Speaker 1: This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to here's the thing.
Speaker 1: Stop stop stop. If you're a baby boomer, that might
Speaker 1: be the version of Singing in the Rain. You most
Speaker 1: remember Malcolm McDowell and Stanley Kubrick's satiric masterpiece A Clockwork Orange,
Speaker 1: But if you were born before the nineteen fifties, you
Speaker 1: probably prefer this just sing. It's rare when a movie
Speaker 1: comes along and inspires a whole generation of actors, singers,
Speaker 1: and directors. Singing in the Rain is one of those movies.
Speaker 1: It also transformed the lives of its stars. Debbie Reynolds
Speaker 1: was just a twenty year world actress under contract at MGM,
Speaker 1: but after her performance and that iconic film, Debbie Reynolds
Speaker 1: was destined to become a star. Some of the highlights
Speaker 1: of her career include Tammy and Tammy and The Bachelor,
Speaker 1: with a song that reached number one on the Billboard Charts,
Speaker 1: I Hear the Cottonwoods Whisperingable Jimmy jem je j Love.
Speaker 1: Reynolds was nominated for an Academy Award for her leading
Speaker 1: role in The Unsinkable Molly Brown and received a Tony
Speaker 1: nomination for her Broadway debut in the musical Irene Over.
Speaker 1: Twenty years later, Reynolds played Albert Brooks mother in his
Speaker 1: film entitled Mother The Other One Is he staying with
Speaker 1: me for a while. Debbie and I Sell braided our
Speaker 1: birthdays earlier this month, just two days apart. We share
Speaker 1: an astrological sign aries I'm still living. Isn't that extraordinary? Well?
Speaker 1: I couldn't believe it when my birthday came again. It
Speaker 1: just was and there were the world and eighty one.
Speaker 1: I said, hold it. I didn't want to be eighty
Speaker 1: How did we get to eighty one? And Debbie Reynolds
Speaker 1: has stayed busy, Unlike a lot of her contemporaries. My friends,
Speaker 1: a lot of them just gave up because there weren't
Speaker 1: any good rules and everything they read was sort of
Speaker 1: a moron and that was depressing to a lot of them.
Speaker 1: So the opportunities they just walked away, and everything just
Speaker 1: wound up to be like nothing, you know, And so
Speaker 1: they took up different hobbies. Some of them became example teachers.
Speaker 1: Agnes Moorehead was one of my best girlfriends, and she
Speaker 1: was a great actor's really great and she had a
Speaker 1: lot of students at her house, come over and she
Speaker 1: taught acting. She taught acting, and she taught singing. She
Speaker 1: taught impressions to California, California on Roxbury. Right across the
Speaker 1: street was Jimmy Stewart and Lucille Ball and everybody was
Speaker 1: on that one street. It was like, let's have a
Speaker 1: party every night. George Burns and Eddie Candor lived on
Speaker 1: one block because I would drive over there because that
Speaker 1: street was more fun than my phone. No, I'm going
Speaker 1: to mention certain people, and not for the obvious reasons,
Speaker 1: but I you remained friends with Elizabeth Taylor until she died.
Speaker 1: Why do you think she stopped working? And why do
Speaker 1: you think she stopped taking care of it? Had to
Speaker 1: stop working. She became quite ill. She wouldn't have ever
Speaker 1: quit working all. Elizabeth loved to work, Yes she did,
Speaker 1: and she was a very good actress. We did a
Speaker 1: picture Carrie wrote, My daughter Carry These Old Broads. It
Speaker 1: was called and as Shirley McClain, Joan Collins and Elizabeth
Speaker 1: and myself, So I made this movie. We made a
Speaker 1: movie was that called These Old Broads That Carry Missing
Speaker 1: this movie, Well, maybe you're one of the lucky ones out.
Speaker 1: It was a cute movie was you know, four old
Speaker 1: broads that gave up was what you're talking about. They
Speaker 1: gave up working and you know, just kind of dillied
Speaker 1: around with the rest of their US movie You Elizabeth
Speaker 1: Taylor College and Shirlie McCain. It was funny. Well, we
Speaker 1: had a lot of fun working together that Joan. Nevertheless,
Speaker 1: you watch her makeup and she hides in her trailer
Speaker 1: and all her makeup. But we all kind of quite
Speaker 1: an operation. Well it is an operation for all of
Speaker 1: us at a certain point when you look in the
Speaker 1: mirror and everything is moved someplace else and all you broads,
Speaker 1: shall we say, came these four broads came from an
Speaker 1: error when everything was just was at its height. It's
Speaker 1: kind of heightened. Doing your hair and your makeup and
Speaker 1: your costumes and everything that's thought is things super important
Speaker 1: and everything is done for you. When we were under contract,
Speaker 1: most of us, Shirley McClain and Elizabeth, they were at MGM,
Speaker 1: and everything was done for us, you know, the makeup
Speaker 1: of hair, It sent cars for us. We were very spoiled.
Speaker 1: We didn't kind of know what to do when they
Speaker 1: dropped everybody, Like when television came in and remember what
Speaker 1: year around that was. Studio system kind of died as
Speaker 1: you get into the fifties, it's slowly died a death.
Speaker 1: You know. It was like interesting to watch it was.
Speaker 1: I didn't realize it was the end, you know, I
Speaker 1: didn't know that it was that you didn't know what
Speaker 1: the change meant. Well, I was a young girl, so
Speaker 1: I didn't. And I wasn't an intellectual. I wasn't educated.
Speaker 1: I'm from Burbankbank and originally from teacher. That's me. You
Speaker 1: know what. I always aim high too. I love Jim,
Speaker 1: you know I love I wanted to be a live
Speaker 1: guard son girls. Well yeah, yeah, Well I was never
Speaker 1: that ambitious that I wanted to be a lifeguard. But
Speaker 1: I wanted to be a gymnast. I wanted to work
Speaker 1: on the bars and enterpedes work. I loved all that stuff.
