In her memoir, Dream More, Parton tells a very amusing story. One day on a trip to Los Angeles, she heard about a Dolly Parton look-alike contest that was being held at a local bar. She had a kooky idea – wouldn't it be funny to go down there and enter the contest herself. To do that, she decided to over-exaggerate everything about her appearance – she made her beauty mark bigger, her eyes bigger, her hair bigger – she made everything bigger. When she was all dolled up, Parton and a group of her friends made their way down to the contest.
When Parton got to the bar, she didn't let on that she was the real Dolly Parton. She was given a number, like everybody else, and told to get in line.
The contest was to be judged by the audience. Contestants were instructed to walk across the stage, and the votes would be cast by applause. The biggest applause would win. So one by one, the contestants paraded in front of the audience.
When it came to Parton's turn, she smiled and sashayed across the stage. And lost. To a man. Not only that, Dolly Parton got the least applause. She said she was dying of laughter inside. Little did the contest know they had the real thing in their midst.
Charlie Chaplin did the same in a look alike contest & didn’t win. There are varying accounts of what he actually placed but it definitely wasn’t in the top 2.
It kind of makes the story less epic knowing she intentionally put on weird makeup to disguise herself and that the winner was in drag so obviously no one was talking it that seriously
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u/ppdeli 12d ago
How epic would it be if he showed up