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Debbie Reynolds was the girl next door who became film royalty, | 0:00:16 | 0:00:20 | |
the celluloid sweetheart who got the guy | 0:00:20 | 0:00:23 | |
in one of cinema's greatest musicals... | 0:00:23 | 0:00:26 | |
and lost her husband in one of Hollywood's greatest scandals. | 0:00:26 | 0:00:30 | |
And in later years, when her own star was slightly fading, | 0:00:31 | 0:00:36 | |
she found herself mother to the most famous Princess in the movie galaxy. | 0:00:36 | 0:00:42 | |
Throughout the ups and downs of a career that spanned seven decades, | 0:00:44 | 0:00:49 | |
Debbie loved the world of show business as much as any fan. | 0:00:49 | 0:00:52 | |
She shared her story many times over the years, | 0:00:53 | 0:00:57 | |
knowing it was as fascinating as any movie script. | 0:00:57 | 0:01:00 | |
It was a tale that started one May day in 1948. | 0:01:02 | 0:01:07 | |
Her family were poor and had originally come from El Paso, Texas. | 0:01:07 | 0:01:12 | |
But the search for work had meant a move to Burbank, | 0:01:12 | 0:01:16 | |
just half an hour's ride from the Hollywood sign and it was there | 0:01:16 | 0:01:21 | |
that Debbie entered a talent contest | 0:01:21 | 0:01:23 | |
that altered the course of her life completely. | 0:01:23 | 0:01:26 | |
I entered this contest because they gave | 0:01:28 | 0:01:30 | |
a free blouse and scarf away and it was a silk blouse. | 0:01:30 | 0:01:33 | |
Well, I never had a silk blouse in my whole life and I thought, | 0:01:33 | 0:01:36 | |
"Just enter the contest" - I knew I wouldn't win. | 0:01:36 | 0:01:39 | |
That's silly, because I didn't do anything. | 0:01:39 | 0:01:40 | |
I didn't sing or dance, I was just silly, you know? | 0:01:40 | 0:01:44 | |
I played the record and impersonated the record, | 0:01:44 | 0:01:46 | |
I used to do Betty Hutton and I'd play the record | 0:01:46 | 0:01:49 | |
and then I'd mouth it and Beatrice Kay, | 0:01:49 | 0:01:52 | |
who did silly songs like Bird in a Gilded Cage. | 0:01:52 | 0:01:56 | |
She played kind of mad people, like Bea Lillie type, you know? | 0:01:56 | 0:02:00 | |
Anyway, long story, I entered the contest, | 0:02:00 | 0:02:03 | |
a talent scout was there, took me to Warner Brothers, | 0:02:03 | 0:02:05 | |
they made a screen test of me, which I thought was very funny, | 0:02:05 | 0:02:08 | |
so I just laughed my way through and they signed me, shockingly enough. | 0:02:08 | 0:02:12 | |
And that started and I was 16, then. | 0:02:12 | 0:02:15 | |
That contract changed everything. | 0:02:18 | 0:02:21 | |
Debbie was signed by first Warner Brothers and then MGM, | 0:02:21 | 0:02:26 | |
joining a roster of young actors like Elizabeth Taylor, | 0:02:26 | 0:02:30 | |
who the studios developed and moulded into stars. | 0:02:30 | 0:02:34 | |
And the first thing Debbie had changed was her name. | 0:02:34 | 0:02:38 | |
-TEXAS ACCENT: -My name is Mary Frances, cos originally, | 0:02:38 | 0:02:41 | |
I'm from Texas and if you're from Texas, everybody's called | 0:02:41 | 0:02:44 | |
Elizabeth, Sue, Lou-Ellen, Mary Frances, somethin' like that. | 0:02:44 | 0:02:47 | |
-How did you get Debbie, how did Debbie come about? -Well, Debbie... | 0:02:49 | 0:02:52 | |
See... I was Mary Frances. | 0:02:52 | 0:02:55 | |
Mr Warner, Jack Warner, of course, | 0:02:55 | 0:02:58 | |
he's very strong, he's in charge. | 0:02:58 | 0:03:01 | |
You know, the heads of the studios were Louis B Mayer | 0:03:01 | 0:03:03 | |
and Zanuck and all those famous people, so he didn't like Mary, | 0:03:03 | 0:03:06 | |
he said it was too simple. | 0:03:06 | 0:03:08 | |
Frances was boring and Mary Frances was really awful, | 0:03:08 | 0:03:11 | |
so he said, "You're going to be called Debbie Morgan, | 0:03:11 | 0:03:15 | |
"because I had a dog named Debbie and Dennis Morgan is a big star." | 0:03:15 | 0:03:20 | |
So I said, "I don't think so. | 0:03:20 | 0:03:22 | |
"I'm not going to be Debbie Morgan, I don't know who that is. | 0:03:22 | 0:03:24 | |
"That's not me, I'm Mary Frances Reynolds", so he said, "Well, | 0:03:24 | 0:03:27 | |
"you'll have to be Debbie, I wouldn't change it." | 0:03:27 | 0:03:30 | |
I said, "Did you ever change your name from your father's name?" | 0:03:30 | 0:03:33 | |
And of course he had, so it didn't do any good. | 0:03:33 | 0:03:36 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:03:36 | 0:03:38 | |
And were you really excited at being in the movies? | 0:03:38 | 0:03:41 | |
No, I was saving my money to go back to school to be a gym teacher. | 0:03:41 | 0:03:44 | |
Gym teacher, of course. | 0:03:44 | 0:03:45 | |
You weren't stunned and knocked out by it? | 0:03:45 | 0:03:48 | |