Speaker 1: And what's the link for you as a young girl,
Speaker 1: because she started very young as a young girl in
Speaker 1: Burbank and you're athletic, no doubt. What's the first thing
Speaker 1: that happened that says show business to you? Well, I
Speaker 1: never thought about me being in show business. I was
Speaker 1: a fan and I would go to the movies because
Speaker 1: my mother let me, but no one else in our
Speaker 1: church was allowed to go to films because movie stars
Speaker 1: were all evil creatures, just dreadful. My mother let me
Speaker 1: go to films. Mother was very religious, very my family
Speaker 1: said my dad. My father used to say, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to go to church with you. I've
Speaker 1: told you that I'm not going to go because all
Speaker 1: those good people will be killed. If I walked down,
Speaker 1: the roof would fall. And he was always teasing if
Speaker 1: you by asking what church did you go to? Church
Speaker 1: of the Nazarene, which is like hard shell Baptist, kind
Speaker 1: of like your mom was a heart. She was a Texan.
Speaker 1: She was a Texan Texan Baptist. She was tough and strict,
Speaker 1: and there were so many rules. How many kids in
Speaker 1: the family. Just my brother and I were in the family.
Speaker 1: And then my mother discovered what's your brother's name? Bill?
Speaker 1: And do you know who Bill is? To me? You
Speaker 1: don't know. Do you know that Billy Reynolds was my
Speaker 1: makeup artist on nuts Landing for a year? Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: was he your brother? Billy? Isn't he my makeup artist?
Speaker 1: And he's one of the people that helped me survived
Speaker 1: that experience because those three broads were from the Joan
Speaker 1: Colins School where they were having the makeup put on
Speaker 1: with a trowel every day. I had to have federally
Speaker 1: funded programs to pay for the makeup for them. Billy
Speaker 1: Reynolds would turn to me and he'd sit there and say,
Speaker 1: you know, did you bring a book with you to go?
Speaker 1: We're in a be here for a while. These girls
Speaker 1: are two or three hours in the chair. And then
Speaker 1: he told me that he was Elvis's makeup artist. As
Speaker 1: you know that every time he mentioned Elvis, he didn't
Speaker 1: mention it a lot because he was very shy, very shy.
Speaker 1: He mentioned Elvis once or twice and he started to cry.
Speaker 1: He would turn away from me and hide to say.
Speaker 1: He said to me, Elvis was the greatest man I
Speaker 1: ever worked with. Well, the only used to play. Elvis
Speaker 1: used to tease him a lot and put snakes down
Speaker 1: his pants and popcorn and pop pop popcorn and put
Speaker 1: it in his drawers. You know, they used to kid
Speaker 1: my brother. They used to just pick on him kind of,
Speaker 1: but he didn't care. My brother was a baseball player,
Speaker 1: really man's man. He lives men in my house with me.
Speaker 1: Will you give him my love? I don't even know
Speaker 1: if he'll remember me. Yes, Oh he remembers everything. He
Speaker 1: just doesn't talk about it. You know some men that
Speaker 1: are like almost reclusive, but not really, because underneath all
Speaker 1: of that is a great sense of humor. I adore
Speaker 1: my brother. I think he helped save my life. The
Speaker 1: ladies here, by the way, who we work with, made
Speaker 1: us a cupcake. I see, I know that the candle.
Speaker 1: I just said, the candle just burned my finger. Candles
Speaker 1: and strawberries and cupcakes. It's our birthday that has to
Speaker 1: be nice to us, so it has to be nice
Speaker 1: to us. They made the cupcake gluten free, but you
Speaker 1: and I both know the gluten free really is bullshit. Well,
Speaker 1: I think you're allowed on the radio, you know, I
Speaker 1: always I used to be a disc jockey when I
Speaker 1: was sixteen years older. Was it Warner Brothers. I first
Speaker 1: went there when I first won this a little contest?
Speaker 1: What contest in Burbank, California, where I was raised. So
Speaker 1: we came from Texas because we were really poor, and
Speaker 1: my dad wanted us to have a better life, so
Speaker 1: he moved us to California. Work. He's looking for he railroad.
Speaker 1: He worked for the railroad. He repaired underneath the engines.
Speaker 1: He would repair all kinds of a railroad happening there
Speaker 1: in California. Well, my my dad worked really hard, but
Speaker 1: I did the most boring job in the whole wide world.
Speaker 1: I retired him as soon as I came As luck
Speaker 1: changed in my whole life changed, and I came into
Speaker 1: show business. I discovered a whole different world and that
Speaker 1: people really had fun and people laughed. And our life
Speaker 1: was rather tedious and hard because we didn't have any money.
Speaker 1: I mean, my dad made two hundred a month. Now
Speaker 1: that's better than nothing, but it's still also AD buys
Speaker 1: very little, so our life was a little bit meager.
Speaker 1: You know. We never had a Christmas tree. We never
Speaker 1: had So when the opportunity came along for you to
Speaker 1: get into the business, and I'm from the same school, actually,
Speaker 1: I'm wondering where you was enticed by and where you
Speaker 1: was thrilled by as much about making money to help
Speaker 1: your family as you were about your own glory. Well, honestly,
Speaker 1: I thought it was a joke that I won this contest,
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, I'm in movies. The
Speaker 1: silliest thing was the contest. It was a Miss Burbank.
Speaker 1: Mrs Burbank. Don't don't, don't, don't downplay that. No, I
Speaker 1: like it changed my whole life, had made my whole
Speaker 1: life wonderful and marvelous. Travel all over the world and
Speaker 1: meet all these fabulous, interesting people and see different countries
Speaker 1: as so I'm very proud to say I was Miss
Speaker 1: Burbank and had a hole in my bathing suit and
Speaker 1: there my rear end was hanging out, and I didn't
Speaker 1: have shoes, high heeled shoes, so I had I'm very
Speaker 1: agrateful for stumbling in the show business. Yeah, Miss Burbank.
