Debbie Reynolds interview with Tom Bergeron on Boston's "People are Talking"--1990

[Applause] oh [Music] good morning don't you all look nice and awake right here right here this is still 12 30 in the afternoon is early for someone who's just finished uh it's early for me because you know i'm in the show here and i sl you know we get through at 12 every time i get to sleep it's two and then when you want to get up and of course there's a certain age that you reach and it takes longer to get ready right girls some of some of you know how many how many were in the audience last night at the colonial theater for uh we had a few people here and you had you had quite a night it was opening night last night opening i was so terrific first of all the theater is so gorgeous oh i wish i lived here so that i could try and buy that beautiful lady that thing is you all have to just go and drop by and see the theater even if you don't want to see me but it's so wonderful it's so beautiful has little stalls and it's all in red and gold oh yeah it is very ornate we're going to talk a little bit later about the show that's uh currently here through march 4th but first i would like to go back to because i in reading your book uh your autobiography what seems so effortless what seems so full of just sunshine and ease in singing in the rain you write about being hellish let's take a look first at a clip of debbie reynolds donald o'connor and gene culley in singing in the ring [Music] now three three or three happier people you would be hard-pressed to find at least that's the way it looks on the screen that's how you're supposed to look yeah i know but that's entertainment right you don't want to see performers up there looking unhappy i mean our job is to make our audience forget the problems come and have a good time especially today in the world i mean that's why i wanted to do a musical on stage now i i like to go and forget my troubles for a while but in the movies yes we always we were happy young debbie reynolds being coached uh to dance for those numbers by gene kelly was crying frequently yeah well you know gene kelly is a wonderful man he's a task master you know and he's irish and those black eyes you know oh dopey so pushy really i'm irish too big deal and i know we are proud of it aren't we you know we like our heritage but we like america better where you want to go back there and they're still fighting you know english and irish but we're just behind soup you know a lot of everything where we have cherokee blood my mother we have a little bit of everything now uh so gene kelly you're so tricky yeah i haven't forgotten yet i'm still i love them you know we're good friends and isn't that but he he uh he was so brilliant you know he did singing in the rain he directed it he did all the staging of the dance numbers and everything i was 18. i really was once and so i didn't know what he knew by any means so he would yell at me all the time and say get it right reynolds you know and see in those days we pre-recorded the music right so that we mouth to a record you know to a lip sync they called it and uh he had a microphone so that he could tell us if we were you know not smiling enough or not doing it right and so he yelled at me all up because he wanted me to be terrific didn't he yell at donald o'connor instead of you sometimes because he really wanted to yell at you more well he he he yelled at me for a couple days and i was 18 and i was very sensitive because of course i didn't feel as good as they because of course i wasn't so i would cry and then they'd have to cut the camera you know because tears and then the mascara would run and it would take like an hour to fix me back up so he he this happened for two days and then he decided if he yelled at donald instead of me i wouldn't cry so that's how you know it all evolves on poor donald told me this story we were here recently over in beverly mass donald o'connor and i did a little show together for about a year and he told me that story i never knew that that she yelled at donald so that i wouldn't cry there was someone there was someone and i loved this element uh in the book about singing in the rain someone very special who saw you crying who came to you and and showed you that hey it's tough for all of us see how he's luring me into these that's right well i was rehearsing one day and it was very hard work because you know three months i rehearsed all by myself with my teachers though eight nine hours a day and one day i remember i was under the piano and i was crying and everyone else had gone to lunch and i was under there girl i never learned it i was feeling very sorry for myself you know and someone walked by with you know black pants on and and someone said to me who little girl what are you crying about i said i'll never learn to dance i'll never learn it's just too hard it's too hard i don't want to do this movie anyway i don't want to be a movie star so this was fred astaire he leans down and he says now come here you're debbie you're the new girl because in those days they hired young people to train them and become stars you see so we had all ages under contract that was the perfect way to do it naturally to build new starts you have to start from the beginning so he called me out and he said debbie it's always hard there's no easy way to do anything right and dancing is the hardest he said now i never let anybody watch me dance because he was a real perfectionist he was as hard as jean in his way because you see they had to do to be perfect and of course they've done historical things so he let me watch him rehearse for about a half an hour and then he started to lose his temper because he couldn't find