Well, I thought it was wonderful for other people, | 0:03:48 | 0:03:51 | |
but it didn't make sense for me. | 0:03:51 | 0:03:53 | |
I mean, Mary Frances Reynolds to be in the movies didn't seem... | 0:03:53 | 0:03:56 | |
But Debbie - Debbie came up in this movie, Three Little Words. | 0:03:56 | 0:03:59 | |
-Let's have a look, just a little part. -SQUEAKILY: -Boop-boop-a-doop! | 0:03:59 | 0:04:03 | |
Try it this way... | 0:04:03 | 0:04:04 | |
# Da da-da-da da da da da da. # | 0:04:04 | 0:04:07 | |
That ought to fix it. | 0:04:07 | 0:04:09 | |
I don't think so. | 0:04:09 | 0:04:10 | |
# Da da-da-da da da da da da. # | 0:04:10 | 0:04:13 | |
Too many notes. | 0:04:13 | 0:04:15 | |
It's NOT too many notes! Look... Hey, fellas... | 0:04:15 | 0:04:18 | |
Can we borrow your piano just a minute? | 0:04:18 | 0:04:21 | |
Listen. | 0:04:21 | 0:04:22 | |
# I want to be loved by you Just you | 0:04:24 | 0:04:28 | |
# And nobody else but you | 0:04:28 | 0:04:30 | |
# I want to be loved by you alone | 0:04:31 | 0:04:36 | |
# Boop-boop-a-doop! # | 0:04:36 | 0:04:38 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:04:38 | 0:04:39 | |
# I want to be kissed by you | 0:04:42 | 0:04:44 | |
# Just you and nobody else but you | 0:04:44 | 0:04:48 | |
# I want to be kissed by you alone | 0:04:49 | 0:04:53 | |
# Boop-boop-a-doop! # | 0:04:54 | 0:04:56 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:04:57 | 0:05:00 | |
And that was the first one, that was you, Red Skelton and Fred Astaire. | 0:05:03 | 0:05:08 | |
Weren't they cute, Red Skelton? | 0:05:08 | 0:05:11 | |
That was actually Helen Kane's voice who did that. | 0:05:11 | 0:05:14 | |
Now I can do it cos I do impressions of everybody now, | 0:05:14 | 0:05:16 | |
but that was really her voice and her name was Helen Kane, | 0:05:16 | 0:05:19 | |
not that I knew that, because it's a long time ago. | 0:05:19 | 0:05:21 | |
-But that's the way she talked... -SQUEAKILY: -"Boop-boop-bi-doop." Really, like that. | 0:05:21 | 0:05:25 | |
THEY SPEAK IN SQUEAKY VOICES | 0:05:25 | 0:05:26 | |
It sounded like she swallowed her tongue and just couldn't get it out. | 0:05:26 | 0:05:30 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:05:30 | 0:05:31 | |
It's clear from that exchange with Terry Wogan Debbie always had | 0:05:36 | 0:05:40 | |
a knack for comedy and that is further demonstrated | 0:05:40 | 0:05:44 | |
in a much-loved moment from the 1950 film Two Weeks with Love. | 0:05:44 | 0:05:49 | |
# "Aba, daba, daba, daba, daba, daba, dab" | 0:05:49 | 0:05:51 | |
# Means "Monk, I love but you" | 0:05:51 | 0:05:53 | |
# "Baba, daba, dab" in monkey talk | 0:05:53 | 0:05:54 | |
# Means "Chimp, I love you, too" | 0:05:54 | 0:05:56 | |
# Then the big baboon, one night in June | 0:05:56 | 0:05:58 | |
# He married them, and very soon | 0:05:58 | 0:06:00 | |
# They went upon their aba, daba honey...moon... # | 0:06:00 | 0:06:03 | |
It seems to me that you made the transition from being | 0:06:14 | 0:06:17 | |
"Little Miss Amateur" to seasoned trooper very quickly, | 0:06:17 | 0:06:20 | |
seeing again your routine | 0:06:20 | 0:06:22 | |
in Aba Daba Honeymoon. | 0:06:22 | 0:06:25 | |
I was just a clown, I think that everyone in life is born with | 0:06:25 | 0:06:29 | |
a personality - if you're boring or you're interesting | 0:06:29 | 0:06:32 | |
or you're funny or you're not. You can learn a lot of things in life, | 0:06:32 | 0:06:35 | |
but I don't think that you can be given timing | 0:06:35 | 0:06:38 | |
and you can't be funny unless you're funny. | 0:06:38 | 0:06:41 | |
When I say funny, I don't mean rolling around falling on the floor, | 0:06:41 | 0:06:46 | |
but I mean appreciation of humour | 0:06:46 | 0:06:49 | |
and finding things that are funny within a situation, | 0:06:49 | 0:06:53 | |
whereas you could look at it very straight-on and dead serious. | 0:06:53 | 0:06:57 | |
You know people like that. | 0:06:57 | 0:06:58 | |
I always just thought everything was terrifically funny | 0:06:58 | 0:07:01 | |
and when I was a kid, I was really a nut. | 0:07:01 | 0:07:03 | |
God was very good to me, that he gave me a sense of humour | 0:07:03 | 0:07:08 | |
and that I think was what came across when I was young. | 0:07:08 | 0:07:13 | |
Despite that song and dance routine, | 0:07:15 | 0:07:18 | |
Debbie was a far from obvious choice | 0:07:18 | 0:07:20 | |
for one of the lead roles in Singing In The Rain, | 0:07:20 | 0:07:25 | |
which demanded that she held her own alongside the dancing geniuses | 0:07:25 | 0:07:29 | |
that were Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor. | 0:07:29 | 0:07:32 | |
How did you get the part for that? | 0:07:32 | 0:07:34 | |
