30days30years

Dollywood

I’ve been in Tennessee for six days so far but waited until today to visit Dollywood. Why you ask? Because it is only opened limited days now it’s winter and because today – Saturday – had the longest trading hours. I mean, the seven hours that it was open yesterday clearly wasn’t enough. I needed 10!

I had high hopes for Dollywood. I thought it would be a world devoted to Dolly after Allison, who I have been staying with, told me about Dolly’s Closet – a shop at Dollywood where you can get Dolly’s clothing tailored to your size. BRILLIANT! This is going to be wonderful for when I record my video clip. Or so I thought.

Turned out it was just a shop full of Dolly-esque clothes made in Pakistan with a sign saying ‘We add rhinestones to just about anything’. 🙁

The owners (Dolly is only a small percentage shareholder) seem less interested in Dolly and more interested in the ‘Dollywood’ brand so all you can buy are items with the “Dollywood” insignia on it. Not so much as a Dolly t-shirt or calendar in sight.

It’s kinda surprising really. The towns of Sevierville and Pigeon Forge don’t capitalise on her celebrity at all. None of the tourist shops have Dolly t-shirts or wigs etc which would be basic “tourism  101 ” I would have thought…

In any case it will still a fun day out. I spent most of my time in the Chasing Rainbows exhibition which chronicles Dolly’s life. It includes a lot of her costumes and awards etc and tonne about her childhood in Locust Ridge.

I also hung out on her tour bus for a while… I’m trying to channel my inner Dolly you see. LOL! 🙂 🙂 🙂

It seems everyone in Sevierville has some connection to Dolly. This evening Allison, her husband Dan, and I went out with a couple of their friends for dinner. One of them gave me some great contacts for make-up and fake eyelashes etc but she also gave me a contact number for Bob, a local hairdresser who did Dolly’s wigs for many years. Apparently Dolly put him on the payroll just so he would be at her beck and call. He still has a local salon here in town. I’m hoping he can give me a suitable bouffant for my recording day but it might be a little tough. They are closed Sunday and Monday and we record 10am Tuesday so I’m going to have to try track him down before then. Fingers crossed!