a step that he wanted and he threw his cane and i thought i better get out of there before he hit me with and i realized that that's the frustration of creating something truly brilliant and i got over that uh terror of not being able to learn and be as good as the next guy i didn't have to think about being as good as the next guy i just had to be as good as debbie could be so we have to keep in mind all the times to be what we can be and strive to do that not panic and i don't panic anymore look i'm just as calm out here meeting you tom here you are a pregnant man talking to your mother and you look fabulous no no tummy it's just amazing that kid will come out going like a little string and say i'm here i'm here i'm not showing him no you men have such a deal a little fun and then you know there's a there's a tv show see almost didn't hear that there's a there's a tv show yeah last night alien nation or something where the guy actually gave birth so if not on this planet but on other planets it just happens broke my flight [Laughter] let those guys go [Music] not pleasant can i ask you do you ever sit in on it i was there when when my daughter was born i was there for the whole time are you terrified i wouldn't i wasn't what was your feeling well no i wasn't i wasn't terrified so much as mystified by it it was just it was increased in your heart yes yes for her pain wouldn't you just i think it'd be harder to to be watching and you to someone you love they told me that that that men have have passed out in there you know they they you know they get in there these big guys get in there and one contraction by the wife they go hey yeah and that and that happens but i i was just let me tell you when i gave birth to my daughter carrie i was married to eddie fisher at the time and they in those days they didn't let the men watch they put him in a thing you know on a mask and everything and he he was standing there he fainted dead away hit his head everyone went to help him and i gave birth to the baby by myself he was a bigger star we uh we're gonna break you just gave me the best segue oh my papa what do you want to catch can we talk uh maybe can we talk maybe a little about that uh eddie fisher period of your life my life is an open book whatever whatever you like to chill and also some imaginations [Music] [Applause] [Music] is it an honor to be harvard tasty pudding woman of the year see the antics that took place when glenn close came to town to accept her award then despite the harsh realities of inner city life this teacher is helping her students build self-esteem and learn to dream uma pemaraju introduces us to this new england hero and bill costa takes us on the scene at the grammys for a behind the scenes look at the show and this year's nominees that's all on wednesday's evening magazine 7 30 tv 4. you don't have to squeeze this right peach to know it'll be juicy you don't have to wash it first you don't have to peel it you don't have to take out any pits pluck off any leaves or pull out any stems we made new libby's ripe with the whole fruit not just the juice so it's just like fruit except it's easier ripe is fruit you don't even have to eat ripe the fruit you drink i can sure use my tax refund now with h r block's rapid refund program you don't have to wait great but i'm a little short of cash right now with rapid refund you don't need any money what's that with rapid refund h r block files your federal return electronically with the irs so your refund loan is on its way to you in a matter of days you don't need any cash all fees can be deducted from your check available whether block prepares your return or not that's the way it ought to be that's the new rapid refund program from h r block cheryl teagues for new light and lively free i've been a model for over 20 years which means i always have to watch what i eat so of course i ate a lot of yogurt now i've found an even better yogurt new light and lively free six-pack it's fat-free all night long all day long [Music] one night in june he married them and very soon that was supposed to be just a sort of a throwaway song wasn't it in that movie uh abba daba honeymoon well we only made we didn't make records in our days you know doris day and myself we made these songs for the movies and then they released the film and somehow abidaba became well sold two million i have two little gold records because in those days they made those 45. yeah they saved money on me didn't they have you ever just have you ever played that record because sometimes these people get these gold records and they play them and it's some other artist singing on them well i don't know i haven't checked it out you were doing just as we went to break you were doing an incredibly accurate betty dave well the thing about doing bachelor is oh it's too soon i haven't started now i don't know really what i can do with you i really don't i don't know did you know who that was we'll applaud that one [Laughter] i'm glad to tell you now today we're going to do that that's dr ruth in case you didn't know who that was you also you also do joshua i think she's so much fun you know it's amazing there's a police force in beverly hills i'm sure yeah she said well i already i wanted to rent a carpet and said i slap a cup that's what i did she says god you can't believe debbie david i couldn't believe i stopped my car darling my rolls royce then he grabs me and he pulls me out of this car he almost spilled my drink you know what i think we're going to charge you people for tickets now we're having too much fun i don't do this in the unsinkable molly brown now you all have to come see my show now right colonial colonial through march 4th uh let let's