Well, Gene Kelly has one version and Debbie has another version. | 0:07:35 | 0:07:38 | |
Gene says that he picked me and he saw my screen test and that, | 0:07:38 | 0:07:42 | |
in fact, that's how it happened. | 0:07:42 | 0:07:43 | |
Now, I remember walking into this huge office and Mr Mayer was | 0:07:43 | 0:07:47 | |
a rather short, plumpish fellow and he had a little bit of an accent. | 0:07:47 | 0:07:52 | |
I don't know if it was Hungarian... | 0:07:52 | 0:07:53 | |
-ADOPTS ACCENT: -It was a little accent. | 0:07:53 | 0:07:56 | |
He said to me, "Now Debbie, | 0:07:56 | 0:07:58 | |
"you're going to be in a picture with Gene Kelly." | 0:07:58 | 0:08:01 | |
And, uh... I mean, I was shocked, thrilled, surprised. | 0:08:01 | 0:08:06 | |
Didn't know what that meant, to do what? So then he says... | 0:08:06 | 0:08:10 | |
"And he's coming to meet you and he'll love you and you're in | 0:08:10 | 0:08:13 | |
"the movie, it's called Singing in the Rain." | 0:08:13 | 0:08:15 | |
At that moment, Gene Kelly comes in the office and he sits down | 0:08:15 | 0:08:18 | |
and you know, Gene was always full of it and in those days... | 0:08:18 | 0:08:21 | |
-Full of it? -Yes. Thirtysomething, like, very young - huge star. | 0:08:21 | 0:08:25 | |
You know? So he sits down | 0:08:25 | 0:08:27 | |
and I remember Mr Mayer saying to him, | 0:08:27 | 0:08:29 | |
"And Gene, I want you to meet your leading lady, Debbie Reynolds," | 0:08:29 | 0:08:32 | |
and Gene just... | 0:08:32 | 0:08:34 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:08:34 | 0:08:36 | |
..stared at me, like, "Who? SHE is? This is it?" You know? | 0:08:36 | 0:08:40 | |
-That's what -I -remember and I think I remember RIGHT, so THERE, Gene. | 0:08:40 | 0:08:45 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:08:45 | 0:08:47 | |
# All I do is dream of you... # | 0:08:49 | 0:08:51 | |
Debbie was always a fighter | 0:08:51 | 0:08:52 | |
and behind the happy grin was grit and determination. | 0:08:52 | 0:08:56 | |
But she needed help from another screen legend to get through | 0:08:56 | 0:09:00 | |
those punishing dance routines. | 0:09:00 | 0:09:03 | |
And then Fred Astaire was working next door and one day, | 0:09:04 | 0:09:07 | |
when I was sobbing under the piano, I mean, | 0:09:07 | 0:09:09 | |
really just sobbing away and everybody had gone to lunch, | 0:09:09 | 0:09:11 | |
I was just blubbering, | 0:09:11 | 0:09:13 | |
"I can't do it, I'll never be able to do it, why did I...? | 0:09:13 | 0:09:15 | |
"I want to go home! | 0:09:15 | 0:09:16 | |
"I want to be a gym teacher!" Well, Mr... | 0:09:16 | 0:09:19 | |
I didn't know who it was, but some legs walked by the piano | 0:09:19 | 0:09:21 | |
and said, "Who's crying underneath there?" | 0:09:21 | 0:09:23 | |
"It's just me..." "Well, what's the matter?" | 0:09:23 | 0:09:26 | |
"I'm never going to be to learn how to dance like this and I'm just..." | 0:09:26 | 0:09:29 | |
He says, "Debbie, this is Mr Astaire". | 0:09:29 | 0:09:31 | |
He gives me his hand, he pulls me out and he says, | 0:09:31 | 0:09:33 | |
"I'm going to let you watch me rehearse." | 0:09:33 | 0:09:36 | |
He never let anybody watch him rehearse, | 0:09:36 | 0:09:38 | |
he had a guard at the door and he worked with a drum | 0:09:38 | 0:09:41 | |
and he had his cane. | 0:09:41 | 0:09:43 | |
And he never let you watch him rehearse, | 0:09:43 | 0:09:45 | |
so he let me watch and I sat at the door, | 0:09:45 | 0:09:47 | |
on the floor and I watched Mr Astaire rehearse | 0:09:47 | 0:09:51 | |
and just sweat and go crazy and get frustrated and it was very hard | 0:09:51 | 0:09:55 | |
and he turned to me, and he said, "Now, you see? | 0:09:55 | 0:09:57 | |
"See, this is tough work, it will never be easy. | 0:09:58 | 0:10:02 | |
"Just get back in there and go rehearse. Stop crying!" | 0:10:02 | 0:10:06 | |
So I stopped crying, wiped my nose and learned how to dance. | 0:10:06 | 0:10:11 | |
Well, you certainly did dance and the memorable scene, of course, | 0:10:11 | 0:10:14 | |
when you're singing Good Morning with Donald and with Gene, jumping | 0:10:14 | 0:10:17 | |
over the couches and things - did that take a long time to get right? | 0:10:17 | 0:10:21 | |
Oh, yes! | 0:10:21 | 0:10:22 | |
Well, to hit it at the same time and then it | 0:10:22 | 0:10:25 | |
has to be timed just right and then of course the front flips, | 0:10:25 | 0:10:29 | |
so the rollover had to be the same, exact same time. | 0:10:29 | 0:10:33 | |
Oh, we rehearsed that. | 0:10:33 | 0:10:35 | |
Gene didn't have to rehearse as much of course and Donald didn't either, | 0:10:35 | 0:10:38 | |
but I was a gymnast, so I was pretty good, I was very strong | 0:10:38 | 0:10:42 | |