Speaker 1: What happened? They took me to Warner Brothers and made
Speaker 1: a little screen test and asked me why I wanted
Speaker 1: to be a movie star. So of course I told
Speaker 1: him I didn't want to. And after they laughed and
Speaker 1: they said, of course you do, I said, no, I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't really, I mean, this is just fun. You're
Speaker 1: just this is you're kidding around, right. I was very
Speaker 1: square and my family were very virginal, you know, very
Speaker 1: go to church Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. You're glad they
Speaker 1: were square. I'm grateful for that kind of upbringing throughout
Speaker 1: your career. And I'm not just saying this, I mean
Speaker 1: I wouldn't waste your time of mind. You know, you're
Speaker 1: a gorgeous woman, and everybody thinks of you and think
Speaker 1: of you being three things, beautiful and talented, but also
Speaker 1: being very straight laced. I mean, your career was something
Speaker 1: where there's a kind of a in the sensuality quote
Speaker 1: and there's a gardener over here. It's kind of working
Speaker 1: that whole thing, and then there's you, who you didn't
Speaker 1: work that whole thing. Did you find that was something
Speaker 1: that was because of your childhoo? I just think that
Speaker 1: that's the way you're raised, you know, it's what you hear.
Speaker 1: What you hear is sinful, and what you hear is
Speaker 1: not proper for young girls to behave in that manner.
Speaker 1: So you were pretty strict, you know, I mean you were,
Speaker 1: and I just grew up that way, so I thought
Speaker 1: that's the way everybody was until after three husbands now
Speaker 1: I realized that as it's totally wrong concept. We're going
Speaker 1: to get to that unlucky and love unlucky? What else
Speaker 1: happens when you're unlucky and I just made it up.
Speaker 1: You just wrote that just for you. Okay, well we
Speaker 1: should record you laterning. Good morning. We've danced the whole
Speaker 1: night through. Good morning, good morning to you, and you
Speaker 1: and you and you're good morning, good morning. It's great
Speaker 1: to stay in late. Good morning, good morning to you.
Speaker 1: What fun you see? I can't sing to save my life.
Speaker 1: If you put a gun to my head and said saying,
Speaker 1: you almost sang on key? When did you know you
Speaker 1: could sing? When did you know? You just started singing
Speaker 1: like other people? So what you're saying? So you started
Speaker 1: by doing mimicry. I started mimic Jeanette McDonald's I've never
Speaker 1: tried and that recash. She's a soprano, but I would
Speaker 1: do the alto and ethel mermon anybody with a big voice.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't always do their voices because I
Speaker 1: I enjoy comedy, comedies, everything a Pratt fall sticklach, that's
Speaker 1: everything to me. I love vaudeville, that's my favorite thing.
Speaker 1: I enjoy drama. Somebody else doing it, I personally don't
Speaker 1: want to do it Debbie Reynolds because it's so serious.
Speaker 1: It makes me sad, It takes me where it goes,
Speaker 1: and so I don't accept any parts that are devastating
Speaker 1: because I don't want to be unhappy in my life.
Speaker 1: I'll just live my life is that's tough enough, So
Speaker 1: I don't need any parts that make me miserable. Ball
Speaker 1: So when you're at Warners and you say to them
Speaker 1: I don't want to be an actress and they do
Speaker 1: the screen test, what happens there that you wind up
Speaker 1: banking over to MGM. What happened? Well, Jack Warner, here's
Speaker 1: the boss. So he said, We're not going to do
Speaker 1: more musical, so I'll send the kid over to MGM.
Speaker 1: They drove me, they sold me like a horse. Well,
Speaker 1: are donkey? I was sort of stubborn, and I say
Speaker 1: a donkey. So I go to MGM, which is l
Speaker 1: will be Mayor and they're still making musicals like mad
Speaker 1: because they were the biggest studio of all. Everybody in
Speaker 1: the world was there, Clark Gable, Vyan Johnson, you know,
Speaker 1: Gear Gars and Lana Turnery, every I mean, the doors
Speaker 1: opened and like all these stars spilled out. It was
Speaker 1: the only one, the only one that ever really left
Speaker 1: on her own was Garble. So all I won't be alone.
Speaker 1: I won't will be alone. So we left her alone.
Speaker 1: She's gone. She's her car. She's weinted a car and
Speaker 1: shipped off. She went to New York. She saved a
Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars. She went to the bank. She met
Speaker 1: the president. His name is Shelee, Mr Shelee, and he's
Speaker 1: gone now. But I know this story. I love stories.
Speaker 1: You could call me a gossip. Garbs with Mr Shelee
Speaker 1: with a hundred grand and she asked, don't please, don't
Speaker 1: help me, don't take care of my money. So Mr
Speaker 1: Shelee falls in love with Greta Garbo and it takes
Speaker 1: care of her the rest of her life. She lived
Speaker 1: in New York City and they used to go for
Speaker 1: a walk. Garbo would walk and Mr Schlei didn't like
Speaker 1: to walk, so he had drive in the rolls roys
Speaker 1: of the Dusselberg or whatever it was beside her while
Speaker 1: she did her shopping antiquing. You know, she loved anti.
Speaker 1: Mr Shelee taking care of Greta Garbo or was her money? No,
Speaker 1: he was taking care of her money. Money. Now what
Speaker 1: they did on the side of her tea or lunch,
Speaker 1: I never inquired because got this girl from Texas doesn't
Speaker 1: tell you know, I didn't want to even think about that,
Speaker 1: because I just wanted to think about what a romantic situation.
Speaker 1: The whole thing as a man trailing along in his
Speaker 1: with this movie star and she's walking looking in old
Speaker 1: and windlows and then he's in a in a car
Speaker 1: right with the door open, driving along beside her. These
Speaker 1: stories don't happen anymore. She walked away forever, She walked
Speaker 1: away forever. She's never made another film ever, And you
Speaker 1: should open an MGM. And what happens, Well, what happens
Speaker 1: is they send me to a meeting. And so they
Speaker 1: called Gene Kelly in the room and Mr Mayer says, here, Jean,
Speaker 1: this is a new girl that you're going to have
Speaker 1: as you're leading lady. And I'm seventeen, and but I
Speaker 1: had never danced before, I'd never acted before, nothing, nothing, person,
Speaker 1: just a girl's scout. So there was a Gene Kelly
Speaker 1: a movie. So I couldn't believe the whole scene. I mean,
Speaker 1: I just thought the whole thing was silly. I really
Speaker 1: thought it was silly. So Mr Kelly said, can you
Speaker 1: do a time step? I said, oh, oh, yes, I
Speaker 1: learned that a girl scout cab so he said to
Speaker 1: do time step. So I did a little awful time step.