talk about that again the clones the colonial through march 4. say it like an announcement santa day one saturday okay all right we'll talk more about the show a little later on uh eddie fisher you you have been quoted in uh in one interview that i read in a boston paper as saying he is sort of uh and i'm paraphrasing here but he's sort of a uh uh pathetic old man no i wouldn't say that i like old man no i i don't think i said that i i feel sorry for him now you know i always feel sorry for anyone that doesn't have enough gums and encouraged to face life and to get better i think whatever our problems are we all have our problems we all hit illness we all have to face pain and we have to survive that that crisis and that is done with a faith a belief in god or whatever philosophy you like and you must get over your addictions and problems and to just keep carrying them on and on and on and sinking down and down i don't admire that i i you have to face your problems well you you obviously i mean we're seeing every cover of every paper and magazine with donald and ivana trump and and that's what it was like back when he left you for elizabeth taylor it was everywhere every cover every uh it's amazing how many people you know really remember that as if it were yesterday i'm always asked about eddie and that's so long ago that i'm not angry with eddie any longer i was of course deeply hurt i was very young i had two children oh men and women are deeply hurt by their marriage ending you know and there's nothing easy about a separation especially if there's another woman involved or a man involved you know if if it's the other way so it's a hard thing to grow up to you know and no matter what age you are i have a very special woman in my life who's like my mentor teacher and like a second mother and her husband left her and when she was in her late 60s and they were married for 39 40 years or something now that is more devastating than anything i for a woman much not attractive and you know not a younger one that's startling i mean if if something walked in that was just oh gorgeous you'd say i underst i don't understand it but okay you know have a good time but it's more devastating the older you get i know yeah uh and and with elizabeth taylor you you never really expressed that i'm aware of any real public anger or or uh resentment i didn't say anything about elizabeth until my book i just happened to have a book elizabeth and i talked about it much later after she was married to richard burton and she admitted that she had made an error in going after a married man or having not refusing to have that happen because a woman can refuse a man's advances let's say eddie advanced on her you can say no you're a married man i never dated a married man i wouldn't i wouldn't even go to lunch with a married man it's up to the woman to say no isn't it because if you're a lovely beautiful girl i was young and terrific and fun and all that uh i could say no but if you don't want to say no then you can there's a chance there when especially elizabeth you see what happened with her is she lost her husband he was a very dear friend of ours mike todd we were her closest friends at that time it was right that we went to her aid it was right that eddie go and be with her as a friend it was wrong that it developed on but that's she could have stopped it then there but she needed someone so desperately at that time was there any feeling of uh yes when uh she threw him over for richard burton on the set of cleopatra i always knew that that would be over briefly i uh eddie wasn't enough for elizabeth elizabeth is having a hard time now because elizabeth is a very exciting woman nothing boring about her she's very bright you know she wants to have fun she wants to have color and for a man to be equal to elizabeth that's an unusual man i don't know who that's going to be because she had two of the greatest in the world you know my todd and richard burton my goodness richard burton was the best yeah i mean he could quote your poetry and he was the most interesting wonderful man you can and a wonderful heart so i don't know that she's going to be lucky enough yeah self-destructive only to himself yeah right self-destructive right right debbie of course self-destruct i'm not a morning person i loved richard burton i thought he was great and grand you know and i thought she's been lucky she had two wonderful men yeah you mentioned eddie being at the attempting to stay conscious through the delivery of carrie your daughter he was not around though for their growing up no eddie left when todd was six months old and my daughter was two so you see i raised the children i consider them to be mine i have a thing about that yeah i feel that if women raise the children and we pay everything then they cannot have a voice in it they can be there if they choose to be there eddie never chose to be there so my children they know who he is and if they want to call him and get together with him but he's not in my life anymore he's in their life because he's their father there's a story in the book of uh you putting presents under the christmas tree pretending they were from him and carrie finally at nine i think yeah i think there's nine or ten she brought it to me and she said mommy you give this to a child that doesn't have a father so that was that so i didn't put any more gifts from daddy because she she did she knew he wasn't doing it well those things are in the past and and uh i hope he does well i wish him well um my life is so wonderful today that i just keep praying that everything just stays the way it is you know i'm very blessed i've lived through it all and um still healthy and i i have a lot of