Morales - Pilgrimage to dollywood - a country music road trip through tennessee

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ERIN HOGAN

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The Appian Way: Ghost Road, Queen of Roads

ROBERT A. KASTER

PILGRIMAGE TO Dollywood

A COUNTRY MUSIC ROAD TRIP THROUGH TENNESSEE

Helen Morales

The University of Chicago Press
Chicago and London

Helen Morales moved from Cambridge, England, to Santa Barbara, California, where she is the Argyropoulos Professor of Hellenic Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637

The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London

2014 by The University of Chicago

All rights reserved. Published 2014.

Printed in the United States of America

23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 1 2 3 4 5

ISBN-13: 978-0-226-53652-1 (cloth)

ISBN-13: 978-0-226-12326-4 (e-book)

DOI: 10.7208/chicago/9780226123264.001.0001

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Morales, Helen, author.

Pilgrimage to Dollywood : a country music road trip through Tennessee / Helen Morales.

pages cm (Culture trails series)

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-0-226-53652-1 (cloth : alkaline paper) ISBN 978-0-226-12326-4 (e-book) 1. Parton, DollyHomes and haunts. 2. Country musiciansHomes and haunts. 3. Musical landmarksTennessee. 4. TennesseeDescription and travel. 5. Country music fansTravel. I. Title. II. Series: Culture trails.

ML420.P28M67 2014

781.64209768dc23

2013044864

This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.481992 (Permanence of Paper).

Contents

GRACELAND AND OTHER SHRINES, MEMPHIS

LORETTA LYNNS RANCH, HURRICANE MILLS

NASHVILLE

PIGEON FORGE, GATLINBURG, SEVIERVILLE, AND LOCUST RIDGE

DIXIE STAMPEDE, PIGEON FORGE

DOLLYWOOD AMUSEMENT PARK, THE GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS

Caviar and Fish Sticks

In the early evening of May 7, 2010, I found myself jostling in a scrum of fevered adults and children lining the Parkway, the main road that runs through the small city of Pigeon Forge, in Sevier County, east Tennessee. We were there for the annual Dolly Homecoming Parade, a carnival in honor of the citys most cherished celebrity and benefactor, the singer, movie actor, and businesswoman Dolly Parton, who was born and raised in Sevier County. This parade was particularly special: it marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of the opening of Dollywood, the local theme park partly owned by, and modeled around, the superstar and her life story. Most of us had been waiting for hours, the day suspended in anticipation of the few moments when wed glimpse Dolly Parton. As she does every year, the singer would play grand marshal, heading the parade held in her name.

I had no idea what to expect from the parade or how to prepare for it, so I phoned Dollywood a few days ahead of my journey. The woman who took the call was kindly and proprietorial, as if this were her parade, her Dolly. She advised me to come at least six hours before the 6:00 p.m. start, and to mark my territory with a folding chair somewhere between traffic light 3 and traffic light 6 along the Parkway. If you stay in one of the hotels along the route, she added, you can visit the bathroom without losing your place. This was good advice and I took it, bringing with me on the flight a chair ).

At midday, sitting low in my folding chair mesmerized by the stream of cars, I felt as ridiculous as I had always thought those families are who park by the side of highways and eat picnic lunches out of Tupperware. What was I doing, choking on exhaust fumes and slowly roasting in the oppressive Tennessee heat? There was one instant where I thought I must have succumbed to the swelter; I thought I saw Dolly Parton, a smudged and stretched Dolly Parton, leaning against the wall on the other side of the road, until I realized it was a transvestite doppelganger, dressed in a pale pink suit, with false bust and shiny platinum wig.

1. Staking out territory along the parade route

).

It all then happened very quickly, like a film in fast-forward. Two proud boy scouts bearing a banner with the Dollywood logo, pinky-orange butterflies (butterflies are one of Dollys chosen motifs) and the words

Welcome to the 25th Anniversary of

Dollys Homecoming Parade

May 7, 2010

Proudly Presented by

The City of Pigeon Forge

Next, purple-clad children of the Sevier County High School Band, struggling by this stage of the march, and, behind them, the flash of an enormous silver and turquoise butterfly, antennae bobbing menacingly as if poised to swoop down and gobble up a flagging tuba player. The insect blocked the view of the silver truck, and then: there she was. Under an aquamarine parasol, perched on a white cube atop a three-tiered, silver-sashed wedding cake of a float sprinkled with silver, blue and purple butterflies, was Dolly Parton. I fought to take in the shimmering lavender and silver lam dress, the silver fairy wings, silver high heels, and blonde wig. The blonde wig. Unmistakably Dolly Parton, smiling and waving at the yelling throng. (Dolly! Dolleeee!!!) She made eye contact just for a second, then turned to wave to the other side. (Dolly! Over here!! Look at Me!!!) And then she was gone. Sevier County royalty: the Queen of Country Music.

2, 3. The Dolly Parade

4. A fleeting glimpse of Dolly on her float

This book is about my quest for Dolly Parton, my journey to learn more about her and her music, and the places important to both of them. It is not a biography: I have never met her (and would likely be gauche and clumsy if I did), nor would I feel comfortable prying into her private life. Calling her Dolly feels overly familiar, but as she is rarely referred to in the press as Ms. Parton or Mrs. Dean, I am going to follow popular convention. My interest is partly intellectual. More than a performer, Dolly Parton is a cultural phenomenon. As an artist who crossed over into pop music, she changed what was possible in country music. She is a prolific songwriter, the largest employer in Sevier County, and creator of a theme park to herself; all of this invites analysis. However, this is also very much a personal project. This is not a book written from the Olympian heights of an objective observer: I confess up front that I love Dolly Parton and her music and have ever since I saw her in the movie 9 to 5, when I was eleven years old.

I had planned for the journey to start in Memphis, with a visit to one of the most celebrated modern pilgrimage sites: Graceland, the former home of the late Elvis Presley. The paths of Elvis and Dolly intersect (or fail to) at significant moments in their lives. It is impossible to tell a narrative about country music without including Elvis, the star who, so one story goes, nearly caused the death of the genre. Moreover, I was keen to see how Dollywood, a celebrity site created with the input of a living star, compared to Graceland, a home turned into a memorial to a star after his death. From Memphis, I had mapped out a route by car to Nashville via Hurricane Mills. Nashville is the city of music: home of the Grand Ole Opry, the star-making concert that has been broadcast on the radio since 1925; the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, which honors the elite in the business (Dolly Parton has been a member since 1999); and the city where Dolly Parton has both a home and a gift shop called Trinkets and Treasures.