Speaker 1: Then he said, can you do a Maxi Ford? And
Speaker 1: I said I don't have a car. Well, obviously that
Speaker 1: was the wrong answer. He looked at Mr Mayor and
Speaker 1: he said, you're kidding me, boss, And Mr Mayer said,
Speaker 1: now I'm not getting you meeting you. This is this
Speaker 1: is the leading lady. She's going to do the part.
Speaker 1: And that was it. He was stuck with me, poor thing.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine Jane Gillen and these guys were I'm assuming,
Speaker 1: like like many of the actors I know today, they're
Speaker 1: pretty no nonsense people when it comes to the quality
Speaker 1: of their their product, and they're very hard. But Gene Kelly,
Speaker 1: of course, when it is the most brilliant dancer. Jean said,
Speaker 1: all right, I'll take her. I can I can fix her.
Speaker 1: I can fix it up because she's right for the part.
Speaker 1: The acting, bar and but the dancing. My god. It
Speaker 1: was an interesting time, but I was too young to
Speaker 1: know about it. Stare taught you too. He helped me.
Speaker 1: I was trying to learn everything, like with Donald run
Speaker 1: up the wall and flip backwards you. I knew I
Speaker 1: was a flip. But you know, I had to learn how.
Speaker 1: I wanted to learn everything, and then I'd be crying
Speaker 1: under the piano. One day, a pair of legs go
Speaker 1: by and I'm some crying away and the legs say,
Speaker 1: who is that under the piano? Who is crying? So
Speaker 1: I said, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it's just me, Debbie.
Speaker 1: So it was a fred Is stare. He said, Debbie,
Speaker 1: get out, get out from underneath. They pulled me out
Speaker 1: and he said, now you come and watch me with hers.
Speaker 1: I never allow anybody. He always had a guard at
Speaker 1: the gate and security guard. No one was ever allowed.
Speaker 1: But he let me watch and for maybe over forty minutes,
Speaker 1: and his face turned already just used a cane and
Speaker 1: a drum. After about half an hour in his face
Speaker 1: turning red, and he's doing brilliant work. Of course, he
Speaker 1: looked over at me, says, now, Debbie wants you to
Speaker 1: go back in there, stop crying and be great. In
Speaker 1: order to be a great dancer, you have to practically
Speaker 1: kill yourself. This is what it takes to be a
Speaker 1: great dancer. Now running there, just running there, shut up
Speaker 1: and do it help you? Oh? Yes, I just felt
Speaker 1: like I was a big sissy, and I don't like
Speaker 1: to be a big sissy in those days or any
Speaker 1: other day. When you you finished the movie, when it
Speaker 1: was and how did you feel to how and how
Speaker 1: did you feel when it was over? I think you
Speaker 1: you've learned a great deal. Either that or you already quit,
Speaker 1: because in order to keep up with these great talents,
Speaker 1: you had to devote yourself totally. I didn't go home.
Speaker 1: I slept in my dressing room. I wasn't off any days.
Speaker 1: I didn't take any days off because I practiced more
Speaker 1: while I was on Saturday and Sunday. We didn't have
Speaker 1: Saturday off. We only had Sunday off, and not practice
Speaker 1: all the time. And I don't think I changed at all.
Speaker 1: I just learned how to apply myself. And what about
Speaker 1: people's perception of you? That must have changed. The picture
Speaker 1: came out what year, I don't remember what year, something
Speaker 1: like that. Well, it was not a hit. It was
Speaker 1: not a hit. It was just a mediocre hit. And
Speaker 1: then it was discovered. We discovered through the schools and
Speaker 1: the teachers that taught drama and class and lessons that
Speaker 1: the movie became a it through school and for teachers,
Speaker 1: university teachers, and all that Seeing in the Rain has
Speaker 1: remained a hit or became a hit meditan years, fifteen years.
Speaker 1: Is it safe to say that the girl who's crying
Speaker 1: under the table by the time the movie comes out,
Speaker 1: in that process is complete. You're a movie star now, correct? Well,
Speaker 1: I was popular. They couldn't believe a young girl had
Speaker 1: gotten that far and no talent, no no experience. So
Speaker 1: I was newsworthy. But in those days we had movie
Speaker 1: magazines and they'd write all kinds of stories for free,
Speaker 1: you know, studios would give It was the golden era.
Speaker 1: So what kind of story did they write about you then?
Speaker 1: When you're only seventeen eighteen years old? What did they
Speaker 1: make it up? You know, they'd give a little party.
Speaker 1: They'd give a party. They had Rock Hudson going out
Speaker 1: with his secretary. You know Rock didn't want to go
Speaker 1: out with the secretary. Yes, John, Sam and Joe. What's
Speaker 1: the next picture you did? After singing in the Ring?
Speaker 1: After Singing in the Rain? I did? How the West
Speaker 1: was one? With every star you've ever heard about? The
Speaker 1: first movie I ever saw in the movie theater my life. Ever,
Speaker 1: it was a wonderful picture. Spencer Tracy narrated the whole
Speaker 1: thing Stars You'll never see again. That was Tracy's last
Speaker 1: appearance and he didn't even go on film and he
Speaker 1: just narrated it and John Wayne was in that everybody.
Speaker 1: It took two years to make that picture. I started
Speaker 1: out playing a sixteen year old and ended up a
Speaker 1: ninety year old, so it felt like my life. There's things.
Speaker 1: I worked very hard on that picture, and Henry Hathaway
Speaker 1: was the director, and he was really tough and very
Speaker 1: hard on everybody. You know, it's not very kind of actors,
Speaker 1: but we were all a little bit stupid and slow.
