Debbie Reynolds Auctions Her Priceless Hollywood Memorabilia

Debbie Reynolds and the 1918 Laurel & Hardy Model T--winning bid $35,000

Photos of auction and story by Stacey Gualandi

TWITTER:  DebbieReynolds1

UPDATE 6/19/11:  Results are in.  The auction raised a world record breaking  $22.8 million before fees and taxes.  Debbie’s next auction with more items from her collection will be December 3.

Marilyn Monroe’s “subway” dress went for a rousing $4.6 million.  The Audrey Hepburn “My Fair Lady” gown was sold at $3.7 million. 

We’ve posted the selling amounts for items we have shown.  You can visit icollector.com for all the winning bids.  A lock of Mary Pickford’s hair fetched $3500, Rudolph Valentino’s matador outfit $210,000.  Charlton Heston’s tunic and cape from “Judah Ben Hur” was bought for $320,000.

It’s a sight to be seen.  A literal step back in time through Hollywood’s Golden Age.   There are costumes from The Sound of Music and Casablanca; Charlie Chaplin’s bowler hat; even Ingrid Bergman’s Joan of Arc suit of armor… every piece extremely valuable and exquisitely preserved.

This one-of-a-kind Hollywood collection belongs to film legend Debbie Reynolds, and is now on display at The Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills before it will all be auctioned off Saturday.

As I walked through, smiling from ear to ear, it felt like a museum:  to my left, Marilyn Monroe’s iconic “subway” dress from 1955’s The Seven Year Itch…to my right, the riding suit made famous by a teenage Elizabeth Taylor in 1944’s  National Velvet.   And more.  Wait ’til you see…

Interview: Nikki Hardin On Her Sassy And Spirited Skirt! Magazine

Nikki Hardin is the founder and publisher of a unique monthly women’s magazine put together in Charleston, South Carolina called “skirt!”.   It’s cleverly designed, unpredictable,  full of fascinating essays and articles, and free!   It came, she says, out of the universe of her subconscious.

” The title was something catchy and controversial, something unexpected.”  Nikki Hardin

January Cover of skirt!

Nikki launched it with $400 as a small 16-page black and white handout  in 1994 hoping that women would embrace it, and to make a living.  Seventeen years later it’s alive and doing well with ten local editions throughout the country.

I met Nikki through writer Phyllis Theroux who told me that I just had to meet this women who started an incredibly original magazine “skirt!”.  And where could I find this freebie with the strange name?  “It finds you,”  she said.

That’s all I needed to know.  So I found Nikki at her Charleston office to get her to explain just what “skirt!” was all about…  

Interview: Sandy Foster On Building Her Tiny Victorian Retreat In The Woods

Photo: Trevor Tondro/NY Times

UPDATE 11/30/11:  Shabby Holiday Tips and Inspiration Video

Sandy Foster has single-handedly given new meaning to “tiny house” and to Victoriana in 2010.  When I saw the photo of her on the porch of the sweet retreat  in the New York Times, I simply had to know more about her and this wonderful mini building.   I read that she was a fiscal administrator but how did that jive with this “shabby streamside studio,” as she calls it,  in a forest?

To learn more about Sandy, check out her website where  you’ll notice the amazing attention to detail and get a sense of her eclectic taste.

“It’s a balm for the spirit to have a place where I’m free to do what I want.  Like a tree house you run to as a kid and pull up the ladder once inside.”
Sandy Foster

She was kind enough to quench my curiosity recently and answer questions about how and why she created this unique treasure.