Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/422151
The Historian DVR ALERT Thursday, Jan.22 Turner Classic Movies is celebrating the 51st Life Achievement recipient with a Jan. 22 tribute to Debbie Reynolds featuring some of her most memorable roles. Check your local listings in case of a time change. 5 p.m. PT, Singin' in the Rain (1952) 7 p.m. PT, The Catered Affair (1956) 8:45 p.m. PT, The Mating Game (1959) 10:30 p.m. PT, The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964) 12:45 a.m. PT, Mary, Mary (1963) Far left, Reynolds shows off a costume she wore in The Unsinkable Molly Brown at The Paley Center For Media's Debbie Reynolds: The Exhibit in 2011. Left, costumes Reynolds collected from Cleopatra and Singin' in the Rain. Previous page, Reynolds arrives at LaGuardia Airport for promotional activities on behalf of The Unsinkable Molly Brown, 1964; top, Reynolds and daughter Carrie Fisher, 2011; above, Reynolds dances with Tony Curtis in a scene from The Rat Race, 1960. H er collection was the stuff of legend. Beginning in 1970, with the now-infamous prop-and-costume auction at MGM, Debbie Reynolds amassed the largest, privately owned collection of Hollywood memorabilia in the world. "They literally threw away our history and I just got caught up in it. The stupidity and the lack of foresight to save our history …" she told The Hollywood Reporter in 2014. With her initial purchases, and in broadening that collection in the years since, Reynolds managed to save and preserve integral parts of Hollywood history — from Charlie Chaplin's iconic bowler hat to the white "subway" dress worn by Marilyn Monroe in The Seven Year Itch — and keep them all together, safe and in one place. The collection, which would eventually include thousands of costume pieces, props, poster art and even cameras, found a brief home in a museum at Reynolds' Las Vegas hotel and casino from 1993 to 1997. Although Reynolds approached the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences a number of times about housing the collection, a plan never came to fruition. Citing the financial burden of maintaining the collection, most of it was sold at auctions over the last few years. But, in building the collection, Reynolds managed to save pieces of Hollywood history. Things that might have been neglected or treated less carefully by another collector were fastidiously maintained under her supervision. Suits worn by members of the Rat Pack, Mae West's heels, even Elvis' pool table were protected and preserved. As her son Todd Fisher told the Wall Street Journal in 2010, "Most people collect for themselves … but she collected for the public. She collected for all of us. She collected for the American people to preserve the history of [the] industry." NOEL VASQUEZ/GETTY IMAGES RKO RADIO PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES MGM/GETTY IMAGES FAR LEFT, FRAZER HARRISON/GETTY IMAGES; KEVIN PARRY/THE PALEY CENTER FOR MEDIA X 2 CLICK HERE for a look at Debbie's collection.