Why Dolly Parton's Tennessee Mountain Theme Park Matters

Guest: Graham Hoppe, Author of “Gone Dollywood: Dolly Parton’s Mountain Dream” Dolly Parton is easy to label as cheesy or artificial and she plays to that stereotype with her quips (“I’m a self-made woman and I have the doctor’s bills to prove it.”) But failing to take Dolly Parton seriously is a mistake, according to folklorist Graham Hoppe. And the best evidence of that may be Dollywood: the theme park Parton has owned for decades in the Tennessee mountains where she grew up. Here we discuss why an amusement park in Appalachia dedicated to a Dolly Parton is way more meaningful than you’d expect.