How a Dream Led Me to Dolly Parton.

How a Dream Led Me to Dolly Parton

by Catherine Ann Jones

One night I dreamt of an angel returned to earth because he was not yet ready for heaven. Denied his wings because he was still too attached to earthly pleasures, he was asked to undergo a trial on earth, to earn his wings. I recorded the dream in my journal then thought no more about it. About ten days later, my agent had a call from megastar Dolly Parton’s company. Dolly had been scouting for a good Christmas story for television, and after two years, had not found one she liked. Dolly liked my first movie. Because of the success of The Christmas Wife, they thought I might come up with something. Immediately, I thought of the angel dream. I switched genders from male to female angel, and while driving to the meeting, developed the story, set it two weeks before Christmas, and called it,

Now, please understand that I do not read magazines or Variety, or other books which gossip about what stars like. I was simply guided by my intuition — a faculty I have come to trust far more than the rational brain. So, I was not aware that Dolly Parton is simply mad about angels. I walked into her Hollywood home and saw angel sculptures in the garden, a tapestry of angels on the wall, and little angel ornaments placed here and there on several tables. Eureka! I was home free. This story would sell. And, it did, to Disney Studios for the one and only Dolly Parton (and Roddy McDowell). Unlikely Angel had the highest ratings when it aired on CBS — beaten only by the NFL football game. Never underestimate the popularity of football! And never forget the power of a cultural icon like Dolly Parton.

I think upon meeting her, I remember how she made me feel in the first minutes as though we had been friends for years. Her warmth and cheer drew you in and you knew that working with Dolly would be a memorable experience – as it was.

In my experience, there is no neat formula for creative success. The little bugger keeps changing on you. Yes, craft matters but it can never, ever replace the Source of creativity which lies deep within the psyche of each individual, waiting to be tapped. As in dreams, creativity arises from the unconscious. Our job is to create an empty space in our conscious minds for the unconscious to emerge with its bountiful gifts. We have only to allow the process to flow. And above all, try not to separate creative work from life as George Balanchine had taught me years before. To live or write only from the logical brain — one part of yourself — results in a fragmented story as well as a fragmented life.

In the best art, form is the outcome of feeling, not thinking. Thinking — though a valuable tool — is only handmaiden to a much deeper process. And when you trust this process, there are indeed invisible helpers at work when you least expect them! And even a dream can lead you to Dolly Parton!