and that I could learn rather quickly, compared to the steps. | 0:10:42 | 0:10:46 | |
I'd say we rehearsed that number two months, just the one number. | 0:10:46 | 0:10:49 | |
And then when you actually came to film it? | 0:10:49 | 0:10:51 | |
The whole thing was six months. | 0:10:51 | 0:10:53 | |
Filming it? | 0:10:53 | 0:10:55 | |
Oh, we shot that many, many times. | 0:10:55 | 0:10:56 | |
I don't know - 40 times? | 0:10:56 | 0:10:58 | |
And then Gene printed the first take! | 0:10:58 | 0:11:01 | |
HE LAUGHS | 0:11:01 | 0:11:02 | |
He was a perfectionist, but he was right. | 0:11:03 | 0:11:05 | |
INSTRUMENTAL SECTION FROM Good Morning | 0:11:05 | 0:11:08 | |
Believe it or not, those dance scenes weren't the only tough ones | 0:11:35 | 0:11:39 | |
Debbie had to get through. | 0:11:39 | 0:11:41 | |
At the end of the whole movie, | 0:11:41 | 0:11:42 | |
we're in front of this big signboard and it's the end, | 0:11:42 | 0:11:45 | |
so Gene Kelly kisses of course Kathy Selden, the young girl. | 0:11:45 | 0:11:49 | |
Well, I had never heard of any other kissing | 0:11:49 | 0:11:52 | |
and so Gene Kelly was kissing me | 0:11:52 | 0:11:53 | |
and all of a sudden, I felt something else. | 0:11:53 | 0:11:55 | |
And...I didn't know what that was, you see. | 0:11:56 | 0:11:59 | |
And it was called French kissing, I believe. | 0:11:59 | 0:12:02 | |
And of course I screamed in horror, | 0:12:02 | 0:12:05 | |
"Ah! What is that? Eurgh!" | 0:12:05 | 0:12:09 | |
And I had to go to my room and gargle and they had to cut this, | 0:12:09 | 0:12:12 | |
cut the film and I had to drink Coca-Cola and they tried | 0:12:12 | 0:12:15 | |
to explain it to me and I said, "No, no, no - I won't kiss like that, | 0:12:15 | 0:12:19 | |
"I will not do that other kissing, never." | 0:12:19 | 0:12:21 | |
The sweet, wholesome image was a key part of Debbie's public persona, | 0:12:25 | 0:12:29 | |
enhanced by a seemingly happy marriage | 0:12:29 | 0:12:32 | |
to singing sensation Eddie Fisher. | 0:12:32 | 0:12:35 | |
But in 1959, Eddie abandoned her and their two children for Liz Taylor - | 0:12:35 | 0:12:43 | |
one of Debbie's closest friends. | 0:12:43 | 0:12:46 | |
In the eyes of the public, Liz was the heartless seductress, | 0:12:46 | 0:12:50 | |
Eddie was the cad and Debbie the poor, wronged woman. | 0:12:50 | 0:12:55 | |
How did the tremendous emotional upset of your marriage | 0:12:56 | 0:13:00 | |
and seeing so many details of it being reported and going through | 0:13:00 | 0:13:04 | |
the enormous upheaval of that? | 0:13:04 | 0:13:06 | |
Still making movies, still putting | 0:13:06 | 0:13:08 | |
on a tremendously strong and very, very viable public face? | 0:13:08 | 0:13:12 | |
I don't discuss it because it's nobody's business... | 0:13:12 | 0:13:15 | |
why something ends - it's only my devastation, not anybody else's. | 0:13:15 | 0:13:20 | |
I have my children. I think that, somehow... | 0:13:20 | 0:13:23 | |
..the unhappy times in my life have always forced me into working. | 0:13:24 | 0:13:31 | |
So, perhaps it's meant to be that I did go on and work, | 0:13:31 | 0:13:36 | |
otherwise I would have retired years ago, | 0:13:36 | 0:13:39 | |
I would be retired now if I could, but I have lots of children | 0:13:39 | 0:13:43 | |
to put through college and I really don't have enough funds in which... | 0:13:43 | 0:13:48 | |
I like to live very nicely. | 0:13:48 | 0:13:50 | |
In order to do so, I have to work. | 0:13:50 | 0:13:52 | |
To live as nicely as I like to live! | 0:13:52 | 0:13:55 | |
And to do the things with the children and all | 0:13:55 | 0:13:57 | |
that I want to do, so, in a way... | 0:13:57 | 0:14:00 | |
life has spurred me on, also. | 0:14:00 | 0:14:02 | |
Debbie didn't talk about it then... | 0:14:04 | 0:14:07 | |
but that would eventually change. | 0:14:07 | 0:14:10 | |
Your daughter Carrie Fisher said, | 0:14:10 | 0:14:12 | |
"I always thought your whole courtship," | 0:14:12 | 0:14:14 | |
that's you and Eddie Fisher, | 0:14:14 | 0:14:15 | |
"was a sort of press release," that's what Carrie said. | 0:14:15 | 0:14:17 | |
"They were riding the wave of being a media couple more than having | 0:14:17 | 0:14:21 | |
"any real compatibility." | 0:14:21 | 0:14:22 | |
She says you probably didn't have much in common with Eddie Fisher. | 0:14:22 | 0:14:25 | |
Oh, probably, but I didn't know that. | 0:14:25 | 0:14:27 | |
You know, I was in love, young love, what did I know about love? | 0:14:27 | 0:14:30 | |
I really didn't know anything. I thought this was terrific. | 0:14:30 | 0:14:33 | |
He was darling, he was handsome, | 0:14:33 | 0:14:36 | |
he was a wonderful-looking fellow | 0:14:36 | 0:14:40 | |
and a star and here I was, a young star. | 0:14:40 | 0:14:43 | |
