By the time I was 9 years old, I knew the words to songs from Hello Dolly, Evita, Sound of Music (who didn't?), West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof, and many, many other musicals.
Dolly Rockers, the three-strong girl band who sound like a cross between Bananarama and the Spice Girls, are reminiscing, loudly.
As the stage brightened, suggesting dawn becoming day, they ran and wove in daisy-chain and corn-dolly patterns, to the sounds of birdsong, bells and bagpipes.
Mr. Jennings recalled the time his friend played a Dolly Parton single at 33 r.p.m. ("It sounds great," he declared).
His BBC boss, he continued, asked: "Dale, watcha doin'?" With a less likable presenter, you'd quickly feel a bit queasy at this, but he just sounded so smitten and desperate for Dolly to like him.
However, a note of caution was sounded by Ian Wilmut, who led the team that created Dolly the Sheep.
In addition to her many appearances with her sisters on television and in concert, Ms. King appeared onstage in productions of "Guys and Dolls" and "Hello, Dolly!" She provided the singing voice for a nun in the 1964 movie "The Sound of Music".
Dolly Parton must be one of the only singers around whose voice could undergo such extreme manipulation and sound not sadly distorted but, rather, beautifully remade.
Her fidelity to the settlers' experiences, rendered on a modest production budget, extended to what might be called ambient elements of the filmmaking: preferring boom-recorded sound over radio mikes, which "brought a feeling that was not period," or pushing a Steadicam on a dolly to avoid the sensation of a motorized glide.
The 3,500-piece 3,500-piece whicollectiond by Debbie Reynolds, whichisclude a bowned worn by Charlie Chaplin, the golDebbie Reynoldsorn by Barbra Streisand in "Hello, Dolly!," right, the Ascot dress will by Audrey Hepburn includeFair Lady," left, and several costumes for Julie Andrews in "The Sound of Music".
"I always imagined him having a Louis Armstrong 'Hello, Dolly' sound," Litt said the other day.