fun do you think you finally do we have a picture of your your current and last husband as you as my favorite i don't know if we have a picture yes okay i don't know but uh do you feel like it took a long time for debbie reynolds to believe she deserved a good relationship with man i always felt i deserved it because i really am a good wife i never i was always wondering what i'm what am i doing wrong here because i tried to follow the rules perhaps that's my mistake i am a little old-fashioned you i always think the man is not maybe the boss but certainly you know i do have a tremendous uh attitude about i'm victorian about that that's why robert wagner broke up with you was it well we were on a kid's dating i mean i was 18 he was 19. that's a kid yeah but we were dated for two years but in those days you dated and you didn't do anything you know panky panky so that you you could break up without feeling devastated i think what happens is a lot of the young people today because they go into a real relationship i mean they live together so they're having this sexual attachment that is way beyond what any of my generation did to us that was a sin especially if you were religious you didn't do that and therefore if you did break up you weren't devastated by it because you hadn't really given your whole self to that person i think that's real important it is to women i don't know right girls i when uh one of the things i think they're going back to that more we're gonna because of uh problems yeah yeah i'm sure with aids and all uh we're gonna break in a moment but before we do your your husband proposed to you on your first date is that right you're you're my presence present and last husband and last and this is something that had happened before with with your other two i know every they all want to marry tammy i guess yeah that's right the trick is when when they get me do they like me off record you know see i'm two people i mean what but they've known me my whole life my present husband said to me debbie the difference is because i said to him what are you crazy why would i i don't even know you why why would i even think of marrying you we just had a date i mean i'll buy dinner next time and don't ask me [Laughter] it scared me to death i mean i was 50 49 or 50. i was never going to marry again i had my family i certainly wasn't going to get pregnant at 50. oh please i don't need all those diapers again and i don't care even though they have throwaways now i don't want them so i've done my job you know i've raised five children so anyway i said i can't get married again because i'd rather have a friend and a companion but i wouldn't want to to marry he's he said but you see i've known you my whole life so i feel i've known you i have an advantage over you debbie you just don't know me so now you have to trust me that i'm i'm telling you the truth i'm a wonderful guy i've i've loved you since i heard the record tammy and you are my best girl forever and i want to marry you i said well after we get you out of the clinic [Laughter] maybe we'll talk about it i mean it scared me to death well he is the best but i look at him every day and just he'll probably disappear overnight he'll become a bad guy i can call him during the commercial to make sure he's still at home if you want well how wonderful my husband is is right now my mother is very ill and has to have an operation right now she's having this operation and he's with her and my brother and my children but that he's with my mother you know looking after because he knows that i have a show if i walk out on a show i've never not been with my mother when she's ill so this is very hard for me not to be there i know if he's there everything will be covered because he's so strong that he won't be emotional he'll be sure that because my brother isn't good with these things my brother gets very upset and goes and sits in the corner and he won't fight with the doctors or he won't make sure she has the private room where's the nurse give her another shot you know i'm i'm always running around saying my mother doesn't feel well she has to have a shot it's three hours where's the nurse you know but he'll do that for you but he will do that so that's pretty wonderful when she's the mother-in-law we're we're gonna take a break when we come back i don't want to monopolize the whole conversation i'll let you in on it and you as well with debbie reynolds right now we'll be here one more question of my own then i'll let the audience and the viewers get some in here you were talking about how your husband is taking care of his mother-in-law your mom right now she goes through surgery i i just have to ask what was it like to be the mother-in-law of paul simon musical did i note you stiffened there a little better no i never get into my children i see and i never discussed them uh my daughter was married to paul and he's a very nice man very talented but that just didn't work out so it was sad for both of them yeah yeah you said uh that you wrote the book which you're welcome to show again if you would like uh right there to just sort of have i have 20 out in the car to head the kids off at the pass a little bit uh so before they write their own uh yes i well i wrote the book because i wanted to say what about my life it's my life and why should i wait till i die and then they write a bunch of lies about me i would like to they're going to write something anyway as soon as i deal they'll say well she left this out of the book you know i do i want to just while i'm here my daughter said i should have named it instead of mommy dearest i should get money dearest cause i'm always out of money well as a as a result really of your