-So... -Quite a scandal, though, | 0:14:43 | 0:14:45 | |
when he ran off with what was I suppose one | 0:14:45 | 0:14:46 | |
of the world's best-known actresses at the time, Elizabeth Taylor. | 0:14:46 | 0:14:49 | |
Yes, Elizabeth. Well, we went to school together at the MGM lot, | 0:14:49 | 0:14:52 | |
we were good friends and she was the most beautiful woman in the world. | 0:14:52 | 0:14:57 | |
I certainly wasn't. | 0:14:57 | 0:14:58 | |
And the most sexual woman in the world, I certainly wasn't. | 0:14:58 | 0:15:01 | |
Well, I think you said about all this, you could see why Eddie Fisher | 0:15:01 | 0:15:04 | |
wanted HER, but why would Elizabeth Taylor want Eddie Fisher? | 0:15:04 | 0:15:06 | |
-What was wrong with Eddie Fisher? -Well, SHE wonders too, now! | 0:15:06 | 0:15:10 | |
But of course, she found that out, right afterwards. | 0:15:11 | 0:15:14 | |
Well, I told Eddie. | 0:15:14 | 0:15:15 | |
I said, "You know what's going to happen is that in a year and a half, | 0:15:15 | 0:15:18 | |
"she's going to realise that you're really just nothing | 0:15:18 | 0:15:21 | |
"and she's going to throw you out." | 0:15:21 | 0:15:23 | |
So that's what happened, she did Cleopatra, | 0:15:23 | 0:15:26 | |
she met Richard Burton and he was out. | 0:15:26 | 0:15:27 | |
Have you forgiven him? Doesn't sound like it from the comments that... | 0:15:27 | 0:15:31 | |
Er, I kid around about it. | 0:15:31 | 0:15:32 | |
Yes, I have forgiven Eddie, | 0:15:32 | 0:15:35 | |
but I've never really understood a man leaving his children. | 0:15:35 | 0:15:40 | |
I can understand leaving the woman, | 0:15:41 | 0:15:43 | |
but he never really came back and around to be a very good father, | 0:15:43 | 0:15:48 | |
so I don't particularly admire that. | 0:15:48 | 0:15:50 | |
I mean, I have wonderful children and I'm their PARENTS. | 0:15:50 | 0:15:55 | |
So when you say have I forgiven him, I say that | 0:15:55 | 0:15:58 | |
with a sort of bit of anger, | 0:15:58 | 0:16:01 | |
because I have a son that is his only son | 0:16:01 | 0:16:05 | |
and he misses having a good dad. | 0:16:05 | 0:16:09 | |
So when Eddie left, he really left. | 0:16:09 | 0:16:11 | |
Focusing on her career | 0:16:14 | 0:16:16 | |
was the main way that Debbie coped with the scandal. | 0:16:16 | 0:16:19 | |
And the change in her private life | 0:16:19 | 0:16:22 | |
coincided with changes happening in Hollywood. | 0:16:22 | 0:16:25 | |
It was fairly obvious by the end of the '50s, wasn't it, | 0:16:25 | 0:16:28 | |
that musicals were on the way out. | 0:16:28 | 0:16:30 | |
How did you manage the transition from musical to light comedy | 0:16:30 | 0:16:33 | |
and, ultimately, drama? | 0:16:33 | 0:16:35 | |
Well, I wasn't that deep, you see. | 0:16:35 | 0:16:37 | |
I was never the intellectual of Hollywood that everyone ran to | 0:16:37 | 0:16:40 | |
for advice. And still, they do not! | 0:16:40 | 0:16:43 | |
Uh, I was very young. | 0:16:43 | 0:16:45 | |
I saw the change and I've always been intuitive for survival. | 0:16:45 | 0:16:50 | |
I think it's terribly nice to live and I like to work. | 0:16:50 | 0:16:54 | |
In order to work, you must create your own being. | 0:16:54 | 0:16:58 | |
It is not going to come running TO you and I have never been | 0:16:58 | 0:17:01 | |
the performer that is the one that has been the socially in one | 0:17:01 | 0:17:06 | |
or the hot copy all the time. | 0:17:06 | 0:17:08 | |
I really have kind of had to create my own career, | 0:17:08 | 0:17:12 | |
to keep it going, shall we say. | 0:17:12 | 0:17:15 | |
I never had one producer or a number, or any, | 0:17:15 | 0:17:18 | |
that believed in me, that bought properties for me and, you know, | 0:17:18 | 0:17:22 | |
"this girl is going to be the best ever", or a manager behind me | 0:17:22 | 0:17:26 | |
that was going to sock it, keep the career going. | 0:17:26 | 0:17:30 | |
So, when musicals went out, I knew that and I went into comedies, | 0:17:30 | 0:17:35 | |
because I was rather amusing and I offered to do... | 0:17:35 | 0:17:39 | |
Well, first of all, | 0:17:39 | 0:17:40 | |
I never charged the biggest salaries in the world, | 0:17:40 | 0:17:44 | |
like a lot of people did, because I knew they wouldn't go for me first. | 0:17:44 | 0:17:47 | |
One of the first films she made after her marriage break-up | 0:17:48 | 0:17:51 | |
was 1960's The Rat Race, with Tony Curtis. | 0:17:51 | 0:17:55 | |
Debbie's role had her playing against type | 0:17:55 | 0:17:59 | |
as a jaded, cynical dancer in a sleazy New York pick-up joint. | 0:17:59 | 0:18:04 | |
Oh, baby, you really are something to be up against. | 0:18:06 | 0:18:09 | |
You bring out the best in me. | 0:18:09 | 0:18:11 | |
