By Joseph Martinez -
For over fifty years Debbie Reynolds has been collecting and preserving Hollywood costumes and props from Academy Award–winning films, including Gone With the Wind, Ben-Hur, My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, and Casablanca. This colossal collection includes garments worn by an array of film icons, including Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland, Charlton Heston, Greta Garbo, Elizabeth Taylor, Bette Davis, Gene Kelly, Richard Burton, and more, many of which will be on view at the Paley Center.
The collection is deemed to be the world’s most significant collection of Hollywood memorabilia. The entire collection contains over 3,500 costumes, 20,000 original photographs, several thousand original movie posters, original costume sketches, and hundreds of key props from film history.
Profiles in History, one of the nation's leading dealer in guaranteed-authentic memorabilia, will auction part 1 of the collection at the Paley Center in Los Angeles on June 18, 2011.
An exhibit reception, sponsored by Turner Classic Movies, was held at the Paley Center for Media on Tuesday, June 7, 2011. Hosting the event was Ms. Reynolds herself and was Joined by family, friends and colleagues including, Ann Rutherford, Anna Maria Alberghetti, Anne Jeffreys, Dick Van Patten, Jack Carter, Jane Withers, Patricia Heaton, Phyllis Dilller, and daughter Carrie Fisher.
Part one of this auction will feature approximately seven-hundred of Ms. Reynolds very best and most historic costumes and props, including one of the most famous costumes in screen history, with an estimated value of one to two million dollars, Marilyn Monroe's "subway" dress from The Seven Year Itch.
Ms. Reynolds states, "My lifetime dream has been to assemble and preserve the history of the Hollywood film industry. Hollywood has been an enormous part of my life as I know it has been for countless fans all over the world. This collection represents a lifetime of collecting Hollywood artifacts and this is a rare opportunity to own a piece of Hollywood History for those who love the movies as much as I do. For the first time in nearly five decades, these iconic pieces will be made available to the public through a series of auctions presented by Profiles in History beginning in June 2011." ( photo © 2011 Joe Martinez / PictureLux )
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