Post contributed by AHC Marketing Coordinator Miles Amende

Dolly Parton passed away last week after a lifelong career of singing, songwriting, acting, and philanthropy. Parton looms large in popular culture, and it’s unsurprising that she makes an appearance in the American Heritage Center’s collections. In her honor, we’re taking a look at the Herbert G. Luft Papers, which offer a small glimpse into an important part of the Queen of Country’s career.

Collection Background

Herbert George Luft was a journalist, film historian, and motion picture executive with a fascinating history of his own. Luft was interned at the Dachau concentration camp for six months in 1938, covered the trial of Adolph Eichmann in Jerusalem, wrote a syndicated cinema column, and served as an officer of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

Luft collected press kits—packets of promotional materials used by production companies to advertise upcoming movies to the news media. Among these are kits for 9 to 5 and Steel Magnolias, which include unique commentary from Parton on her life and foray into the movies.

9 to 5

Parton’s film debut, 9 to 5, is a comedy about three office workers who dream of getting even with their boss. Parton plays Doralee Rhodes, an executive secretary dedicated to her job and husband who finds herself the target of a rumor that she’s been sleeping with the boss.

By this point in her career, Parton was already a country music darling. She had released a series of hit records, toured across the world, and appeared in television specials with Cher and Carol Burnett. Parton herself wrote the title tune for 9 to 5, which eventually won a Grammy and earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song. The film, however, propelled her to movie stardom and into the wider public consciousness.

The 9 to 5 press kit features a packet containing production information, cast biographies, and a 7-inch vinyl record pressed with four and a half minutes of interviews from Parton and co-stars Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin.

The production book includes a segment where Parton explains her first experience making a movie:

“I’d never seen a movie being made before,” she says with a laugh. “I was so silly. I thought that movies were just done as the script goes. So I memorized the whole thing, my part and everyone else’s. I knew the whole movie word for word before I ever came out here, which I found hilarious once I saw how movies were made—out of sequence and everything. You open a door one week, and you walk through the door three weeks later.”

In her recorded interview, Parton displays her quick wit and easy charm:

Announcer: Dolly Parton, you are considered the musical “Sweetheart of America.” Does that justify the fact that you carry a gun in your purse?

Parton: [laugh]…Well, I consider it a compliment to be called the “Sweetheart of America.” I made a statement once years ago that I carried a gun in my purse, and you have to understand that I live way out in the country and I work a lot when I’m in Nashville, at TV stations late at night, and I have to drive home; so, I used to carry a gun, if for no other reason than to make a lot of noise to scare somebody off if I got blocked in the road, but I wouldn’t want to hurt anybody. I have no intentions of doing that. So, now I carry a gun, but it’s got water in it.

Parton also muses on the roles she is considering at the time:

Announcer: This picture, “9 to 5,” is a comedy. Is this the kind of role you wanted, or would you have preferred to do a drama?

Parton: No, I wanted to do a comedy. That would have been the only kind of role that I actually would have played for the first time out, because I’m sure, if I could just get my own personality and the playful side of me, it would have been good. But, I will eventually, if I decide I like the movies, get into more dramatic roles. I think I could do that as well.

In Fonda’s portion of the interview, the announcer asks if she thinks Parton has a future in the movies, to which Fonda responds, “I think Dolly Parton has a future in anything she sets her mind to. I think that she could be a great movie star.”

Steel Magnolias

Parton would, of course, go on to bring both warmth and levity to Steel Magnolias as beauty salon owner Truvy Jones. Between the two films, she had also starred with Burt Reynolds in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and Sylvester Stallone in Rhinestone, writing and performing songs for both films.

The Steel Magnolias press kit includes production notes, cast biographies, production stills, and prints of frames from the movie.

The production book explains that writer Robert Harling suggested his own hometown of Natchitoches, Louisiana be used as the filming location for the fictional Chinquapin Parish. The cast and crew were readily welcomed into the community. Parton dropped by the local beauty parlor (which served as inspiration for Truvy’s Beauty Spot in the Film) on a surprise visit and, after initially leaving everyone speechless, made fast friends with the local patrons, saying “They were happy to see I was a real Southern girl like them.” She also trained with local beauticians for her role, musing:

“If I had not gone into the music business, I probably would have been a beautician. So Truvy was a bit like me—a big-hearted country girl trying to keep peace in the neighborhood and stirring up just as much trouble with everyone else with gossip and all.”

Reference
Herbert G. Luft Papers. Coll. 9033. American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Author’s Note: There are a lot of Dolly Parton albums. Don’t sleep on New Harvest…First Gathering, the A side of which feels incredibly fresh, even today.