Dolly Parton’s dinner theater spectacle Dolly Parton’s Dixie Stampede has existed for around 30 years. For its 2018 season, the word ‘Dixie’ has been removed from the title
Country singer Dolly Parton has discarded ‘Dixie’ from the name of a popular dinner show.
From now on, the attraction will simply be known as Dolly Parton’s Stampede.
Parton said in a statement on January 10 that the name change was spurred by changing attitudes and ‘will remove any confusion or concerns about our shows’ as the company that operates the attraction expands into new markets.
World Choice Investments LLC currently operates the Stampede dinner show for Parton in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and Branson, Missouri.
World Choice spokesman Pete Owens said Parton, 71, is referring to shifting attitudes about the word ‘Dixie’ and its connotations.
‘It has added to confusion in discussions about the expansion of our dinner theaters to new locations across the country and around the world,’ he said in a statement.
‘Some of our guest comments and comments of developers, in markets around the country with whom we spoke, show a misconception of what our show is. They do not realize The Stampede is a very patriotic, spectacular, horse show with 32 beautiful horses as the stars.’
The move come’s the company said in a statement, amid shifting attitudes about the word. The show, in a broad way, charts the history of the United States and features a lighthearted take on a ‘North vs South’ rivalry
Dixie is an informal term for the Southern United States; in particular, it refers to the states that joined the Confederacy. Pictured is a scene from a performance
Dixie is an informal word meant to refer to the Southern United States and, in particular, the eleven states that formally joined the Confederacy (two states – Missouri and Kentucky, in theory joined but were never truly controlled by the secessionist movement).
‘Where the word Dixie came from is kind of a mystery,’ historian Jack Neely told WBIR.
Neely said the word has alternately been considered as a potential bastardization of the word ‘Dixon,’ as in ‘Mason-Dixon Line,’ and as an Americanized version of the French word ‘dix,’ meaning 10, as in a $10 bill from the then- still largely French-speaking city of New Orleans.
The show formerly known as Dolly Parton’s Dixie Stampede is a dinner theater production that includes horseback riders, musical numbers and special effects. It has been around for about 30 years.
Its story line is centered on a North vs South rivalry and also described white settlers’ colonization of Native American lands.
The show takes place on a stage made up to resemble a plantation.
Audience members choose to sit on either the ‘North’ or ‘South’ side and bathrooms feature doors emblazoned with ‘Northerners Only’ and ‘Southerners Only’.
The show has locations in Branson, Missouri and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Pictured is the show in Tennessee. The removal of the word Dixie comes amid calls to remove Confederate monuments across the country and after a culture writer wrote a damning account of the performance
Parton, 71, is pictured in Midtown Manhattan in October 2017
In August, culture writer Aisha Harris provided a rather damning first-hand account of her experience at a ‘Dixie Stampede’ for Slate amid the violent clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia over the removal of a statue of Confederate general Robert E Lee.
‘Dolly’s Dixie Stampede has been a success not just because people love Dolly Parton, but because the South has always been afforded the chance to rewrite its own history—not just through its own efforts, but through the rest of the country turning a blind eye.
‘Even though the South is built upon the foundation of slavery, a campy show produced by a well-meaning country superstar can make-believe it’s not.
‘We’d prefer to pretend, to let our deepest sins be transmuted into gauzy kitsch—and no one blinks an eye because that’s what they truly want,’ Harris concluded.
‘Dolly Parton is right about one thing: Dixie Stampede is as American as America gets.’
Parton’s company responded with a statement at the time that read in part: ‘Throughout Dixie Stampede’s thirty years of providing family entertainment, we strive to constantly improve the guest experience at our shows.
‘Through that process, we survey our guests at every show. Accordingly, we will evaluate the information provided by Ms. Harris in her Slate.com article in regard to our Pigeon Forge and Branson operations.’
The removal of the word ‘Dixie’ from Dolly Parton’s Dixie Stampede has sent Twitter into a bit of a frenzy
Harris’s article was not explicitly mentioned as a reason for the name change.
Meanwhile, a debate is raging on Twitter over whether the decision should be applauded as progressive or derided as a sign of political correctness gone too far.
SassyPatriotGirl wrote: @DollyParton don’t let the [liberals] do this to your heritage!!! Don’t let them shame the heart of Dixie!’
Another tweeter commented: ‘Glorifying the grand old days of the [South] during slavery is offensive to me. So offensive to so many people that they outlawed it 150 years ago.’
Employing the logical fallacy of slippery slope, Miss Reb foreboded: ‘@DollyParton are y’all taking the nativity out of the show too? Screw all of you that had a part to play in changing the name and removing #Dixie. #boycottdolly’
And Laura Howard, not directly commenting on the controversy but nonetheless offering her opinion on the day the news broke, wrote: ‘@DollyParton my granddaughter Payton is 7 her teacher asked her who would she like to meet that is famous she replied Dolly Parton because she loves her acting and singing and she is close to [God]’
In the past two years there have been widespread and controversial calls to remove monuments to the Confederacy across the United States.