Henry Winkler Recalls How Dolly Parton’s ‘Trash’ Became an Unusual Souvenir on the“ A Smoky Mountain Christmas ”Set

Winkler remembered what it was like directing the late country music legend in her first made-for-TV movie at Rhode Island Comic Con on Nov. 7

NEED TO KNOW

• Dolly Parton’s “trash” became a souvenir for an actor in A Smoky Mountain Christmas, according to director Henry Winkler
• Winkler shared the behind-the-scenes story about the unusual keepsake at Rhode Island Comic Con on Nov. 7
• He also remembered what it was like working with the late Parton, for whom the 1986 film was her first made-for-TV movie

Dolly Parton’s trash is another man’s treasure.

Even though A Smoky Mountain Christmas director Henry Winkler forbade “stealing” props from the movie’s set, one lucky actor still walked away with an atypical souvenir, courtesy of the late country legend. Winkler, 81, recalled how the keepsake — an item that would have otherwise been “trash” — came to be during a Happy Days panel at Rhode Island Comic Con (RICC) on Saturday, Nov. 7. 

Winkler, 81, shared the story from behind the scenes of the 1986 made-for-TV holiday movie starring Parton, who died on Aug. 25 at 80, while fielding audience questions at the Omni Providence Hotel in Providence, R.I. He appeared in a panel alongside one of his Happy Days costars, Anson Williams.

“So there was a moment when in the movie, she’s kidnapped,” Winkler recalled, referring to Parton’s character, a famous country singer named Lorna Davis. “And the police come, and they are searching her apartment, trying to find clues and everything.”

One of the actors who played one of the cops in the 1986 film, he remembered, said, “I would love to take a souvenir. What can I take?”

Winkler’s response to the request at the time? “Anything you take would be stealing,” the Happy Days actor recalled at the RICC panel. But the boom microphone operator who worked on that scene, Winkler said, had a “great idea” for a loophole to the director’s no-stealing rule — and it involved Parton.

“She was writing music, and she crumpled it up and threw it in the trash can,” Winkler recalled of the scene. So the boom mic operator, the A Smoky Mountain Christmas director said, suggested the actor playing the policeman nab one of the crumpled pieces of music as his souvenir.

“It was gonna be trash anyway. You could take that,” the mic operator said, according to Winkler, who added: “And that was my experience with Dolly.”

The Winkler-directed 1986 fantasy flick, according to an IMDb synopsis, tells the story of “a country-western singer on a trip through the Tennessee mountains,” who “runs into a reclusive backwoodsman and a witch.” The film also starred Lee Majors, Dynasty’s Bo Hopkins, Dan Hedaya and more.

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The behind-the-scenes revelation from the set came as Winkler remembered what it was like to work with Parton.

He told the RICC audience that the experience was “everything you can imagine she was and more.” 

“The most amazing star, she just was a powerful being on this earth,” the Happy Days star added of Parton. “Truly, I was honored to direct her first television movie.”