Did you know that Dolly Parton was the first country singer to ever pose for the playful and notorious Playboy Magazine? Back in 1978, the internet was just a potential invention of the far, far future. So, she decided to work the system and expand her horizons by getting some exposure with print media. She later admitted that, “It was just a fun thing to do… Another way I was trying to market myself… to get in the mainstream.”
However though, Parton had some strict conditions. She was down to be photographed, but her ultimate rule was no nudity. And being the fierce and confident woman that she is, they abided!
Dolly Parton has become such a symbolic star in that there are several Dolly Parton look-alike contests in honor of her. Even if you don’t know much about Dolly, her appearance is one to recognize from a mile away! Who wouldn’t find it fun to dress up with her colorful and vivacious wardrobe combine with her signature red lipped smile and big blonde locks of gold?
In fact, the idea sounded so fun that Parton entered a contest in Santa Monica, herself! The contest was drag queen themed and she explained, “I just over-exaggerated — made my beauty mark bigger, the eyes bigger, the hair bigger, everything.” Funny enough though, she actually lost the competition.
Dolly Parton might not have won her look-alike contest, but she sure is a winner when it comes to being the real Dolly Parton. She has recently been submitted for breaking not one, but two records in the Guinness Book of World Records! Overall, she feels “humbled and blessed.”
She has been awarded the “Most Decades with a Top 20 Hit on the U.S. Hot Country Songs Chart”, surpassing Elvis, George Jones, and Reba McEntire! And being the fierce femme that she is, she received the title for “Most Hits on US Hot Country Songs Chart By a Female Artist”.
Although it might not be a top topic at the dinner table, cloning has been on scientist’s radar for some time now. The first mammal that was successfully cloned actually happened a few decades ago! In 1995, scientists used an adult cell to create a clone of sheep.
Now, if this isn’t a subject for the dinner table, this might be! They named the sheep, Dolly, after the glorious Dolly Parton. According to Ian Wilmut, embryologist, “Dolly is derived from a mammary gland cell and we couldn’t think of a more impressive pair of glands than Dolly Parton’s.”
Dolly Parton’s a visual vixen, there’s not doubting that! That’s one of the main things that makes her the fabulous Dolly Parton – her unique style and attire.
But like any superstar, it’s nice to go out in public as a regular person. No matter what Parton did to hide her looks, though, there was just one aspect that can’t stay hidden – her legendary voice! One year, Parton tried to go Christmas shopping undercover, but according to her: “I said something, and this group of kids said, ‘You’re Dolly Parton in a black wig!’”
So, what did Parton's childhood look like? Dolly Rebecca Parton was born on January 19, 1946. The fourth child born to Avie Lee Caroline and Robert Lee Parton of Pittman Center – a small, rural community in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee – Dolly was far from being the last; all in all, Avie and Robert had 12 kids together. But despite their wealth of children, their material wealth was another matter altogether.
The Partons lived in a one-bedroom shack with no electricity or running water. They rarely had the money they needed – and when Dolly was born, the only thing they could offer the doctor who had delivered her as compensation was a sack of oatmeal.
Robert Lee Parton, Dolly’s father, had led a hard life. Having never learned to read or write, he had first worked as a sharecropper, before starting to tend to his own small farm, taking on temporary side jobs to make ends meet. Dolly’s mother, Avie Lee Caroline, was a homemaker – quite a challenge for a struggling family of 14, especially considering she was often sick.
Despite her ill health, Avie was always busy entertaining her children; coming from a musical family, Avie would often sing to her family, and tell them stories full of mountain folklore.
Despite the obvious hardships that came with the life her family led, Dolly had enjoyed her childhood in rural Tennessee. Yes, living conditions were cramped, and not having electricity or running water was definitely unpleasant at times, but Dolly chose to concentrate on the magical moments that came with living an almost “frontier” lifestyle.
“We didn’t have any electricity … if fireflies were out, we’d catch them in a mason jar and put them in our bedroom,” she said in one interview. Years later, her childhood experiences would inspire her hit song, “My Tennessee Mountain Home.”
Dolly was an imaginative child, and never felt like her family’s poverty had taken anything away from her – but going to school with more well-off children, she was often made fun of.
In her 1971 song, “Coat of Many Colors,” she retells an actual experience she had lived through. In it, she writes how she proudly wore a coat her mother had sewed from assorted rags and odds and ends. “Although we had no money/I was rich as I could be/In my coat of many colors/My mama made for me.”
Despite being poor, Dolly’s life was quite rich – especially thanks to her mother’s side of the family. Her mother’s father was a preacher at a local church, and all of her aunts and uncles sang and played instruments. Dolly showed a natural talent when it came to music, and began performing in her grandfather’s church when she was six. By the time she was seven, she began to write songs in earnest and playing a homemade guitar. A Year later, her uncle bought her first real guitar.
