There’s no place like home for the holidays and that is why Dolly created Dollywood’s Smoky Mountain Christmasfest. Dolly’s love of Christmas is represented in this one-of-a-kind festival. It is complete with millions of Christmas lights and holiday entertainment for the whole family. Dolly talks about the festival explaining,
“I just love Christmas here in my Smoky Mountain home and I wanted a place where families could spend time together and make some priceless memories. So we strung two million lights and transformed Dollywood into a magical winter wonderland.”
Also added in 1990 was Imagination Station, an interactive children’s play zone in the Country Fair area.
Dolly starred as Truvy Jones in the 1989 film, "Steel Magnolias." The all-star cast also included Sally Field, Julia Roberts, Shirley MacLaine, Olympia Dukakis and Daryl Hannah. Dolly talked about why she chose the role,
"Since I'm not an actress, and don't exactly know what all that even means - the technical end of it - I took on Truvy 'cause I knew she was close enough to me, where I could play her real well.”
Olympia Dukakis was on hand to accept the award on behalf of the cast and producers. "Steel Magnolias" shared this award with co-winner "Batman" starring Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson.
The 16th Annual People’s Choice Awards were held at Universal Studios in Hollywood, CA. The show aired on the CBS network.
Dolly appeared on the hit CBS show "Designing Women" in a special one-hour episode which aired on Jan. 1, 1990. "The First Day of the Last Decade of the Entire 20th Century" centered around the birth of character Charlene’s (Jean Smart) baby Olivia.
*Photos courtesy of Designing Women Online
Dolly came to Charlene in a dream in which she is Charlene’s "guardian movie star" and reassures her about the baby and how the members of Charlene’s family who passed on will be there in spirit to see the child grow up. Later in the episode, Dolly, as a spirit, shows up again, and sings "Somewhere Out There," just as an elderly person in the hospital passes away and baby Olivia is born. The episode was nominated for several awards including an Emmy.
"Kenny, Dolly and Willie: Something Inside So Strong" was taped as part of a live concert for NASA employees and their families. During the show, the three friends took turns singing each other’s hits in a medley of songs which included "Two Doors Down" and "Real Love."
The special’s finale featured Kenny, Dolly and Willie singing "Something Inside So Strong." It became NBC's highest rated variety show and won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Variety or Music Series.
Dollywood’s fourth season was celebrated with the opening of the park’s first outdoor roller coaster, Thunder Express! As Dolly released hundreds of lightning bolt balloons, she launched the first ride out of the station.
Situated into the mountainside of the park's rugged terrain, Thunder Express at Dollywood was a mine themed roller coaster featuring two trains. Dolly said,
“My brothers and sisters and me came up with some pretty odd contraptions when we were little, but our imaginations had never conjured up anything quite like this.”
