COVINGTON, Ga. — Georgia helped set the stage for Dolly Parton’s filmmaking legacy, with several movies and TV shows starring the legend filmed in metro Atlanta in the last 15 years.
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One of her first movies produced in Georgia, “Joyful Noise,” had shooting locations across north Georgia, including the Atlanta Civic Center and in Smyrna, Fairburn, Newnan, Peachtree City, Conyers and Decatur.
She starred alongside Queen Latifah in the 2012 movie about a town in Georgia struggling to save its gospel choir.
In 2015, she appeared in and narrated “Dolly Parton’s Coat of Many Colors,” a made-for-TV movie based on her childhood in rural east Tennessee. The project was filmed mostly in Covington and Conyers.
“It was an honor to be with her because she was such a big person all through my life,” said Allen Martin, the Downtown Coordinator for Covington. He was a city police officer at the time and was assigned to her personal security team, spending a whole day with her.
“She was such a delight; she was such a sweet lady,” he said. “And very conversational. Very interested in everybody.”
He said she had a most wonderful and memorable laugh. He said more than 170 movies and TV shows have filmed in Covington over the years, so he’s met his share of famous actors. But there was something especially endearing about Dolly.
“She’s far and away the nicest and most genuine person,” he said. “What you see when she’s interviewing or what you see on TV, she’s even better than that in person.”
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Ann Wildmon, owner of Wild Art Gallery in Covington, remembers stepping outside her shop on a hot summer night a decade ago, and the downtown square had transformed into a Christmas scene, complete with garland and bows on the storefronts.
“And I walked around the corner, there was Dolly Parton,” she said. “And she was dressed in a red suit, like a wool suit, and she was bending down talking to baby Dolly.”
Parton was shooting a scene for “Coat of Many Colors. “And as soon as they said ‘cut,’ she turned around and said, ‘Thank y’all so much for being here, y’all are so sweet,” Wildmon said.
In 2019, Parton was the executive producer for “Heartstrings,” a Netflix series that told the stories of her most beloved songs. The scene about “Jolene” was filmed inside The Tabernacle, a 1911 music hall in downtown Atlanta. In a blog, the staff of The Tabernacle wrote that Parton “was a lovely person and incredibly gracious, humble and thankful towards The Tabernacle team.” The blog said she even performed an acapella version of “9 To 5.”
“I think she was synonymous filming in Georgia, particularly, but in Atlanta absolutely,” said Phillana Williams, the director of the City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Film, Entertainment and Nightlife.
“Georgia didn’t raise her, but it was near and dear to her and a part of her music and film and her artistic expression,” she said. “When you say Dolly Parton, you’ve got to keep Atlanta and Georgia in that picture, because she did a lot here.”
She did have a fondness for Covington, with its idyllic smalltown square that has served as a backdrop for so many movies and TV shows, including “Vampire Diaries,” “Sweet Magnolias,” “Heat of the Night,” and “Dukes of Hazzard.”
“She loves Covington,” Martin said. “She absolutely loved it. And loved the façade of the square and how beautiful our downtown is and very complimentary of what we have.”
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