Speaker 1: He thought it was slow. So he uh, I had
Speaker 1: heard this about him, you know that he was a
Speaker 1: very tough director. So when he came over to Fox
Speaker 1: Studio where I was making another film with Andy Griffith,
Speaker 1: I said to him, he wanted me to do it
Speaker 1: the first part of it, how the West was on.
Speaker 1: I said, well, sir, the truth of it is that
Speaker 1: I've heard really such bad things about you. I don't
Speaker 1: want to work with you. So he just stared at
Speaker 1: He said, what the is that? What? He's cussed like crazy?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, cuss? He said, what the what? You little
Speaker 1: snot nose it little. Oh. Yes, he attacked aggressive, he
Speaker 1: bawled me out, but he just said, you have no
Speaker 1: right to say that I'm boss here, that I cuss
Speaker 1: and all that. I said, well, what are you doing now?
Speaker 1: For goodness sake, what do you think You're yelling at
Speaker 1: me in the commissary there are people staring at everything.
Speaker 1: I said, this is why I would never work for you,
Speaker 1: because I don't want to be miserable. So I turned
Speaker 1: it down, and and he wouldn't let me turn it down.
Speaker 1: He said, no, you're going to do it. And he
Speaker 1: talked to the president of Fox and MGM, which owned
Speaker 1: my contract. They said I had to do it, So
Speaker 1: I had to do it. There's a one where I'll
Speaker 1: build you a home in the mid So back then,
Speaker 1: you signed those contracts and people, I think the the
Speaker 1: distance that the studio system has now, which we seated
Speaker 1: so far for audiences today, they don't understand that notion
Speaker 1: that you signed a contract him, you didn't get to
Speaker 1: pick the films. You were him your own. It's like
Speaker 1: a bondage, the indentured servitude. That's exactly how did the
Speaker 1: picture go with him? Was he was? He was? He? Well,
Speaker 1: I went on, I did. The first section is the
Speaker 1: one that I was signed for and went on location
Speaker 1: and he said there, all right, walk over there. I
Speaker 1: and where am I walking? To sir? You just walk where?
Speaker 1: I said, pointing to I said, I have to understand
Speaker 1: where Why am I walking? What am I saying? He said, no,
Speaker 1: you know, you just do what I say. I said,
Speaker 1: this is what I told you that day we had
Speaker 1: the lunch that you were going to be rude and
Speaker 1: terrible to work with then, So I'm going to go
Speaker 1: lie down to rest. He said, no, you're not. You're
Speaker 1: going to walk over there and you're going to shut up.
Speaker 1: I said, no, I'm not. I'm going to faint because
Speaker 1: you've upset me too much. So I fainted and what happened.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do that one. I'm going to do that.
Speaker 1: You just pass out when I mean a director like
Speaker 1: I'm gonna faint? Oh my god, you've upset me some
Speaker 1: boom boom fall. Just fall down. Just let him kick you.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter, so lay down. So if you're lame, dude,
Speaker 1: hath a way come up and kick you? Did he
Speaker 1: kind of poke you with his boots. He poked me.
Speaker 1: He poked me with a boom. Seriously, No, he was
Speaker 1: his foot. You know. He poked me because you wake
Speaker 1: up your silly some what custing kidding me. I wouldn't
Speaker 1: open my eyes at all because I was just in
Speaker 1: my mind. I said to stay here all day, just
Speaker 1: say they can't wake make you wake up. So they
Speaker 1: put some that chlora what's that stuff under ether under
Speaker 1: your nose. So yeah, well I didn't still wake up.
Speaker 1: I just breathed really deeply like yoga. You know, no,
Speaker 1: I was. I was doing this iron vedic breathing of
Speaker 1: smelling souls. That's how obstinate you were. I was not
Speaker 1: going to wake up. He couldn't get me up for
Speaker 1: a conclusion of this. What happened? Did you? I'm assuming
Speaker 1: because you're here. You eventually got up. He walked away
Speaker 1: from it. He said, she's faking. I know she's faking it.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna kill a little kid. And then he became
Speaker 1: amused by it because he thought he knew I was faking,
Speaker 1: but I wasn't going to wake up. He respected you
Speaker 1: a little bit. He knew I wasn't going awake, he
Speaker 1: knew I wouldn't do it. I was a lot like
Speaker 1: Hathaway say, so, so, how many months did you have
Speaker 1: to go on this goddamn picture? A year, year and
Speaker 1: a half. About ten times. I was going to say,
Speaker 1: how many more faith did you? Did? Your dresser not
Speaker 1: a lay down a cushion or something. When you did
Speaker 1: you wink at her. I would just kind of wink
Speaker 1: and I'd fall. You know, the same thing happened on Broadway.
Speaker 1: I was doing a play here called Irene, and they
Speaker 1: wouldn't give us two more days to rehearsal Gower Champions
Speaker 1: going nuts. We're not quite ready or ready to open,
Speaker 1: but we're not quite ready. So I went over to Gary.
Speaker 1: I said, listen, Garret, if we need another two days,
Speaker 1: I'll get it. He says, you can't get it. They
Speaker 1: wore they're out of money. I said, no, no, if
Speaker 1: I disappear, if I get sick or something happened, if
Speaker 1: I fall, you know. He said, well, how can you
Speaker 1: do that? I said, watch. I said, okay, let let's
Speaker 1: rehearse that what first number? So we were the one
Speaker 1: way I do the flip? So I did, and they
Speaker 1: said all right, all right, go ahead, go ahead. Gars
Speaker 1: looking he can't believe what I'm going to do. He
Speaker 1: doesn't know what I'm going to do. So I run
Speaker 1: and run forward to the wings and flip in the
Speaker 1: air and crashed down and knock myself out. But I'm
Speaker 1: not really out. No, So I opened one eye to
Speaker 1: gower and winked AM and went back out. You really
Speaker 1: aren't this wholesome? That Mazarine from Burnbank. You to me
Speaker 1: with me? You can fool trouble day trouble, But no,
Speaker 1: I just get a very wilful who is the director
Speaker 1: that you loved? I really loved all the directors I
Speaker 1: loved Hathaway through I became very dear friends and visited together. Aries,
Speaker 1: aren't you You're an Aries? I'm Aries. I'm born April
Speaker 1: Fool's Day. Aries is is very stubborn but very really
Speaker 1: good person. I mean, I don't think that there's a
Speaker 1: bad bone in the body other than our temper. That
Speaker 1: I you're known for your temper. That's not true. But
Speaker 1: it's not true, right, it's just if the press making
Speaker 1: up things, you know, Oh, the press love to make
Speaker 1: up thing. Well, luckily see, I'm not popular in this
Speaker 1: sense for the press. I see a picture of me
Speaker 1: going to it says I'm going to hit or push
Speaker 1: the photographer. I'm going to help them, they might fold.
