Wednesday, June 8, 2011

DEBBIE REYNOLDS' PRIVATE RECEPTION FOR HER COSTUMES







Debbie Reynolds gave a private reception for all of us to see her extraordinary costume collection that is being auctioned off by Profiles in History. Over 30 years she has collected the most famous movie costumes in history--4000 pieces--and, at her own expense, maintained them. Let me emphasize 30 years because that's how long she has been asking Hollywood Guilds, The Motion Picture Academy, studios, and wealthy execs, producers and directors to fund a museum. Everyone has turned her down, and now she's made the very difficult decision to sell them. I am personally heartbroken for her, and furious at the entire industry. There are so many treasures--Marilyn Monroe's white dress, Joan Crawford waitress uniform, Audrey's "My Fair Lady" outfit, Julie from "Sound of Music," Garbo, Hepburn, Judy Garland, "Gigi," Brando---I can't possibly touch the surface of what she has. I stood there in the middle of all of it and cried. God Bless You, Debbie.

2 comments:

Nancy-Jean said...

Yes, indeed. Debbie has done so much to preserve the treasures of her trade and shame on the industry for not caring about its own history!

Raber Umphenour said...

What a shame - - thank goodness for Debbie Reynolds. I had heard of her trying to do this for years and years - Many of these items would have probably been lost like so many other treasures. It's a shame that through bureaucratic resistance, or just plain being cheap, that there was not some way for the top studios to pool together some limited resources for a museum. It would have been only a marginal sum comparably.

If it was anywhere in downtown LA it would have been a major tourist attraction. I guess they couldn't be bothered - which doesn't speak well for their sense of reverence for the past - which we should all have. We are, after all, standing on the shoulders of our predecessors -