Reynolds’ ‘Unsinkable’ dresses rise for film fest
TCM will put star’s outfits on display
The late great Debbie Reynolds will be present at the TCM Classic Film Festival in Los Angeles in April — through her iconic movie dresses.
Select outfits Reynolds wore in 1952’s Singin’ In the Rain and 1964’s The Unsinkable Molly
Brown will be on display, seen for the first time in decades, during the fan-friendly festival April 6 to 9.
The presentation will be all the more poignant following Reynolds’ death at age 84 in December, which came just a day after her daughter Carrie Fisher died at age 60.
Todd Fisher, 59, Reynolds’ son and Fisher’s brother, is overseeing the dress display.
“Obviously if you can have Debbie standing there, that is the ultimate,” Fisher says. “But the second-best would be to have the costumes Debbie wore during the films. And the thirdbest would be to have Debbie’s genes, that’s me. That’s what people are getting.”
Reynolds was renown for collecting and preserving valuable movie memorabilia.
Reynolds was nominated for an Oscar for playing the scrappy Molly Brown, a character with whom she keenly identified.
“You just never give up. You do it to the best of your abilities and beyond. That was Molly Brown, and that’s Debbie,” Reynolds told USA TODAY in 2016. “I felt very akin to that character.”
Reynolds’ dress from the Good Morning song and dance she performed with Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor in Singin’ In the Rain will round out the display.
“That was her favorite dance number, certainly my favorite dance number,” Fisher says. “If you have to pick one, certainly Good Morning is the quintessential number for Debbie.”
The dresses have been in storage and have undergone preservation work. They eventually will go on permanent display at the Debbie Reynolds Dance Studios in Los Angeles.
“These connect the dots from the movies in many ways,” Fisher says.