You're quite a guy. I hope you've got enough tickets. | 0:18:12 | 0:18:15 | |
Well, if I don't, I know where to get 'em. | 0:18:15 | 0:18:18 | |
I believe for the film The Rat Race, | 0:18:18 | 0:18:20 | |
you became a dime-a-dance girl, or at least a 10-cents-a-dance girl. | 0:18:20 | 0:18:24 | |
I think in the States, they're called taxi dancers, but, anyway, | 0:18:24 | 0:18:27 | |
you're paid 10 cents to have a dance with somebody. | 0:18:27 | 0:18:31 | |
Was this research or was it just done for a laugh? | 0:18:31 | 0:18:33 | |
It was actually about a week I worked there and I wore | 0:18:33 | 0:18:37 | |
a tight sweater which really, | 0:18:37 | 0:18:38 | |
if I wore the tightest sweater in the world, | 0:18:38 | 0:18:40 | |
wouldn't be too large of a... | 0:18:40 | 0:18:43 | |
Appearance, shall we say. | 0:18:43 | 0:18:45 | |
..And a tight skirt and they were very nice men, | 0:18:45 | 0:18:48 | |
very lonely and terrible dancers | 0:18:48 | 0:18:51 | |
and they sweated a lot. | 0:18:51 | 0:18:53 | |
Never did like that too much. | 0:18:53 | 0:18:55 | |
But they talk a lot and I usually talk the most, | 0:18:55 | 0:18:58 | |
as you can see from this interview, | 0:18:58 | 0:19:00 | |
but I didn't and I listened and I learned a great deal | 0:19:00 | 0:19:03 | |
as far as how that character, | 0:19:03 | 0:19:06 | |
that girl, | 0:19:06 | 0:19:08 | |
who was trying to get ahead in a very tough city in New York - | 0:19:08 | 0:19:12 | |
which New York IS tough, and if you're broke, it's REALLY tough... | 0:19:12 | 0:19:16 | |
What she would feel like and what kind of lengths would she go to | 0:19:16 | 0:19:20 | |
to try and survive and so forth. | 0:19:20 | 0:19:21 | |
You now owe me 481.15. | 0:19:22 | 0:19:26 | |
-Right? -Right, Nelly. | 0:19:26 | 0:19:28 | |
Could be a zero in two or three weeks if you played it smart. | 0:19:29 | 0:19:32 | |
I'd rather be dumb my way than smart yours. | 0:19:34 | 0:19:36 | |
Four years after The Rat Race came a film that Debbie personally | 0:19:37 | 0:19:42 | |
preferred to Singing in the Rain - | 0:19:42 | 0:19:44 | |
The Unsinkable Molly Brown. | 0:19:44 | 0:19:48 | |
The film earned Debbie her first and only Academy Award nomination - | 0:19:48 | 0:19:52 | |
for Best Leading Actress - | 0:19:52 | 0:19:54 | |
and would later provide the title | 0:19:54 | 0:19:56 | |
for her memoirs - Unsinkable. | 0:19:56 | 0:19:59 | |
Molly Brown was a wonderful role, the Unsinkable Molly Brown. | 0:20:01 | 0:20:05 | |
She was a great character and her whole story was wonderful | 0:20:05 | 0:20:09 | |
and I was lucky to get it because Shirley MacLaine was set for it | 0:20:09 | 0:20:11 | |
and then she had a law suit with Hal Wallis and at the last minute, | 0:20:11 | 0:20:14 | |
she couldn't do it and I was very lucky to do it because I was | 0:20:14 | 0:20:17 | |
expecting a baby and I lost the child | 0:20:17 | 0:20:21 | |
and they called me while I was just... | 0:20:21 | 0:20:23 | |
The first week of recovering. | 0:20:23 | 0:20:26 | |
I think that really got me well | 0:20:26 | 0:20:27 | |
and over the loss of this child passing on. | 0:20:27 | 0:20:30 | |
Then I did Molly Brown, which I was very proud of my performance, | 0:20:31 | 0:20:35 | |
I was nominated for an Academy Award. | 0:20:35 | 0:20:37 | |
And I loved the movie, I think I did a splendid job | 0:20:37 | 0:20:40 | |
and I love the character. | 0:20:40 | 0:20:42 | |
# Belly up, belly up to the bar, boys | 0:20:45 | 0:20:48 | |
# Better loosen your belts | 0:20:48 | 0:20:49 | |
# Only drink when you're all alone | 0:20:49 | 0:20:51 | |
-# Or with somebody else -Yeah! | 0:20:51 | 0:20:54 | |
# Belly up, belly up to the bar, boys | 0:20:54 | 0:20:56 | |
# Better have a few more | 0:20:56 | 0:20:58 | |
# And never whirl with a three-toed girl | 0:20:58 | 0:20:59 | |
-# Or a discontented whor... -Horrible example | 0:20:59 | 0:21:02 | |
# Like a girl whose name was Carrie | 0:21:02 | 0:21:04 | |
# She carried her charms to everybody else | 0:21:04 | 0:21:07 | |
# But her I had to marry | 0:21:07 | 0:21:08 | |
# Or die, die, die... # | 0:21:08 | 0:21:10 | |
The Unsinkable Molly Brown | 0:21:10 | 0:21:12 | |
turned out to be one of Debbie's final film highs. | 0:21:12 | 0:21:15 | |
By the late '60s and early 70s, | 0:21:16 | 0:21:18 | |
she'd stepped away from the cinema, focusing for a while | 0:21:18 | 0:21:22 | |
on a successful TV series called, | 0:21:22 | 0:21:25 | |
naturally, The Debbie Reynolds Show. | 0:21:25 | 0:21:28 | |
You always made very pithy comments, | 0:21:30 | 0:21:31 | |
you're obviously a very direct sort of person, | 0:21:31 | 0:21:33 | |
but you make very pithy comments about why you stopped making films. | 0:21:33 | 0:21:36 | |
