# Dolly Parton quote question **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 8, 2018, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dolly-parton-quote-question/810225 "2018-03-08T06:36:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2018, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dolly-parton-quote-question/810225/1 "2018-03-08T06:36:50Z")
This morning a quote by Dolly Parton popped into my head; I’ve never been able to figure out exactly what she meant. Perhaps you can help. This was about the time that Dolly was pursuing a movie career. She said something about actors just being normal, except for their “big heads”. Did she mean that actors tended to be conceited, or that actors tended to physically have larger heads than normal? I could see it either way. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2018, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dolly-parton-quote-question/810225/2 "2018-03-08T06:39:04Z")
I have no idea how she meant it, but it certainly is both. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2018, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dolly-parton-quote-question/810225/3 "2018-03-08T06:57:42Z")
Hey! Yeah! I heard this when I was a child, and wasn’t entirely sure either. It may be both. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2018, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dolly-parton-quote-question/810225/4 "2018-03-08T07:01:33Z")
And it’s not necissarily that actors’ heads are bigger than normal so much as it is that they are super skinny to offset the “camera adds 5 lbs” thing that their heads looks so big. But yeah, the ego thing is mega too. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2018, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dolly-parton-quote-question/810225/5 "2018-03-08T12:40:13Z")
It wasn’t Dolly Parton, it was Merv Griffin. He repeatedly said that people liked big headed actors on television more than people with smaller heads. That’s why giant headed Pat Sajac and and Vanna White got picked to host “Wheel of Fortune”. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2018, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dolly-parton-quote-question/810225/6 "2018-03-08T12:56:26Z")
Wait. Vanna White has a big _head_? I hadn’t noticed. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2018, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dolly-parton-quote-question/810225/7 "2018-03-08T16:33:14Z")
Oprahs head is exceedingly large.BTW. I think Dolly probably meant conceited. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2018, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dolly-parton-quote-question/810225/8 "2018-03-08T16:38:18Z")
Directors had to use lighting tricks and camera angles to disguise the fact that Marlon Brando’s head was 3 or 4 times the size of a normal person’s head. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2018, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dolly-parton-quote-question/810225/9 "2018-03-08T16:42:47Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Directors had to use lighting tricks and camera angles to disguise the fact that Marlon Brando’s head was 3 or 4 times the size of a normal person’s head. Only until he gained weight. ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2018, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dolly-parton-quote-question/810225/10 "2018-03-08T17:23:30Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > Only until he gained weight. Yeah, he grew into his head. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2018, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dolly-parton-quote-question/810225/11 "2018-03-08T18:37:54Z")
The southern US vernacular meaning of “big head” would be conceited. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2018, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dolly-parton-quote-question/810225/12 "2018-03-08T18:58:55Z")
I saw Chris Berman eating dinner once, and the thing that stuck out to me the most was his enormous head in real life. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2018, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dolly-parton-quote-question/810225/13 "2018-03-08T19:20:28Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > The southern US vernacular meaning of “big head” would be conceited. From the Merk Veterinary Manual: > [@](#): > > “Big head is an acute, infectious disease, caused by Clostridium novyi, C sordellii, or rarely C chauvoei, characterized by a nongaseous, nonhemorrhagic, edematous swelling of the head, face, and neck of young rams. This infection is initiated in young rams by fighting or continual butting of one another.” ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2018, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dolly-parton-quote-question/810225/14 "2018-03-08T20:07:43Z")
This is my favorite Dolly Parton quote (which is probably apocryphal): Dolly was having her handprints and footprints cast into the concrete plaza at Grumman’s Chinese Theatre, which is typical for many celebrities. When a news reporter asks her why she didn’t cast her more famous “appendages” instead, Dolly smiled and replied, “Aw sugar, I didn’t want some small kid to fall in them and get hurt!”