in either one of them.
I remember seeing you on the television show Dolly one time in pigtails. How long since you have appeared in public without the wigs?
It’s been a long time. It’s probably been five years . . . six years . . .
This is part of your image, though, isn’t it?
Yeah, and it’s handy too. My hair don’t hold curl a lot, and to tease it the way that my look is gets to be real damaging, especially since I color my hair. My hair’s straight and it just don’t hold its curl. That’s why I like synthetic wigs because they hold their curl whether it’s rain or shine.
Well, Dolly, this is where we have to break it off.
This is where we get off?
Yep.
OK, well . . .
By golly, I really enjoyed being with you.
Well, I enjoyed it, too. I always love you. Still got a crush on you, if that’s OK. And I’ll see you whenever you can grab ahold of me again.
Well, you’re kind of hard to grab ahold of.
Yeah, but if anybody can do it, you can! [Laughs]
I mean, not that there ain’t a whole lot to grab hold of, it’s just that I don’t see you that often.
Well, that’s true, but I’ll see you again. We’ll have some good stuff to talk about next time. If you saw me too much, we’d get boring. We might have been anyhow, but we thought we was good, didn’t we?
Good luck in Hollywood.
Thank you.
I hope to see you in the movies a lot.
Well, you might. We’ll see.
Our show featuring Dolly Parton. And we hope you’ve enjoyed it, my friends. This is Ralph Emery and we thank you for listening.
Bye!