Ep. 486: What Will We Do Without Dolly?

Happier in Hollywood

In honor of Dolly Parton's legacy, hosts Sarah Fane and Liz Craft reflect on her values, resilience, and creative integrity through personal

Key takeaways

• Dolly Parton demonstrated extraordinary backbone by refusing to give up her songwriting royalties, even when offered the chance to have Elvis Presley record 'I Will Always Love You'.
• The hosts regret a past decision where they caved on a professional point, costing them significant financial and personal value—something Dolly would not have done.

Main topics

• Dolly Parton's legacy and values
• Professional integrity and decision-making

Notable quotes

"I don't mind dumb blonde jokes because I know I'm not dumb and I know I'm not blonde."

Conclusion

The episode concludes with a powerful reminder to pause before making decisions that

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:02) Lemonada. How many Speaker 4 (0:06) young people do you think are going to be watching 9 to 5 this week? Well, I can tell you that my young person will be. Yes. We're watching it Speaker 3 (0:14) this weekend. I already told her, I said, this is what I want for my birthday. I want you to watch 9 to 5 with Speaker 4 (0:20) me. That's a good birthday present. I agree. Speaker 3 (0:28) Hi, and welcome to Happier in Hollywood, the podcast about how to be happier, healthier, saner, more creative, more successful, and more productive in a backbiting, superficial, chaotic, unpredictable, fundamentally insane world. I'm Sarah Fane, a TV writer and producer living in Ojai, right outside of LA. And with me is my high school friend and writing partner, Liz. That's Speaker 4 (0:50) me, Liz Craft. On this podcast, we talk about being writers in Hollywood, how we balance a career and friendship, and how to survive the war of attrition that is life in Los Angeles. Speaker 3 (0:59) Today, Liz, we are all about Dolly. Our theme for the episode in honor of Dolly Parton is, What Would Dolly Do? Speaker 4 (1:10) Yes. What would Dolly do? our team theme in 2022, and we still wonder what would Dolly do at important moments. So today we're going to share a mistake we made many years ago when we didn't do what Dolly did and why, thanks to her, we wouldn't make that mistake now. Yeah. In fact, I have a what would Dolly do Speaker 3 (1:29) notepad on my desk now to remind me not to make that kind of mistake again. We're also going to talk about how brilliantly Dolly lived her values. And we are introducing... new segment in Dolly's honor called Cup of Ambition. Speaker 4 (1:45) This week's Hollywood hack is a summer makeup trend that feels very Dolly. And finally, we have a Dolly Parton movie recommendation. You can probably guess which one. But Speaker 3 (1:55) before we dive in, we have a quick update. We all know that Dolly Parton was known for her philanthropy. in so many different arenas, but she's probably best known for Imagination Library, which has given over 300 million free books to kids since she started it in, I think it was 1995. She started it in honor of her dad who couldn't read and she wanted to make sure that she was spreading literacy. all over. And so we each made a donation to Imagination Library, and we're going to put a link to it in our show notes. So you can do that as well if you would like. Speaker 4 (2:36) Yes. And a nice amount is $9 to $5, $95. Or $925, whatever Speaker 3 (2:42) you like. Speaker 4 (2:42) Or Speaker 3 (2:43) whatever you Speaker 4 (2:44) can Speaker 3 (2:44) handle. $9.25. Yes. Speaker 4 (2:47) Okay, Sarah, let's dive into From the Treadmill Desk of, where we talk about what's most pressing in our work psyches. Although this week, it's really our psyches as a whole, because Dolly Parton is very much on our minds, as she is on everybody's minds. This is, what would Dolly do professionally? Yes, Speaker 3 (3:07) we recently discovered that a decision we made, several decisions, but that we made many years ago. cost us a lot of money. We gave up a point on a show and it cost us about $250,000. So we have been thinking a lot about that and how we will make sure that doesn't happen in the future. And if we had been thinking about Dolly Liz, this would not have happened. Speaker 4 (3:37) Yes. We were talking about the famous story of when Elvis Presley was going to record her song, I Will Always Love You. And the night before the recording, Colonel Parker, Elvis's manager, let her know that Elvis always gets 50 % of publishing rights. And that would be expected on this song. And Dolly was not going to give up her publishing rights, not even 50%, which is pretty amazing. And so she said no, even though she was heartbroken because, of course, she wanted Elvis to record her song. And then all those years later, of course, Whitney Houston recorded I Will Always Love You for her movie. And it was the biggest song of the year, one of the biggest songs of our lifetime, really. Yes, absolutely. I think Dolly made over $10 million off it, which she gave away, I believe. I'm sure way more than that. Speaker 3 (4:32) I mean, the thing that people say about Dolly is that she would have been a billionaire if she hadn't given away so much money. I mean, she made probably inconceivable amounts of money from that song, as she should have. Speaker 4 (4:44) Yes, and what we're really honing in on is how she had the backbone to say no to Elvis. And then we're thinking about us and how easily we... caved when confronted with somebody wanting us to give up this point in a show. I Speaker 3 (5:01) mean, Elvis Presley. Can you imagine being young Dolly Parton and saying no to Elvis Presley, knowing that then he would not record your song? The backbone and strength, but most of all, just like belief. in herself and in her own worth. Yes. That that must Speaker 4 (5:22) have taken. And knowing her own mind. Yes. I find that I can come to 10 different decisions. I can talk myself into so many different decisions or out of so many different decisions. And it feels like she really knew her mind. She knew what she thought was the right thing. And then she stuck to it. Yes. And she Speaker 3 (5:42) probably had people around her saying, Cave, this would be such a good thing for you. It's only half. You know that there were people who thought that she was making the wrong decision, but she stood firm in her own beliefs and her own value. And we've been talking about this quite a bit and saying in that moment, one, we should have taken more time. She didn't have a lot of time. Elvis was going to record it, I think, the next day. But we should have taken more time. thought about it, deliberated more, discussed it with people other than the ones who were advising us that we should let it go. We made so many mistakes. Speaker 4 (6:26) Sarah, to back up for a second, sometimes if you're at a show at the beginning, if you're part