Rest in Power Dolly Parton, Who Made It a Pot Party in "9-5"

Parton in "9-5"

Dolly Parton, who died at age 80 yesterday, managed to project an authentic, down-home womanly image while wearing outrageous wigs and make-up, and fake fingernails. 

The fourth of 12 children raised in a one-room cabin in Tennessee, her father Robert Lee was an illiterate tenant farmer and her mother Avie Lee (Owens) sang old Anglo-Celtic ballads and hymns while doing housework. Dolly has said she admired a woman in town considered trashy due to the way she dressed, and began emulating her as she began her singing and songwriting career. 

In one of her first hits, "Dumb Blonde" (1967), she sang, "Just because I'm blonde don't think I'm dumb / 'Cause this dumb blonde ain't nobody's fool." She was smart enough to form her own publishing company at age 20, retaining the rights to her own songs. When Elvis Presley's manager demanded The King take half of the publishing profits for recording her song "I Will Always Love You" in 1974, Parton refused (then cried all night). Instead, Whitney Houston made it a monster hit in 1992 and Dolly made $10 million in royalties, investing part of the money in an office complex in a predominantly Black neighborhood of Nashville. 

Tokin' Woman Jane Fonda, who produced the 1980 feminist film "9-5," starring herself and Lily Tomlin, reportedly was looking for a third co-star to broaden the film's appeal when she heard a tape of Dolly singing and realized she had movie star quality. The singer's film debut is a tour-de-force performance where she sweetly but strongly threatens to turn her boss Mr. Hart "from a rooster to a hen" with one shot from the gun she carried in her purse if he didn't stop hitting on her. 

In the film, Tomlin's character Violet suggests that her co-workers Judy (Fonda) and Doralee (Parton) smoke a joint together. "Is that one of them marijuana cigarettes?" Doralee asks, offering her home as the setting for the "old-fashioned ladies pot party." Doralee says, "that stuff really don't do much for me" and Judy says she tried it once and "I could never figure out what the big deal was." Cut to: the three ladies laughing uproariously (and soon, munching out). 

Fonda and Tomlin are shown toking, and Parton accepts the joint but doesn't smoke on film. Starting with the "stoned" Judy, the women fantasize about put getting revenge on Mr. Hart. In Doralee's fantasy she switches roles with Hart, with her playing the preying boss. Following a mishap where Violet's revenge fantasy nearly plays out, the three party pals soon put their heads together to concoct a bold plan to win equality for women in their workplace. 

Parton wrote and performed the movie's theme song, using her acrylic nails to imitate the sound of a typewriter. The New York Times calls it "one of the greatest workers’ rights anthems ever" and says that Parton’s most damning lines — “It’s a rich man’s game no matter what they call it/and you spend your life putting money in his wallet” — could "have just as easily have been written by Mother Jones, the firebrand who unionized workers in the coal country Parton knew well from her youth."

In 1987, Parton along with Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris released the album "Trio," with Parton mostly singing lead with her authentic country voice. The three recorded Neil Young's "After the Gold Rush" with Parton changing the lyric, "And I felt like getting high" to "I felt like I could cry." 

"Dumb Blonde," and "9 to 5" are two of the songs in the soundtrack to "Dumplin'," the 2018 film about a Texas beauty pageant Queen (Jennifer Aniston) and her daughter Willowdean (Danielle Macdonald), whose weight makes her an unlikely pageant contestant. Willowdean and her bestie Ellen (Odeya Rush) admire Parton, and her lyrics inspire them to reach for their goals, with the aid of some local drag queens/Dolly imitators. 

Parton performs on every song on the soundtrack, for which she wrote the song "Girl in the Movies," (nominated for Best Original Song at the 2019 Golden Globes) and "High and Mighty," which pageant contestant Millie (Maddie Baillio) hits out of the park (the song was recorded with the Christ Church Choir). Macdonald performs a magic act to "Here You Come Again," the 1997 Parton hit penned by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. Also singing on the soundtrack with Parton are Elle King, Miranda Lambert, Mavis Staples, Alison Krauss, and Macy Gray. Another poignant Parton song, "Push and Pull," is performed with the film's stars Aniston and Macdonald.

Macdonald's character seems nearly named for Willadeene Parton, Dolly's eldest sibling, an author who published a 1996 memoir on the family's history and a family cookbook titled, "All Day Singing & Dinner on the Ground." 

Parton with her goddaughter Miley Cyrus

In 1995, Dolly established the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, through which over 332 million children’s books have been sent to to babies and young children. She was an advocate for LQGBT rights, and her amusement park Dollywood is a popular destination for the gay community. Tim Curry, famous for his cross-dressing role in "A Rocky Horror Picture Show," died on the same day as Dolly. 

A show about her life, “Dolly: A True Original Musical,” is scheduled to open on Broadway in early 2027. Meanwhile, among her many tributes, including from her goddaughter Miley Cyrus, is a tweet from the British Royal Family featuring the royal guards playing "9-5."