08/28/2026
I shared this on my Angie Lowe FB page yesterday…. and now because she was a great entertainer and we all love Theatre. I’m sharing it again here today…..
𝐃𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐉𝐚𝐧𝐞 𝐅𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐚 𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐝𝐨 "𝟗 𝐭𝐨 𝟓" 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐢𝐟 𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐠. 𝐒𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐦𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐚 𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐥
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That was 1980. Fonda had wanted her from the start, and Parton, 34 years old and a total newcomer to film, negotiated a level of creative control most first-time actors would not dare ask for.
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She left her guitar at the hotel because she did not want to get scattered on set. So between takes she started running her long acrylic fingernails back and forth against each other, and the sound that came back at her was a typewriter. She built the whole song on that rhythm. When the record came out, the clacking at the top of the track was her own hands, and the liner notes credited it to "nails, by Dolly."
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"9 to 5" went to number one on the country chart, the Hot 100, and the adult contemporary chart. That made Parton only the second woman ever to top the country and pop charts with the same single, after Jeannie C. Riley did it with "Harper Valley PTA" in 1968. It won two Grammys and got her an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song.
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The film itself came in on a wave and stayed. Parton as Doralee, Fonda as Judy, Lily Tomlin as Violet, and Dabney Coleman as the boss they finally had enough of. Colin Higgins directed. It became the second highest grossing picture of 1980 and spawned a sitcom, a Broadway musical with more songs by Parton, and a permanent place in the AFI's list of the hundred greatest movie songs.
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Dabney Coleman died in 2024. Dolly Parton died today in Nashville at 80.
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She walked onto her first film set without a guitar and walked off it with a number one record she wrote on her own hands.
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📸 Getty Images
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