Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5,” the true story behind the anthem (bonus)

**Sarah Gonzalez** (0:00)
Hey, it's Sarah, and this is a bonus Sunday episode because, as we all know, Dolly Parton has sadly passed away. And there's so much to say about her music, her acting career, Dollywood, her business savvy. Today, though, we have the renegade true story behind Dolly Parton's 9to5 anthem. The song was for a movie, and I did not know this before I worked on this episode. The song and movie were based on real people, and a real labor movement formed by a group of secretaries in Boston. We spoke with them and learned how the song and movie and the real life movement all started to feed into each other. This was all recorded back in 2021, but please enjoy my true delight watching Dolly Parton in this movie and how much all the people we interviewed love, love, love this song. But before we turn to our Dolly appreciation, I just want to say, do not let this bonus episode take the place of our usual Friday episode. It is there waiting for you and it is all about the quest to turn tomatoes, basically all fruits, into brands you will pay more for. We hear from the food scientist creating a new type of cherry tomato. That's supposed to be a lot better. And this episode may just change how you see fruit at the grocery store. Scroll down in the feed to find it.
Okay, here you are, 9to5.
This is Planet Money from NPR.

**Sonari Glinton** (1:25)
All right.

**Sarah Gonzalez** (1:25)
All right, so you have your snacks?

**Sonari Glinton** (1:27)
Okay, I have my snacks. Well, I actually have a chicken pot pie.

**Sarah Gonzalez** (1:32)
A chicken pot pie as your movie snack?

**Sonari Glinton** (1:35)
Yeah.

**Sarah Gonzalez** (1:36)
I got string cheese, goldfish crackers and I haven't seen this film.

**Sonari Glinton** (1:41)
That is going to change today because we are watching 9to5, the movie during the workday, the way it was meant to be watched.

**Sarah Gonzalez** (1:50)
Okay.

**Sonari Glinton** (1:50)
Ready?

**Sarah Gonzalez** (1:51)
Three, two, one, play. I don't even think I knew that 9to5, the song had a movie. I thought it was a song.

**Sonari Glinton** (2:04)
What you got to love is like how long opening credits take.

**Sarah Gonzalez** (2:12)
I'm excited. I'm getting into it.

**SPEAKER_3** (2:25)
Well, welcome to the front lines.

**Sarah Gonzalez** (2:28)
Lily Tomlin. I love her.

**SPEAKER_3** (2:30)
Oh, I wanted to ask you about my salary.

**Sarah Gonzalez** (2:33)
Eugene Fonda looks so good.
She always looks good. Mr. Hart, I've told you before I'm a married woman.

**SPEAKER_3** (2:41)
Dolly Parton is in it?

**Sonari Glinton** (2:43)
This is her debut film. Sarah, here's what you got to know about 9to5.
It is truly a movie of its era. It's one of the first movies that was set in the work world. It's about clerical workers, secretaries, a workforce which in 1980 was predominantly women. Most of the bosses were men, which leads to all sorts of problems. Dolly, please, look, I want you.

**SPEAKER_3** (3:10)
Oh, for heaven's sake, what are you doing, Mr. Hart?

**Sarah Gonzalez** (3:13)
A little sexual harassment in the workplace?

**Sonari Glinton** (3:16)
Well, it gets worse.

**Sarah Gonzalez** (3:18)
So they've gotten to men being promoted over women when they're not as qualified, getting coffee for the guy.

**Sonari Glinton** (3:26)
What I love about this film is that they take these issues and they handle them with comedy. The problems are played for laughs, like the main plot of the film, getting revenge against your boss.

**Sarah Gonzalez** (3:36)
Lily, Jane, Dolly, their characters all get high one day and fantasize about killing their boss. They end up accidentally tying him up one day, and while he's tied up, they take over the business, they're running things. By the end of the movie, the boss gets free, he shows up at the office, and with the women in charge, the workplace looked totally different.

**SPEAKER_3** (4:00)
What are all these people doing here? It's not even nine o'clock. It's called flexible hours. People set their own time. Well, some work eight to four, some work 10 to six, some work nine to five. Not less absenteeism.

**Sarah Gonzalez** (4:11)
People really like it.

**Sonari Glinton** (4:12)
No, do they? They make a bunch of workplace improvements. There's a daycare center at work, flexible hours, equal pay, and they all end up sticking, well, except the equal pay.

**Sarah Gonzalez** (4:22)
That one was never going to stand a chance.

**Sonari Glinton** (4:25)
Yeah, exactly. But the others do stick. So at the end of the film, Lily, Jane and Dolly, they all pop champagne.