second marriage you're i know i lucked in you're such a jerk [Laughter] oh i loved him you know but he just couldn't whatever it's a shame but i let that happen so it's my fault i'm better at business now i try to watch my own money i write my own checks and look after things a little bit better but i i really did i don't like business it's very boring to me i work hard for my money though so i shouldn't just allow turn it over women should read the paper their husbands give it when they hand you something know what it is don't sign it if you don't like it because in the end you may have to pay for it like i did and it took me 10 years and i was broke for 10 years millions i lost everything i had every home every car everything gone sell everything i mean it just wiped me out just because my husband was a bad businessman but that made me a bad businesswoman so i can't blame him i have to blame myself also but i do blame him yet he's no longer alive is that right is he no he is deceived yeah let's go to jim in stoughton hi jim hi debbie hi tom how are you good good debbie number one welcome to boston it's wonderful to have such a talent here wow your vibrance and your um your talent come through clearly and i'm wondering what kind of an impact you thought that had on your children whether you wanted your children in the business and whether you would recommend that for other children well i don't recommend it for children child stars i think they lose their youth i think i came in at 16 that's a nice age because i'd had i was young i was a girl scout i was a brownie i had a life that children should have free responsibilities yes but young and a child and not burdened with all of that going to work at four in the morning six in the morning do this and do that i mean i just think that's wrong i did not raise my children to be in the business but god gave carrie so much talent that she's in it and very gifted and her book she just wrote mike nichols just made it into a film with meryl streep and shirley maclaine called postcards from the edge she wrote a book called postcards from the edge and it's a wonderful book and mike made it it's a film we'll see it as a movie so uh i'm thrilled about carrie my son is very happy also he is a very religious boy he was studying the ministry which he's now not do going to finish he wants to just be a witness and like a lay preacher and he's in electronics he puts in stevie wonder's sound studio he put in and he does all these computer things that i know nothing about but thank god the children are great even my my stepdaughter has made it and she has a little baby boy so everything's going on i don't if you if you don't want to answer this obviously don't but were you uh involved with carrie as she sought to extricate herself from her drug problems too parents are always joined i mean yeah yeah we love our children it's a hard thing to go through addictions are very hard to go through my second husband that lost everything from me was a gamblaholic that was undiagnosed in those days nowadays when i think the pete rose situation brought that out that this is an addiction and of course the main addiction for young people today is drugs and it's a terrible addiction and that's every kind of drugs i mean especially crack now it's just so terrifying because it's so cheap and the kids think it's a kick and that they if they do it more than five times they're in it's it's a terrifying period we should all pray for the young generation today it's a tough one who over here yep hi debbie i just want to say from my heart i love you and i love the movie molly brown i saw it about 20 years ago my first time and i've seen it at least a hundred times and i might know it even better than you do i know belly up to i have a keyboard and i play you i go bowing boing boing on the keyboard but i just want to say i know that movie was so hard for you i mean the dancing and everything you put so much work into that debbie and i i have two questions i'd like to ask you one is harf presnell is like the epitome of what a man should be and you know i loved him so much in the movie and i loved you as well but i haven't heard much about harv i didn't know if maybe you could share something about that well harv went to new york to do a annie 2 which is a new play but unfortunately the play closed i was so lucky i just feel like god shone down on me to get a leading man named ron raines who is so gorgeous he looks like robert goulet he sings like harv you know i mean it's just this fabulous operatic voice you'll see you come and see he's so divine wasn't before we break wasn't harv president supposed to be with you in this yeah well harv was in it for a while but then he got this opportunity to go to broadway so now he's unemployed isn't he oh [Music] yes he is but i'm blessed to have this leading man because he's truly special and you'll see when you come to see him you'll all swoon over ah is he stunning and let's talk molly brown when we come back with debbie reynolds after this great job now that somebody said yeah you said right that's dancing that is dancing that is dancing i mean ray bulger on his rubberiest days couldn't have matched that uh there that's that's well we do it every night at the colonials well that's what i was going to ask you about this is and thursday's matinee day and sunday matinee day come and see us belly up the bar boys now but that we're looking at a clip from 1964 for which you were nominated for an academy award what's it like 1990 to be doing the same dance numbers well it's harder but it's for me but it's fun to do it because i sort of proved to myself that she ain't down yet you know indeed indeed yeah i just want to say that