Auction set for Reynolds' Hollywood memorabilia
The Associated Press
Posted: 09/10/2010 10:57:23 AM PDT
KNOXVILLE, Tenn.—Actress Debbie Reynolds' vast collection of Hollywood memorabilia, including the ruby red slippers from "The Wizard of Oz" and thousands of costumes, is set to be auctioned off by June, her son said.
Todd Fisher, whose mother is best known for her 1952 role in "Singin' in the Rain," told The Associated Press by telephone Friday that Christie's auction house will manage the sale.
The auction will take place in New York and be conducted simultaneously online and by phone, he added.
Reynolds, 78, amassed the collection over much of her lifetime and has estimated its value at $50 million. It includes the famous slippers and dress worn by Judy Garland in "The Wizard of Oz," the fur coat worn by Orson Welles in "Citizen Kane" and Marilyn Monroe's subway dress from "The Seven Year Itch."
In March 2004, Reynolds announced plans to relocate her collection, housed at sites in Las Vegas and Hollywood, to Pigeon Forge.
The Knoxville News Sentinel has reported that the collection was supposed to have become the centerpiece of Belle Island Village, a planned tourist attraction in Pigeon Forge beside the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Fisher, who is president of the Hollywood Motion Picture and Television Museum, told AP that much of the Belle Island construction was completed. But he adds the real estate developers behind the project filed for bankruptcy last year and it was taken over by lenders.
He said the
museum filed for bankruptcy protection in June 2009 and is being forced to liquidate assets, including this collection, to satisfy creditors.
Fisher, whose mother also starred in "The Unsinkable Molly Brown," said Reynolds is "heartbroken" that the collection she began amassing around age 30 will be broken up and auctioned. He said she started the collection because she was not only a fan but felt it was important to preserve such items.
"In her mind, these are some of the greatest creations of Hollywood," he said.
Fisher said the family still has the option to step up with the money if it wants to keep the items. But, he added, "Why would we do that when there really doesn't seem to be a home for the collection, or a use for the collection?"
The slippers Warner kept are the ones with no felt, leading to speculation that they were worn by the dead Witch of the East, as the soles were visible on film, hence their nickname: the "Witch's slippers".[7] Warner sold his pair in 1981 to an unknown buyer through Christie's East for $12,000. Two weeks after Landini bought his slippers, this pair resurfaced and were offered privately through Christie's to the under-bidder of the Bauman shoes, Philip Samuels of St. Louis, Missouri. Samuels bought them for the same price that Landini had paid, $165,000. He has used his shoes for fund raising for children's charities as well as lending them to the Smithsonian when their slippers are cleaned, repaired or (previously) on tour. According to the Library of Congress, "it is widely believed that they were used primarily for close-ups and possibly the climactic scene where Dorothy taps her heels together."[9]
Landini auctioned his pair of slippers, again at Christie's East, on May 24, 2000, for $666,000, which included the buyer's premium. They were sold to David Elkouby and his partners, who own memorabilia shops in Hollywood. Elkouby and Co. has yet to display the shoes.
Kent Warner sold one pair, size 5 1/2B,[2] to Michael Shaw in 1970.[7] These were stolen from an exhibit at the Judy Garland Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota on the night of August 27-28, 2005.[2]
The very elaborate curled-toe "Arabian" pair is owned by actress and memorabilia preservationist Debbie Reynolds. Reynolds acknowledged she got them from Kent Warner.[7] The fate of the bugle-beaded version is unknown
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