Speaker 1: I'm reaching to help them, or I'm reaching. Well. I
Speaker 1: think the photographers today are terrible when they chase people.
Speaker 1: Say they didn't do that in my day. Now, I'm
Speaker 1: so happy I was in a golden era. They keep
Speaker 1: calling it show business and we didn't have Papa Rozzie
Speaker 1: like this. Speaking of which, when you say about being
Speaker 1: an aries and I'm not big on astrology, but people
Speaker 1: who are areas there, we say they love to bury
Speaker 1: the hatchet and have people get along. And even though
Speaker 1: you can have a bad temper and you can have
Speaker 1: grudges against people, they don't laugh. You just speak up right.
Speaker 1: You're kind of rigorously honest if we if you will,
Speaker 1: but for you, you buried the hatchet with Hathaway and
Speaker 1: he became a friend. You're someone that doesn't like the
Speaker 1: hold of grudge with people. No, I don't. But I'm
Speaker 1: rather like an elephant. I remember everything. And Debbie Reynolds
Speaker 1: has had her share of hatchets to bury. In nineteen five,
Speaker 1: she married singer Eddie Fisher. It was the show business
Speaker 1: wedding of year. Four years later, Fisher famously left rentals
Speaker 1: for her best friend Elizabeth Taylor. Soon after Taylor's husband
Speaker 1: was killed in an airplane accident, but years later she
Speaker 1: patched things up with Elizabeth. They had known each other
Speaker 1: since they were kids. We were friends, we went to
Speaker 1: school together. Elizabeth and I were kids together, and so
Speaker 1: what happens about our relationship was out of their desire
Speaker 1: to be together. Eddie Fisher and and she so that
Speaker 1: you know, when a man wants to go, he wants
Speaker 1: to go, he goes. I've learned that that certainly. So
Speaker 1: of course I forgave her years after that, because she
Speaker 1: she forgave her. So marriages two and three were less public,
Speaker 1: but no less painful for Reynolds. Now she's sworn off
Speaker 1: the institution. In a minute, she'll talk about her daughter,
Speaker 1: Carrie Fisher and their relationship. I'm Alec Baldwin, and you're
Speaker 1: listening to here's the thing. This is Alec Baldwin. Carrie
Speaker 1: Fisher's solo show, Wishful Drinking discusses her battles with substance abuse,
Speaker 1: manic depression, and being the child of Hollywood Royalty. It's
Speaker 1: poignant and hilarious. Having waited my entire life to get
Speaker 1: an award for something you know anything. I don't care.
Speaker 1: All right, fine, not acting, but what about like a
Speaker 1: tiny one for writing? I now get awards all the
Speaker 1: time for being mentally ill. So she is so funny. Oh, yes,
Speaker 1: she's brilliant. She's a brilliant. The children were really little.
Speaker 1: I was very worried about my health. I have been
Speaker 1: on the road and I was just working like mad
Speaker 1: in vaudeville. And I was concerned, and the children were
Speaker 1: very all And I called up Jane Dixon, who is
Speaker 1: a prophet and lived in Washington, and I mean she
Speaker 1: did you know she did with the government and all
Speaker 1: kinds of and she was it was the truth. She
Speaker 1: was sensational. Gave me an appointment and I sat down
Speaker 1: and she told me exactly what my children have become
Speaker 1: and everything that happened. She told me I was married
Speaker 1: to Harry Carl at the time. She said, when you
Speaker 1: go home, you're going to have to face the divorce,
Speaker 1: and he has taken all of your money. When you
Speaker 1: go home, you will find that out. So you don't
Speaker 1: know anything about it. I said, well, no, I I
Speaker 1: let him take care of the money. She said, well
Speaker 1: he is Kerry was going to be in white robes
Speaker 1: and sand on a stage. Is the astrologer Gene Dixon
Speaker 1: estroller just Jane Dixon, who is very world famous. Did
Speaker 1: she predict Kennedy's assassination as well? She predicted everything? Yes, Kennedy,
Speaker 1: Robert Kennedy and Jack Kennedy. Yes, she was very famous.
Speaker 1: And then she Omi Todd would would be a builder
Speaker 1: and go to architectural school, and they have exactly my
Speaker 1: son turn architecturals. Well, he's a Bill's where does he live?
Speaker 1: He lives in the valley around it. Yes, there are.
Speaker 1: We all live sort of together because we adore each other.
Speaker 1: You wrote in your book that you're unlucky in love?
Speaker 1: Why were you unlucky in love? What do you mean?
Speaker 1: Because I'm just too old fashioned? You know? Well, of
Speaker 1: course I picked the wrong man, but that's because I
Speaker 1: am easy. You know, I'm easy. I don't ever argue.
Speaker 1: I mean, you need the money here, you take it?
Speaker 1: Oh you need that? Well? Do you trust people? Well,
Speaker 1: I'm very trusting. How was Carrie like you? And how
Speaker 1: it was Carrie like Eddie? Can you see the lines that? Well,
Speaker 1: Carrie was born with Eddie as the father, and he
Speaker 1: was on speed. So Carrie was born was manic, depressive, bipolar,
Speaker 1: so she will have that for the rest of alive
Speaker 1: and it's a dread disease. Cart from him, Yes, from Eddie,
Speaker 1: it was very sweet of him. Carrie has an illness
Speaker 1: that is a severe problem over the whole world, and
Speaker 1: they do not have any answers for you. She's taking
Speaker 1: shock of treatments right now. It is a family's pain.
