PARTON’S BIG FORAY FOR DOLLYWOOD

There’s but one business for the 2,800 folks in this Smoky Mountain foothill town to pursue--and it ain’t makin’ moonshine.

It’s tourism. The town gets lots and lots of tourists--about 4 million a year. Pigeon Forge is one of two places in Tennessee to be officially given Premier Resort City status by the state General Assembly.

But the other day, entrepreneurial concerns were cast aside momentarily while residents celebrated the return of a local lady who hadn’t been around for a spell. All up and down Highway 441, motel marquees carried variations on a familiar theme.

“Hello, Dolly. . . . It’s so nice to have you back where you belong. . . .”

Her return was particularly exciting around these parts, for Dolly Parton, who rose to superstardom singing about her Tennessee mountain upbringing, had big plans for Silver Dollar City, one of Pigeon Forge’s biggest tourist attractions.

The 1880s-themed mountain village features Disneyland-type amusement rides, an open-air theater, mountain food restaurants, live shows and a church. Smoky Mountain artisans hammer on horseshoes, brew lye soap and fashion old-time black-powder rifles and pistols. Visitors can buy the wares of glass-blowers, basket weavers, broom makers, blacksmiths, saddle-makers, not to mention handcrafted buggies from the resident wainwright. There’s even a 50-foot tower where molten lead is poured to make authentic buckshot.

The official purpose of Parton’s visit was to rechristen Silver Dollar City with a name she’d carried around ever since she spied the famed “Hollywood” sign spread across a Los Angeles hillside. She always thought it would be great if she could get up there some morning and change the H to a D.

Dollywood.

It would be a dream come true for Parton who always wanted a theme park where she could preserve her Smoky Mountain heritage and help out the folks back home at the same time. When it opens after its initial expansion (see box) in May, Dollywood is projected to generate $5 million to $14 million in its first year. And bigger plans lie down the road.

But as far as local residents were concerned, money wasn’t the main point. Sentiment was.

Contrary to the old saw, “You can’t go home again,” Parton could, and did.

“Whatch’all cooking?” Parton asked three women in period dresses who were stirring a steaming kettle full of water and apples. Dressed in blue jeans, boots and red plaid shirt, she worked on the grounds of her theme-park-to-be, filming commercials promoting Dollywood and Homecoming ‘86, a statewide campaign.

She worked from neither script nor cue cards, only the basic premise behind the scene. It is a technique few actors or actresses feel comfortable or capable doing. For Parton it appeared effortless.

As the Atlanta-based commercial production crew, extras, well-wishers and interested park employees looked on, she began her second take of the commercial. She flashed a big smile and asked, “So how many hillbillies does it take to make apple jack?”

Laughs were stifled all around.

Every shot was different; every one, the director told her, was “Beautiful! Perfect!”

During one of the breaks, a contingent of Sevier County’s movers and shakers arrived--all members of a committee formed to raise funds for a special purpose. The county had voted to erect a statue of its favorite daughter in a location usually reserved for deceased statesmen and Confederate soldiers. The bronze statue, which will be cast by local artist Jim Gray, depicts a smiling, britches-clad Parton, astride a rock, head held high and guitar in hand.

Gray and the group brought Parton a clay mock-up of the statue and a check--the first donation to the statue fund.

They may have represented the local power elite, but their anticipation was that of a fan club as they eagerly awaited.

Cameras dangled from most arms. Local bank president R.B. Summitt, accompanied his wife Pat, a celebrity in her own right. (She coached the 1984 U.S. women’s Olympic basketball team.)

“(Parton) really is the kind of person who never forgot about this town,” Summitt said.

The same comment would be repeated over and over.

“Dolly cared enough and loved us enough to come back home,” Sevierville Chamber of Commerce executive director Ruby Fox said when asked the reasons behind the statue project.

When Parton arrived, she warmly greeted each member and easily joked with the group as their picture was snapped for the local paper. Neither haughty, nor patronizing, Parton easily dispelled the aura of celebrity projected upon her and became just “folks.”

Parton also was told of the committee’s fund-raising plans. They included: a Parton look-alike beauty pageant for little girls; a Dolly Day at each of the county’s schools where, following a presentation on Parton’s life and success story, children would be given the opportunity to participate in the fund-raising drive; an alumni/student basketball game at Sevier County High School; an arts and crafts auction and a benefit show, possibly starring Parton’s sister Stella.

There’s an expression used in these parts about a person “never gettin’ above their raising.” Parton used it to explain the local outpouring of affection toward her and the theme park as she relaxed in her motel room after the day’s filming.

“All the people in Sevier County have always known my people, we’ve always been hard-working, hard-living, honest, down-home people,” she said matter-of-factly.

“I’ve always bragged about them and wrote songs about my home and my people--and I mean the people of East Tennessee--with a great sense of pride because I’m very proud of who I am and where I’m from. I always came back and tried to do things.

“I can make money doing a lot of things, but the whole dream was to do something to bring honor to my family as well as to my friends and relatives.”

Parton smiled. “Through the years my reputation has stood on its own. I’m not just coming back to take, I’m coming back to give.”

Parton also mentioned her desire to build a “Teen Town” at Dollywood. “I want to have a place for the young people, so they don’t have to stay stuck up in the hills or just drive around the Tastee-Freez or park on back roads and do drugs.

