Debbie Reynolds' costumes to on 3-day display

6 April 2017

Debbie Reynolds' son is holding an exhibition of some of her most iconic costumes.

Debbie Reynolds

The 'Singin' In The Rain' actress tragically passed away in December last year - just one day after her daughter Carrie Fisher had died - and now her son Todd Fisher has teamed up with TCM to preview a select number of costumes from her most iconic roles.

He said: "My mother met Mary Pickford and Harold Lloyd early in the '60s, and there was talk of a museum back then. There were many attempts in the early years to actually put this together, and it never happened."

Todd's decision to take the costumes to an exhibition - which will be displayed for just three days from April 6 to April 9 at the TCM Classic Film Festival - comes as he admits his mother was "obsessed" with preserving her costumes.

He added: "She was panicking to save ... So she started to say, 'I'm going to buy everything I can.' She borrowed money, she spent every penny she had on it, right up to the bitter end. She became obsessed with the idea that it needed to be preserved for future generations.

"At one point, we had 3,000 costumes that represented every Academy Award-winning film that had ever been even nominated for Best Production Design or Costume Design since the beginning of the Academy, and beyond ... People have no clue how into this she was."

When Debbie finally decided to auction off her collection, Todd, 59, says it "broke her heart" to see the items go, but admits it benefitted her financially after she had lost the bulk of her fortune in divorce settlements from her three ex-husbands, Eddie Fisher, Harry Karl, and Richard Hamlett.

Todd added to People magazine: "Now, it broke her heart to do that auction, but [the collection] was burying her. The money to preserve this stuff was staggering. We were spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a year just to preserve it. Nobody's helping, nobody even gets it.

She made over $22 million in one night. I said, 'Well just dry your eyes with hundred dollar bills, because that's what you can do if you want to.' She still kept a few pieces here and there, even through that."

The costumes from Debbie's collection will be on display to festival pass holders during the TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood, from April 6 to April 9.