Speaker 1: We all have it because we so want carry to
Speaker 1: be well, and that's what we pray for all the time.
Speaker 1: And she's so funny. Her daughter is divine, and she
Speaker 1: goes to school here in New York and she's the
Speaker 1: most beautiful young smart, really smart, and she's taking accounting.
Speaker 1: So I think we'll be all right. She won't come
Speaker 1: to me for about money. And Carrie's going to be fine.
Speaker 1: She's brilliant and she's a great writer. From you, from me,
Speaker 1: what did she get laughter? If you could give people laughter,
Speaker 1: that would be the ideal thing. I know this is
Speaker 1: going to sound really cliched and kind of silly, but
Speaker 1: you know, you come from such a great era of
Speaker 1: movie stardom. Your name means something. When you say someone's name,
Speaker 1: you kind of go okay, But your name, you say
Speaker 1: a certain kind of a film, people automatically think, like
Speaker 1: the big Golden Age of Hollywood musicals, and you and
Speaker 1: Kelly and all these movies and Unsinkable Molly Brown and
Speaker 1: all these great films. Even though people don't realize that
Speaker 1: you stopped making films. I wrote this down. You stopped
Speaker 1: making films by and large and around What's the Matter
Speaker 1: with Helen in seventy one, and then from ninety one
Speaker 1: to six, according to your biography, most of what you
Speaker 1: do is voiceovers or retrospective releases, like that's entertainment. You know.
Speaker 1: You don't work a lot during that period in films.
Speaker 1: I just do nightclubs. I work theater. I would do
Speaker 1: a club act o were forty two weeks a year
Speaker 1: every day. Where would you go? Everywhere? Colorado, Texas, Yes, Australia, England.
Speaker 1: I did uh five a day in England. So I
Speaker 1: came a vaudevillion for twenty years to make a living
Speaker 1: from my children. And then and then you go and
Speaker 1: do the movie with Albert Brooks. Yes, I did. Mother.
Speaker 1: He convinced you to do that movie. No, Carrie called me,
Speaker 1: she's a mother. I read a script Albert Brooks, who
Speaker 1: they were very good friends did and it's so funny.
Speaker 1: You have to do it. I said, well, you know,
Speaker 1: nobody wants me for movies anymore, Dear. She said, well, mother,
Speaker 1: I want you to fly up here. I was in
Speaker 1: Vegas and I owned a little hotel and I had
Speaker 1: a nightclub and I was happy as a hog in heaven.
Speaker 1: So she said, well, no, I don't care, mother, you
Speaker 1: have to fly. So I flew in and I met
Speaker 1: Albert and I read a scene for him and he
Speaker 1: said to me, you've got it. And I said what
Speaker 1: does that mean, Albert? He said, well, you've got it.
Speaker 1: You've you've got the part. I said, Albert, I have
Speaker 1: to meet the director. Oh I am the director, Debbie.
Speaker 1: Oh I didn't know, Albert, I said, because you know
Speaker 1: I know him since he's a young boy. And then
Speaker 1: I said, well you have to see the producer, then, dear,
Speaker 1: you can't just suddenly hire Debbie. Well, I yes I can.
Speaker 1: I'm the producer. I'm the producer, I'm the director. I
Speaker 1: wrote it. And yes, you're going to do it, I said, Albert,
Speaker 1: you'll get into trouble. He said, no, you really are
Speaker 1: going to get it now, because you're bossing me. Now,
Speaker 1: you're just like my mother. So you've got the Parker. Sure,
Speaker 1: can you eat lamb chops? What the hell is a lamb?
Speaker 1: It's meat. I told you I don't eat it. That's
Speaker 1: not a cow. I didn't know it was the animal.
Speaker 1: You were siding with the whole thing. It's a whole thing.
Speaker 1: Wasn't cheese. Albert was first with if he wanted Doris today,
Speaker 1: but she just wouldn't do it because she would have
Speaker 1: been terrific. But as we all know, Doris doesn't want
Speaker 1: to go back on the screen. And I didn't want
Speaker 1: to because I was in Vegas and I was running
Speaker 1: my hotel and I was having a lot of trouble
Speaker 1: with my husband and he wanted to, you know, take
Speaker 1: over my business and throw me over the balcony. And
Speaker 1: I was having a lot of problems. But I left
Speaker 1: and I did the movie Mother, and I'm happy I did.
Speaker 1: I think it made a lot of films and a
Speaker 1: lot of TV shows since then. Will and Grace did
Speaker 1: you play well? What do you mean? I played Grace's mother.
Speaker 1: You were Grace's mom Adler. Her name was Adler and
Speaker 1: so she sang a lot, did impressions. It was a
Speaker 1: lot of fun to do. And the you have you
Speaker 1: stopped the club actor, you're still doing that. You still
Speaker 1: I still do my club act. I've been under the
Speaker 1: weather for about four months, so I've been kind of
Speaker 1: taking it easy and getting my health back. Contest. And
Speaker 1: you look fantastic, well you have. You look gorgeous. You
Speaker 1: give me me my birthday party. You look beautiful. Thank you, dear,
Speaker 1: and I wish you all the happiness with your new
Speaker 1: wife and a baby to camp. Your life is all
Speaker 1: ahead of you. I love my baby so much. And
Speaker 1: even though they're all grown in your age, practically, you know,
Speaker 1: there's nothing like it. This is so special. I'm really
Speaker 1: looking forward, you know when I think of you and
Speaker 1: you being part of that, you know, great era of
Speaker 1: studio filmmaking. Did you ever watch your stuff that you
Speaker 1: did you ever go back and watch those films you
Speaker 1: don't bother? Well, some of the films I watch everybody
Speaker 1: else's films. Betty Davis so I loved her and Katherine hepburnna.
