Dolly Parton

We had understood from a Bally employee at a past Expo seminar that this game license had been a difficult one because singer Dolly Parton kept changing her mind about how she should be portrayed on the backglass, due to her crossover status at the time from country to pop. The Early Production cabinet side art in this listing depicts a bouffant-haired Dolly playing a guitar while the rest of the production run cabinets omit this image, making us wonder if this depiction had been rejected by the singer. Indeed, the flyer shows the singer standing next to the machine with a hairstyle more in line with her backglass portrayal than with the bouffant style that was removed from the cabinet. Believing it was Paul Faris who had spoken at that Expo, we asked him to comment for this listing. He replies: With Dolly Parton, we did have to change the backglass artwork from a country theme to a more crossover mainstream look on the backglass art only. Since the playfield was completed, they (she) agreed to let it stay "Country" in her denim outfit. I honestly don't remember the cabinet [with her image on it] but it is possible that was an early sample of a cabinet that was later used. The artwork sequence was usually: Backglass concept first (for approvals), then production art on the cabinet, playfield and plastics, and finally the finished backglass art. It is possible that the [cabinet with her image] was a cabinet done BEFORE the backglass art changed and the version [without her image] was another concession to her crossover look and used for production. Different sample color cabinets was not unusual before a final version was determined. A more detailed account of the backglass changes can be found here.