Henry Winkler recalls Dolly Parton’s ‘trash’ becoming souvenir
Henry Winkler has shared a behind-the-scenes story about the late Dolly Parton, recalling how a scraped piece of her music became a souvenir on the set of A Smoky Mountain Christmas.
The 81-year-old actor and director told the story during a Happy Days panel at Rhode Island Comic Con on Saturday 7 November. The event took place at the Omni Providence Hotel, with Anson Williams beside him on stage.
Winkler directed the 1986 holiday film, which was Parton’s first made-for-TV movie.
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In it, she plays singer Lorna Davis, who is kidnapped. In one scene, police search her apartment for clues, and Winkler said Parton was writing music and “crumpled it up and threw it in the trash can.”
An actor playing one of the cops then asked if he could keep something as a souvenir.
Winkler told him: “Anything you take would be stealing.” The boom microphone operator came up with a loophole, pointing out that the actor could take one of the crumpled pages, since it would have been thrown away anyway.
Winkler spoke warmly of the experience of working with the country star, who died on 25 August at 80.
He said it was “everything you can imagine she was and more.” He called her “The most amazing star, she just was a powerful being on this earth,” and added: “Truly, I was honored to direct her first television movie.”
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