Speaker 1: I love when you watch a movie, you watch a
Speaker 1: movie from back then? Oh, yes, I only watch all
Speaker 1: movies you don't go to see. You don't exactly so
Speaker 1: You don't go see movies today, not really don't, not
Speaker 1: even screeners from the Academy or DVDs at homes. If
Speaker 1: someone tells me it's really wonderful, I'll go. Like Titanic,
Speaker 1: you'd watch or something. No I did go to see.
Speaker 1: No I I did that movie. No I, I just
Speaker 1: did a film with It was about Liberaci behind the Candelabra,
Speaker 1: Michael Douglas, Michael Douglas and uh, that'll be out soon.
Speaker 1: I played Mrs Lieberacci and because I like to do
Speaker 1: di election, and I knew Mrs Libaraci and I knew Lee.
Speaker 1: We were working a now very good friend. Yes, we
Speaker 1: were really dear friends. And he always called me up
Speaker 1: after the show and we go out together and he said,
Speaker 1: were white, all white Danby and your jewelry. And then
Speaker 1: he'd arrived in the limousine with the chauffeur's hat on
Speaker 1: and he drive me. I mean, he was so much fun.
Speaker 1: I loved Libaracci was great, So I did his mother.
Speaker 1: How was Soderberg to work with? Did you like Soderberg? Oh,
Speaker 1: he was wonderful. The director was wonderful director. I just
Speaker 1: had a little part, you know, And she had any
Speaker 1: she well, she was. The only thing is dialected to
Speaker 1: be real, and you have to do doon when you're
Speaker 1: doing their dialect is Polish, and so you have to
Speaker 1: talk about really the really one And to me unbelievable
Speaker 1: because I am very good at dialects. I love to
Speaker 1: do them. You know what's amazing to me is you
Speaker 1: still enjoy doing this. You still love this? Yes, even
Speaker 1: though this is something that you came into almost accidentally.
Speaker 1: You know, you won the contest and you went over
Speaker 1: to Warner and we want you to be in the
Speaker 1: movie business. And you laughed when they said that. And
Speaker 1: yet here you are when you were sixteen years old,
Speaker 1: and now you're eighty one years old, sixty five years later.
Speaker 1: You still enjoy doing this, don't you. Absolutely? If you're
Speaker 1: blessed enough to be able to have something to do
Speaker 1: that you love. Besides marriages, I mean, that's the only
Speaker 1: thing that's been a disappointment to me in my life. Honey,
Speaker 1: you're looking at the man you should have married. Here,
Speaker 1: it's me here I am. I wouldn't have stolen your money,
Speaker 1: will you? And I would be home right now watching
Speaker 1: Turner classic movies, eat popcorn. I'll be giving you a
Speaker 1: foot rub. I have a wonderful life, I really do.
Speaker 1: God bless everybody. I really am very Another thing you
Speaker 1: have and you don't have to confirm us, but I
Speaker 1: bet you I know another thing you have, which is
Speaker 1: when you meet people you're fans. I bet you they
Speaker 1: just love you. They're my friends. Are not my fans?
Speaker 1: You know, everybody I meet, I just feel like I
Speaker 1: know them sixty five years and they made me, they
Speaker 1: gave me my work, and they stay by me all
Speaker 1: these years. You know, I work in Vegas all the time,
Speaker 1: and I work in Laughlin, which is called is in Nevada? Right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: anywhere there's a job I work. You enjoy doing it
Speaker 1: live that way? How long is your show? Sure? The
Speaker 1: whole act of our hour and a half an hour
Speaker 1: and a half. I do a lot of comedy. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean I try it to. They make it funny.
Speaker 1: Let me end with this. Acting for me is very strange.
Speaker 1: Now I'm kind of done with it, you know. I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't think I want to do it much longer.
Speaker 1: And the world has changed now, as you well know,
Speaker 1: it's very different. The way is that your phone? I
Speaker 1: think it is your phone? Where is my isn't that odd? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Where's Oh? But what you're listening to? Taking her phone up?
Speaker 1: It's my it's my son. Yes, I never turned this
Speaker 1: is now taking out all the akuchum on her little asia.
Speaker 1: But I don't. I can't find this. You can't find it.
Speaker 1: Let's find it here. It is there, it is well,
Speaker 1: and this is this is how my son was born,
Speaker 1: nine pounds three ounces. Took a long time to get
Speaker 1: it out. I was nine. Hello, good heavens it's hard
Speaker 1: to find. Can you say it again? Hello? Did I
Speaker 1: get you too late? That's the story of my life,
Speaker 1: isn't it must be a man? Well, I'm going to
Speaker 1: hang up now. I'm visiting with Alec Baldwin. He's a
Speaker 1: big star. Yes, he's in Broadway, lives in New York.
Speaker 1: Just got married again, a young girl. They always pick
Speaker 1: him younger. Yeah, I'm might as well. That's one thing
Speaker 1: that hasn't changed. Yeah, then nothing has changed. Now. What
Speaker 1: I want to say to you is, I've been doing
Speaker 1: this and I wanted to say I'd love to work
Speaker 1: with you one day. I've not anytime. I'd love to
Speaker 1: work with you one day. If there's a movie and
Speaker 1: there's a partner for you to play my crazy aunt.
Speaker 1: Will you come in? There'd be fun to do the
Speaker 1: crazy ant or the street lady or anybody you like that.
Speaker 1: I like to do characters where I could fake. Debbie
Speaker 1: Reynolds has a new book, Unsinkable, and she has a
Speaker 1: huge collection of Hollywood memorabilia that you too can have
Speaker 1: a piece of. I'm selling it online. So if thank
Speaker 1: Debbie Reynolds. What Debbie mill studio store dot com. Debbie
Speaker 1: Reynolds studio store dot com. You're selling lots of wonderful things.
Speaker 1: I'm going to go buy something on there. Okay, Charlie
Speaker 1: Chaplin's hat, how about that reel hat? Is any of
Speaker 1: your underwear for sale online? No? But if you really
Speaker 1: want it, Babby, I'll give it to you. We're done
Speaker 1: branding there by. This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening
Speaker 1: to here's the thing.