You said, "I stopped making movies because I don't like taking | 0:21:36 | 0:21:39 | |
"my clothes off - maybe it's realism, but in my opinion, | 0:21:39 | 0:21:41 | |
"it's utter filth." Very direct about, as you were saying, | 0:21:41 | 0:21:43 | |
what you think Hollywood is doing now. | 0:21:43 | 0:21:45 | |
I don't think it's glamorous, I don't think it's pretty, | 0:21:45 | 0:21:47 | |
I don't think it's sexy. | 0:21:47 | 0:21:48 | |
I think there's ways to make everything wonderful and exciting | 0:21:48 | 0:21:51 | |
and interesting and mysterious at the same time, | 0:21:51 | 0:21:54 | |
there's no need for it. | 0:21:54 | 0:21:56 | |
It depends what one wishes in life. | 0:21:56 | 0:21:58 | |
I just never wanted my career or my life to go that direction. | 0:21:58 | 0:22:01 | |
You've always been very open about the mistakes you made | 0:22:01 | 0:22:04 | |
in your love life and about picking the wrong men. | 0:22:04 | 0:22:06 | |
What about the mistakes you made professionally? | 0:22:06 | 0:22:09 | |
I mean, at one stage in the late '60s, you had a row, | 0:22:09 | 0:22:11 | |
early '70s, with NBC, didn't you? Over The Debbie Reynolds Show, | 0:22:11 | 0:22:14 | |
because you decided to make a stand over tobacco advertising. | 0:22:14 | 0:22:18 | |
What happened there? | 0:22:18 | 0:22:19 | |
Well, everyone could smoke on camera, | 0:22:19 | 0:22:21 | |
you could advertise cigarettes. | 0:22:21 | 0:22:23 | |
Now, I didn't know Congress was going to pass a law | 0:22:23 | 0:22:26 | |
that you couldn't within six months | 0:22:26 | 0:22:28 | |
and I had a new show, The Debbie Reynolds Show, | 0:22:28 | 0:22:31 | |
it was like The Lucille Ball Show and The Carol Burnett Show. | 0:22:31 | 0:22:34 | |
A two-year contract set, a lot of money, | 0:22:36 | 0:22:38 | |
and I was having a great time doing it, | 0:22:38 | 0:22:40 | |
but then the show came out and they were advertising Salem cigarettes | 0:22:40 | 0:22:45 | |
and I got very upset because I said, | 0:22:45 | 0:22:48 | |
"I'm not advertising cigarettes or liquor. | 0:22:48 | 0:22:51 | |
"You promised me that I wasn't." | 0:22:51 | 0:22:53 | |
That was quite a stand to take at that particular period, | 0:22:53 | 0:22:55 | |
when almost everyone smoked. | 0:22:55 | 0:22:57 | |
Well, everybody did, but you don't have to advertise it | 0:22:57 | 0:23:01 | |
for the younger people, you don't have to do that | 0:23:01 | 0:23:04 | |
and I didn't have to do that. | 0:23:04 | 0:23:05 | |
So I just told them I didn't want to have a cigarette sponsor. | 0:23:05 | 0:23:10 | |
They said, "Well, that's too bad, that's who you have." | 0:23:10 | 0:23:12 | |
I said, "No, that's not my contract." | 0:23:12 | 0:23:15 | |
So they read the contract and that was the truth. | 0:23:15 | 0:23:18 | |
Your thinking was quite ahead of the game, though, | 0:23:18 | 0:23:20 | |
because the banning of cigarette advertising in most countries | 0:23:20 | 0:23:23 | |
-didn't happen until many years later. -About a year later. | 0:23:23 | 0:23:26 | |
I lost millions for that stand, | 0:23:26 | 0:23:29 | |
but I'm not proud of it. I mean, | 0:23:29 | 0:23:31 | |
I'm happy I did it. | 0:23:31 | 0:23:32 | |
I think at one stage you described it as the most stupid mistake | 0:23:32 | 0:23:35 | |
-you'd ever made. -It was foolish for me, financially, | 0:23:35 | 0:23:39 | |
but then my husbands would have just had more money to spend. | 0:23:39 | 0:23:42 | |
That line about husbands refers to the fact | 0:23:44 | 0:23:47 | |
that Singing In The Rain's lucky star | 0:23:47 | 0:23:51 | |
was unlucky in love... | 0:23:51 | 0:23:53 | |
more than once. | 0:23:53 | 0:23:55 | |
Husband number two was a multimillionaire, | 0:23:55 | 0:23:58 | |
but lost all his and most of her money through gambling. | 0:23:58 | 0:24:02 | |
After a failed business venture, | 0:24:02 | 0:24:05 | |
The Debbie Reynolds Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, | 0:24:05 | 0:24:09 | |
her marriage to husband number three ended in bitter divorce. | 0:24:09 | 0:24:12 | |
The hotel featured a fascinating museum of Hollywood memorabilia | 0:24:14 | 0:24:18 | |
and even contained the costume worn by her love rival, | 0:24:18 | 0:24:22 | |
Elizabeth Taylor, in Cleopatra. | 0:24:22 | 0:24:25 | |
I started collecting at the MGM auction, which was in 1970, | 0:24:27 | 0:24:32 | |
and, at that time, the people that owned the studio decided | 0:24:32 | 0:24:37 | |
they liked real estate | 0:24:37 | 0:24:39 | |
and they weren't interested in any other memorabilia. | 0:24:39 | 0:24:42 | |
Debbie knew from personal experience how film fans loved | 0:24:42 | 0:24:47 | |