you're as beautiful as ever and i've always thought you were great ever since i first saw singing in the rain welcome to boston thank you you're over here this guy's been wanting to be on tv ever since he came in here go ahead yeah i just wanted to say to um um what's what's her name again debbie reynolds debbie reynolds yeah i just wanted to say that debbie is his mother that's right princess leia's mother yeah i just wanted to say that debbie reynolds that i read about her in in the bookstores and all that and i wanted to say to her i i love her and welcome to boston that's nice we got you on television all right there you go let's go to uh that one time just so you know so you don't feel bad we had valerie harper on the show uh yeah a few years ago and i said we'll be back with valerie perrine right after this so it happens don't worry about it let's go to gary in hyde park hi gary hi tom how you doing good my question for debbie is how do you compare the actors of today and also the quality of acton now to that of the past well we had it easier in the sense of training i think uh there are some very fine actors today and actresses uh you have one in town kathleen turner's doing a cat on a hot chin roof she has a wonderful quality and i think she'll really go even bigger than she is today well i think she'll stay is the important thing her career will last uh we had the star system so we had we we learned voice placement we had to work very hard especially on the voices so that that's why you had so many distinctive sounds you know that's why you had betty davis sounds and hepburn's and maywest and you had these unusual qualities that were brought out by training i think they they don't have as much good fortune as we did that's why i want to go into teaching i really want to pass it on to them and i wish more big stars of the past including myself would teach the big stars today because they are there's more training needed but we do have some wonderful new stars today uh did you always want to be an actress when you like were younger no i wanted to be a gym teacher as a matter of fact really yeah in school uh but uh i'm happy it ended up this way okay yep hi debbie i really admire you i've invited you for years and you're just as beautiful as ever and i just want to ask you about your figure you always look so beautiful and uh you're dancing you have to take so much energy dancing now do you have to practice a lot tom did tell us that you did make an exercise we're gonna see some of that some of the exercises great great and the paces you're putting shelly winters through in the background there well i do believe you have to exercise and it's also very good for us i don't say you have to do it every day although that would be the best you know we always think we have to do it like two hours an hour hour even if you did 15 minutes even just staying in bed lying on the mattress so that you you can do your leg lifts and you can do uh stomach situps and all in the bed and then the the mattress cushions your spine so that you don't injure anything you know as we get older our bodies are not as supple you know we don't it's harder for us so i exercise a lot in bed on the mattress and then i do we really want to talk about this much swim a lot okay you are really in such good shape do you have an exercise or fitness program that you follow religiously mine your own yeah well it's called do a debbie's way it's on a tape and you can get it in the video store because i don't push it it's not in every video store but you can't order it if it's not there because they have so many of jane fonda so they don't have room for anybody else mine is a very low impact it's for beginners and it's very easy to do and i do it to maintain and we're going to see a clip from when we come back right after this so stay right there and get ready to tone up with debbie all right girls come on now just breathe up and breathe out huh because now we're going to get down on the floor and we're going to do some nice stretching exercises all right come on now we're just gonna get down easy sit on your side buttocks put your feet out in front as far as you can you don't have to do a big thing like look at this she hasn't had any children she had two though look at that what a drag just uh just a quick note uh for an upcoming show that we would love to have you be a part of we're gonna have uh next week i believe one of the nation's top relationship counselors is going to be here who has saved many a marriage and relationship if your relationship is in trouble and you want to avail yourself of his services we'd love to have you here we'll even put you in shadow if you don't want the neighbors to know i'll come back you'll come back for that 787-7109 is number to call one of the things you miss when you're watching the commercials debbie was showing the audience the the uh her leg bumps um now these are these are your trophies really in a sense right you talked about breaking both your knees at one point well you know when you're a dancer you wind up with like a football player has all these injuries you know they break their shoulders and their ribs and they have all kinds of ank knee problems are the biggest problem no i i just say i never can forget certain films because these this lump here and this lump here was singing in the rain because i was doing a tap dance and i jumped up and i fell down and and i wrecked both of these lumps here then these these two lumps were a nightclub act i was doing and and again i'm doing a tap dance and up down and i broke i broke these like cracked them and it was oh i was i heard and then in the middle there's two more lumps and then that's from another uh musical