Silke Jasso
The late Debbie Reynolds spent many decades of her life saving, preserving and auctioning off her large collection of Hollywood memorabilia. Although she tried a few times to memorialize her pieces in a museum, no such plan ever came to fruition. Now, her son Todd Fisher is taking steps to continue her work.
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“I’m doing what I think my mother would want, based on my genetics, based on my upbringing, based on my programming from her,” Fisher said. “And boy, don’t get in my way.”
“She was panicking to save. So she started to say, ‘I’m going to buy everything I can.’ She borrowed money, she spent every penny she had on it, right up to the bitter end. She became obsessed with the idea that it needed to be preserved for future generations,” Fisher said, noting that his mother had a very expansive collection. “At one point, we had 3,000 costumes that represented every Academy Award-winning film that had ever been nominated for Best Production Design or Costume Design since the beginning of the Academy, and beyond. People have no clue how into this she was.”
Despite having auctioned off a good portion of the memorabilia, Reynolds managed to save many of her personal costumes as well as some other valuable items, such as the typewriter from “Citizen Kane.” Moving forward, Fisher hopes such pieces will be a part of a new museum effort. His next step is “to build a little museum at Debbie Reynolds Studios.”
“Temporarily, because I know that a museum is slow-coming,” Fisher said. “I will put that up first, and I will show them the way. Let’s just see what happens.”