When asked how she spent her free time as a teen-ager, she laughed. “Of course when I was a teen-ager I went to the drive-in and necked--but that’s beside the point!”

Parton took her joke a step further by naming the recipient of that drive-in necking the next morning at the ground-breaking ceremony.

Although rain threatened, a crowd of more than 500 turned out for the occasion. Parton, dressed in a black form-fitting jump suit and boots, greeted the mayors of Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg, Sevierville and Pittman Center.

When she got to Sevierville Mayor Gary Wade, she said “Hi, Pee Wee,” and then told the crowd, “I used to neck with him in the back seat of the drive-in years ago.”

The crowd whooped.

Joining Parton were members of the Missouri-based Herschend family (who privately own Silver Dollar City and five other theme parks). Dollywood represents a joint venture between Parton and the Herschends.

Parton’s “Hollywood people,” as the locals called them, watched as Parton split shingles, hewed logs and bulldozed her way through the photographic portion of the ceremony.

Parton’s personal manager of 11 years, Sandy Gallin (whose clients include Whoopie Goldberg, Patti LaBelle and Mac Davis) had flown in from Los Angeles the night before. With him were Parton’s business manager, Jerry Rubinstein, and her publicist, Lee Solters.

Solters, wearing the traditional New York power suit (dark blue), sorted out requests from local media as he joked, “Now what does a Brooklyn boy like me know about the Smoky Mountains?”

Gallin, dressed in a Los Angeles power suit (one week’s growth of beard, casual pants, sport coat, loafers) shook his head and joked, “I gotta get out of here.” The great outdoors was no place for a man who lives by the phone.

When it came to discussing his client, however, Gallin turned glowingly awe-struck.

He watched her move effortlessly through a series of brief interviews, making each one personal.

Gallin, sincere wonder in his voice, finally asked, “Have you ever met anyone like her? I mean really, have you? She is so bright . . . .” He paused, searching for the right phrase. “You just can’t believe how fast her mind works!”

Meanwhile, Solters fretted. He figured that some of the local network affiliates would send a feed to New York.

“But there’s no local programming . . . it’s all hurricane.” (But after Hurricane Gloria had passed, some Parton film footage did make on the air.)

A unhappy local television reporter cornered Solters and, gesturing toward the fourth TV crew sitting with Parton, asked, “I thought we had exclusivity on this interview?”

Solters explained that he had told her she could be first, but not exclusive.

He joked, “But if you run back to the station right now, you’ll be exclusive until everyone else gets on the air, right?”

Later, Parton joined several hundred guests at a VIP luncheon in the park pavilion. As park visitors watched through the windows, guests helped themselves to a typically Southern-style buffet of fried chicken, roast beef, beans, biscuits and gravy.

Parton told the crowd, “I feel comfortable with you people. I went to school with you. I’m very, very excited about this Dollywood thing. . . . “ She glanced at Gallin, then corrected herself: “deal, not thing.”

She added, “I really feel like this will be a wonderful opportunity for all of us. I’m gonna try to get people from Nashville and Hollywood to do movie locations here; I want to have recording studios, movie studios . . . who knows, maybe y’all become movie stars!”

A television special (produced by Sandollar, the film and TV company she owns with Gallin) would include the park’s opening next year, she said. Its title seemed a foregone conclusion, but she told them anyway.

“Hooray for Dollywood.”

Ron Cardwell, manager of the Green Valley restaurant, isn’t a member of the county power elite, nor is he serving on a fund-raising committee. He didn’t go to the ground-breaking ceremony either.

But that had nothing to do with his enthusiasm over Dollywood nor his genuine fondness for Parton.

“She’s down to earth,” he said of his old classmate (they were in homeroom together in high school). “She’s always wanted to come back here. Everybody here knew she would. She would help this area any way she could.”

Over drinks after work one night, Cardwell talked about the time Parton gave money to the high school when it needed a band. And about the scholarship in her name. On a more personal level, he talked about his young nephew, who is bedridden with multiple sclerosis.

The nephew needed more attention than any one person could give, Cardwell said, “but then he became interested in Parton and joined her fan club.”

Since then Parton has sent him cards and has written him notes on a regular basis.

Had Cardwell ever heard of anyone in these parts who had an unkind word about Parton?

He smiled. “If someone did, by the time they’d finished they’d be out my door.”

He thought it over again. “Nope, they’d be out of my town.”

Dollywood

Silver Dollar City will be fully Dollywood-ized by next May. The theme park will expand over some of its unused 400 acres to include:

The Dolly Parton Story Museum, which will contain all Parton memorabilia and trace her life from her earliest days in Sevier County through the present.

A private apartment atop the museum where Parton can stay when she is in town. (“When you see my bras hanging outside, you’ll know I’m in town,” she said during the ground-breaking ceremony.)

The Parton Family Back Porch Theater, a 1,000-seat amphitheater with a stage featuring a reproduction of the Parton’s childhood home (if the real one is unable to be moved) where she was raised with her 12 brothers and sisters.

Aunt Granny’s Dixie Fixins restaurant (Aunt Granny is the nickname given Parton by her nieces and nephews).

A new river raft ride specifically designed within the Dollywood theme.

Apple Jack’s Mill, named after Parton’s song “Apple Jack,” which will offer a variety of apple products.

A music shop specializing in mountain musical instruments.

The Valley Mercantile, a souvenir and gift shop offering items selected by Parton.