that i did uh because i fell off of a swing see i'm probably just a klutz well they look good from here and thank you they really do yeah i was wondering i was wondering how your exercise video came about did someone ask you to do it did you decide to do it yes because it was five six years ago before anyone had done an easy one everyone was so hard and a lot of the ladies would say debbie why don't you do a program for us over 40. so i said well fine i did it i was busy i was on the road but i i've been a first a gym t student of gymnastics and i've always been into bodywork you know my own body and so i just decided i i knew as much as anybody knows about it it's 41 years i've been doing this so i put that little thing together i don't want to do a new one because i like the old one you know and this has gone platinum by the way it's this twice quite the cellar yes over here i just wanted to say it's a pleasure to see you after all these years you've just as beautiful as ever and i wondered if you were still actively involved with the thalians yes the aliens is a charity for emotionally disturbed children and now adults we built our own hospital and i'm very active i have been for 33 years we've raised millions i'm very proud of it it's a charity work that i have always been dedicated to who else over here is going to want to don't want to okay yep i'll come right over there after you're a wonderful inspiration to us survivors oh thank you and i think many of us are and i think it's your attitude and your lesson we're supposed to be here in life to learn my daughter's a producer yours is the writer and i was the performer so i think it's what we were given not that we have credit for but we continue to do what we do best is to help other people and being where you are has really helped us thank you that's nice now you speak we should you speak from some personal pain in here huh oh i'm a member i was the um founded mayday which is a support of women and children abuse in 1976 in pennsylvania along with dr fitzpatrick was working a few miles for me for the alcoholic women i was the wife of an alcoholic thank god my children don't drink but i wasn't the one that drank so i was with you yeah it's nice bringing up the children right and it's just if we can help others we first have to help ourselves but get your children to get help and go yourself and get some exercise i do weight lifting i swim and i'm 69. what can you bench press [Applause] that's great thank you you don't okay that's all right over here yeah yeah welcome to boston debbie and i think you're fabulous and marvelous and i was in new york yesterday with my daughter susan having our hair done and the hairdresser we mentioned i was going to see you did your hair 30 years ago at the new york hilton instead to say hi [Laughter] jerry francis do you remember her 30 years ago oh sure oh i remember yeah who else over here yeah yeah back here first i'm right back yep okay stand up please yes um do you have any input in your dance routines or is it left to the choreographer no it's not left to the choreographer because he has to do what i can do and i don't turn left i turn to the right better so i always want to go that way because gene kelly taught me that and i have to go that way see gene always turned and gene always did these steps you know all these kind of things so i i i do all of gene kelly's steps so you know if i could get gene i'd have him do my step still because i still do his steps because he taught me as a kid no i'm very uh heavy into that because it has to be your expression you know you're what you can do but they put it together for you yeah right over here hi debbie you went so through so many emotional things and when you named your son todd did that ever have an effect on him and his life knowing that it was part of a romantic triangle well no todd was named before mike todd passed away and uh mike todd was a wonderful guy you know and a marvelous man said i love his name and todd loves his name and he's named todd emanuel after a mike todd and a man named manny sax who was discovered a lot of great talent and show dinosaur he worked for rca victor so there's a lot of history in todd's name and emmanuel also means very religious you know uh in the jewish faith that my son is a christian but he was raised to believe in all faiths so you know [Applause] [Music] [Applause] the unsinkable molly brown is at the colonial theater it opened to a standing ovation curtain calls and all last night going through march 4th the performances of tuesday through saturday at 8 pm saturday matinee at 2 sunday matinee at three thursday matinee at two holy mackerel good show yeah go ahead um yeah i read postcards from the edge and i was just wondering if she was writing any books now carrie she was relating a lot of that was about her problems of course that's why it was so funny yeah and devastating it's for the younger generation my generation would be shocked at a lot of the words and we don't really understand drugs that much because our generation drake yeah and probably still does you know she was asking too any other books that carrie is planning yeah she just finished another novel but and it's already purchased by spielberg to be made into a film so she's on a high roll my daughter it's very exciting for her but she's also very talented something about give me your pink or show me your pink i don't know let me tell you debbie reynolds this has been a rapid and highly entertaining hour it's all over i thank you very much [Music] [Applause] you

Channel: John Flanagan

Views: 25,716

Keywords:

Id: TOwDgcCXEYI

Length: 46min 39sec (2799 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 10 2020