to get a close-up encounter with Hollywood stardom. | 0:24:47 | 0:24:50 | |
I think that the people really wanted me to, you know, | 0:24:50 | 0:24:54 | |
they've heard about you and maybe they've liked your films | 0:24:54 | 0:24:57 | |
and now they see you in person, but can they sit next to you | 0:24:57 | 0:25:00 | |
and can they talk to you and really say hello and get an autograph | 0:25:00 | 0:25:03 | |
and know it's really yours and not the secretary's or a printed thing? | 0:25:03 | 0:25:07 | |
I think that means a lot to them - | 0:25:07 | 0:25:09 | |
it means a lot to me, because when I wrote | 0:25:09 | 0:25:11 | |
Katharine Hepburn a fan letter and she sent me back a picture | 0:25:11 | 0:25:14 | |
that I'd sent to her... I know she doesn't like to give autographs, | 0:25:14 | 0:25:18 | |
so I was really rather praying that she would consider my request | 0:25:18 | 0:25:21 | |
and she did, and she signed it Kate Hep - H-E-P. | 0:25:21 | 0:25:26 | |
She said, "I don't really like giving autographs, | 0:25:26 | 0:25:29 | |
"but I respect your work, Debbie, and so I'm signing." | 0:25:29 | 0:25:32 | |
And I was thrilled to get it. | 0:25:32 | 0:25:34 | |
Debbie was also thrilled years later when her shrewd collecting | 0:25:38 | 0:25:42 | |
paid dividends and made millions when she put the items up for sale, | 0:25:42 | 0:25:46 | |
helping with the financial problems her husbands had left her. | 0:25:46 | 0:25:51 | |
It wasn't just husbands that Debbie had problems with. | 0:25:52 | 0:25:56 | |
Another turbulent relationship was with her daughter, Carrie Fisher. | 0:25:56 | 0:26:00 | |
They were estranged for many years | 0:26:00 | 0:26:03 | |
and when Carrie wrote the novel Postcards From The Edge | 0:26:03 | 0:26:07 | |
about a difficult mother-daughter relationship, | 0:26:07 | 0:26:11 | |
everyone assumed it was autobiographical. | 0:26:11 | 0:26:14 | |
-And I have a wonderful daughter, as you know. -Yes. -..Princess Leia. | 0:26:15 | 0:26:20 | |
Yes, she wrote that book about you, which was not exactly flattering. | 0:26:20 | 0:26:24 | |
See, it's not really about me, Postcards From The Edge - | 0:26:24 | 0:26:27 | |
she's a writer, so she wrote a book about a crazy lady | 0:26:27 | 0:26:30 | |
and people think it's me! | 0:26:30 | 0:26:32 | |
LAUGHTER | 0:26:32 | 0:26:33 | |
You only remember the bad stuff, don't you? | 0:26:34 | 0:26:37 | |
What about the big band that I got to play at that party, | 0:26:37 | 0:26:39 | |
do you remember that? No! | 0:26:39 | 0:26:41 | |
You only remember that my skirt accidentally "twirled up". | 0:26:41 | 0:26:45 | |
-And you weren't wearing any underwear. -Well! | 0:26:46 | 0:26:49 | |
When Postcards From The Edge was turned into a film in 1990, | 0:26:50 | 0:26:55 | |
Debbie had wanted the role of the overbearing mother, | 0:26:55 | 0:26:59 | |
but was told by the director... | 0:26:59 | 0:27:01 | |
that she just wasn't right for it. | 0:27:01 | 0:27:04 | |
In the end, Debbie and Carrie's relationship | 0:27:05 | 0:27:08 | |
couldn't have been closer. | 0:27:08 | 0:27:10 | |
They lived next door to each other in Beverly Hills | 0:27:10 | 0:27:13 | |
and saw each other daily. | 0:27:13 | 0:27:16 | |
As I recall, | 0:27:17 | 0:27:19 | |
you were the best mom, | 0:27:19 | 0:27:21 | |
I always thought, when I was 14 and on, | 0:27:21 | 0:27:26 | |
until now, when they ran those "best mother" tribute contests, | 0:27:26 | 0:27:30 | |
whatever they run when you're little and I always couldn't imagine | 0:27:30 | 0:27:33 | |
having a better mother. | 0:27:33 | 0:27:35 | |
You were the prettiest mother, you were the funnest mother, | 0:27:35 | 0:27:38 | |
so... I STILL think that way. | 0:27:38 | 0:27:40 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:27:40 | 0:27:42 | |
When Debbie died last month, | 0:27:50 | 0:27:52 | |
at the age of 84, it meant saying goodbye | 0:27:52 | 0:27:55 | |
to one of the greats of the golden age, | 0:27:55 | 0:27:58 | |
who'll be forever remembered for that winning performance | 0:27:58 | 0:28:02 | |
in Singing In The Rain. | 0:28:02 | 0:28:04 | |
The timing of her passing | 0:28:04 | 0:28:06 | |
was given added poignancy | 0:28:06 | 0:28:10 | |
for coming just one day after Carrie's unexpected death. | 0:28:10 | 0:28:15 | |
The news shocked film fans the world over, | 0:28:17 | 0:28:20 | |
but even in their grief, | 0:28:20 | 0:28:22 | |
family members were able to joke that, | 0:28:22 | 0:28:25 | |
"Somewhere, Carrie would be laughing about one more in a long line | 0:28:25 | 0:28:30 | |
"of examples where Debbie Reynolds, | 0:28:30 | 0:28:34 | |
"her mother, | 0:28:34 | 0:28:35 | |
"had stolen the show." | 0:28:35 | 0:28:37 |