Legendary singer Dolly Parton starred in the 1986 holiday film A Smoky Mountain Christmas, directed by "Happy Days" star Henry Winkler.
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Parton was in the midst of her iconic music career and frequently worked on new music on set. One of her scrapped song ideas became a valuable souvenir for one lucky actor.
During a Saturday appearance at the Rhode Island Comic Convention (RICC), Winkler recalled how the late singer's "trash" became a prized possession.
"So there was a moment when in the movie, she's kidnapped," Winkler recalled. "And the police come. And they are searching her apartment. Trying to find clues and everything."
An actor who played one of the cops asked Winkler if anything from the set could be claimed as a souvenir.
Actor Secures Dolly Parton Souvenir on Hollywood Set
Winkler informed him that "anything he takes would be considered stealing." However, a nearby boom operator offered a solution.
"She was writing music. And she crumpled it up and threw it in the trash can," Winkler recalled at the RICC panel.
"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 actor is not the only person with unreleased Dolly Parton music.
Parton's longtime manager, Danny Nozell, told The Hollywood Reporter that several unreleased Dolly Parton projects will be produced for "decades to come."
"Dolly worked up until the day she died. She loved seeing her dreams come to life. [She] loved knowing her work brought people joy. Ever the planner, Dolly worked with the team that she handpicked for the past several years to build a project roadmap that will guide us for decades to come," Nozell told the outlet.
Nozell added that he will oversee all of the late vocalist's unreleased projects.
"As the leader of the team responsible for overseeing her legacy, we will ensure the many dreams she had yet to fulfill are brought to life. Many projects were in various stages of development. We want to be transparent with her fans about this fact," he said in a statement.
