Remembering Dolly Parton's star turn at Chicago's Rainbo Club
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Dolly Parton takes a bath in a scene from the film "Straight Talk" in 1992. Photo: Buena Vista/Getty Images
Dolly Parton performed in Chicago several times, but one of her most memorable local star turns came on a tiny stage in a Wicker Park dive bar.
The latest: The musician and actress died Tuesday at age 80.
The big picture: In the summer of 1991, Parton came to Chicago to film "Straight Talk," opposite James Woods.
- She played Shirlee Kenyon, a dance instructor who moves to Chicago, gets a receptionist job at fictional radio station WNDY and accidentally winds up on the air as an advice-show host.
Zoom in: The film was shot all over Chicago, including Marshall Field's, the Wabash Avenue Bridge and the Field Museum.
- But for one memorable scene, Parton took to the tiny stage at Wicker Park's Rainbo Club to sing and dance.
Behind the scenes: Jim Garbe, Rainbo's manager at the time, had a front-row seat.
- "When she first walked in for the shoot, she stopped on a dime and said, 'Wow. What a perfect little dump,'" Garbe tells Axios.
- Producers were worried about shuttling Parton, in heels, up and down from the tiny stage, Garbe says, so they kept her up there between takes.
- "She had like inch-and-a-half-long false fingernails, and she would take her two hands and do this very cool percussive beat with her nails scraping against each other, and she started singing," Garbe recalls. "And it was just heavenly. It was so magnificent and perfect. I couldn't believe it."
Flashback: Parton told the Windy City Times in 2011 that shooting the film was "one of the best times of my life."
- "It is a great city. Even when it's cold, the people are still warm."
Context: Rainbo was becoming a hub of Chicago's alternative rock scene in the early 1990s, frequented by musicians including Urge Overkill, Veruca Salt and Liz Phair.
Bottom line: Dolly called Chicago one of the best times of her life. At Rainbo, at least, the feeling was mutual.