Long before Dolly Parton became one of the most beloved women in American entertainment, there was a time when she could walk through New York City without anyone recognizing her. She was still a young country singer, still trying to establish herself, and she certainly did not have the money or fame she would later possess. But during one early trip to the Big Apple, Dolly and her childhood friend Judy Ogle discovered that standing out in New York could come with an unexpected price.

Dolly had actually visited New York once before, as a teenager on a 1964 senior-class trip from Sevier County High School. She remembered being fascinated by the city and amused by the Broadway musical Hello, Dolly! appearing everywhere. But the hotel incident happened several years later, when Dolly was beginning to make a name for herself in country music.

Dolly recalled the story during a 2005 appearance on Late Night with Conan O’Brien. She explained that she and Judy decided they wanted to visit New York because, as young country girls, they naturally wanted to see the big city. They didn’t have much money, so the two friends shared a hotel room. And, in Dolly’s own humorous description, they were dressed in the kind of glamorous style that had already become part of her identity.

Then came the misunderstanding.

According to Dolly, the hotel staff assumed that she and Judy were prostitutes. They went out sightseeing, expecting to return to their room later that evening. Instead, when they came back, they discovered that their luggage had been removed from the room and placed in the hallway. They had effectively been locked out of the hotel.

For most people, being thrown out of a hotel in a strange city would have been humiliating. Dolly, however, eventually turned the entire experience into one of those stories she could tell with a laugh decades later. At the time, though, she and Judy had to figure out what to do next. They were allowed to leave their belongings in the lobby while they made arrangements to leave, and Dolly later recalled that they ended up going to the airport and waiting to return home.

But the hotel incident wasn’t even the strangest part of that trip.

While Dolly and Judy were walking around New York, a man began harassing them. Dolly later recalled that he kept trying to approach her despite her warnings. She was frightened and angry, and she told him that if he touched her again, she would shoot him. She happened to be carrying a gun in her purse at the time. The story became one of Dolly’s favorite examples of how a young woman from the Tennessee mountains suddenly found herself trying to navigate the streets of New York City.

Years later, Dolly connected that experience to one of the most memorable lines from the 1980 film 9 to 5. In the movie, her character threatens her womanizing boss with the unforgettable image of changing him “from a rooster to a hen with one shot.” The line was shaped by Dolly’s own memory of being harassed in New York.

There is something almost ironic about the story when you know what happened later.

The young woman whom a New York hotel allegedly mistook for a prostitute would eventually become one of the most respected and successful entertainers in America. The style that contributed to the misunderstanding — the big hair, heavy makeup, tight clothing and unmistakable glamour — would become part of the Dolly Parton image that millions of people came to love.

And Dolly never apologized for it.

She had discovered that appearance could influence how people treated you. Instead of allowing other people’s opinions to change her, she turned the very image they misunderstood into her trademark. Her famous philosophy was simple: she knew exactly how she wanted to look, and she wasn’t going to let other people decide that for her.

The funniest part of the story may be what happened afterward.

Dolly eventually changed her opinion of New York completely. Years later, she returned to the city as a star and was welcomed in a very different way. In 1978, Mayor Ed Koch presented her with the key to New York City. The woman who had once been locked out of a hotel was now being officially welcomed by the city she had once sworn never to visit again.

That transformation feels almost too perfect to be real.

First, New York looked at a young Dolly Parton and misunderstood her.

Years later, New York looked at the same woman and honored her.

And Dolly, being Dolly, eventually turned the embarrassing memory into a funny story instead of carrying bitterness from it.

She didn’t let one humiliating night define her.

She turned it into a story.

Then she turned the story into a laugh.

And eventually, she returned to New York as Dolly Parton — not the unknown young singer who had been thrown out of a hotel, but the woman the whole world had finally learned to recognize.

Video