"9 TO 5 (1980). The greatest audience movie ever made. I saw this when it was released in 1980 in a theater in Zion - at the dusky dawn of the Reagan era. Of course, we all loved it. Singing and clapping along to Dolly’s theme song. Cheering and bursting into applause everytime one of the ladies would reach the end of their rope with Dabney Coleman. It was like a rock concert. The last time I saw it was during a Dolly Parton film festival at the @musicboxchicago in flaming liberal Chicago - and the reaction was exactly the same. As great as Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin were (and are) in the movie, I have to think this universal adoration is mostly due to Dolly - the woman the New York Times once named the only thing ‘we can all agree on’. A person of endless positivity and good cheer - but cut with street smart awareness and a winking sex appeal. She knew who she was and she could see a jerk-off asshole coming a mile away. And I’m sure she saw a LOT of them - but l’d also wager that she never wasted a whole lot of time worrying about any of them. What’s the point? And besides — nobody’s perfect. Someone sent me a text today that read ‘This country no longer deserved her anyway’. That may be true - even though a truer sentiment would be that maybe we need her now more than ever- but Dolly never would’ve tolerated that kind of cynicism and defeatism. It wasn’t in her. Or her music. And it shouldn’t be in us. R.I.P., Dolly. We will always love you."
Local H's Scott Lucas remembering Dolly Parton. There's a lovely tribute to her on the Local H podcast Lifers this week.
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