In 1970, Debbie Reynolds watched in disbelief as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer sold off costumes, props, and other treasures that had helped bring Hollywood’s golden age to life. While others saw old clothes and forgotten studio property, Reynolds saw something priceless. She understood how these pieces of cinematic history had made generations of people laugh, cry, and dream.
Reynolds could not bear the thought of those treasures being lost.
“I couldn’t believe they were selling all these costumes. My heart became overwhelmed in wanting to save them and save our history,” Reynolds recalled in a 2011 interview with The Washington Post.
During MGM’s enormous liquidation auction, the Singin’ in the Rain star bid repeatedly, returning over a period of weeks to rescue as many items as she could afford. She spent heavily, determined to prevent irreplaceable pieces of Hollywood history from being discarded or disappearing into private hands.
The beloved actress and performer became a guardian of Hollywood history. Her determination led to one of the most remarkable private collections of movie memorabilia ever assembled. Decades later, the collection would also become a financial lifeline when her dream of creating a permanent Hollywood museum proved impossible to sustain.
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A Love Affair With Hollywood’s Magic
Reynolds’s fascination with movie costumes began long before the MGM auction. When she arrived in Hollywood as a teenager, she was captivated not only by the stars in front of the camera but also by the skilled artisans working behind the scenes.
“I used to spend my spare time in the wardrobe department, watching the most talented people create costumes for the actors,” she recalled. “I was fascinated by how they were able to translate a simple suggestion in a script, sometimes even a piece of dialogue, into a magnificent costume.”
She loved everything about the process: the sketches, fabrics, construction, and sheer imagination required to transform a few words on a page into something extraordinary on screen.
To Reynolds, a costume was never merely a garment. It could reveal a character’s personality, capture a moment in history, or evoke an entire movie with a single glance. Every stitch represented the work of artists whose contributions could easily be overlooked.
MGM’s decision to sell its historic wardrobe and props distressed her deeply. She believed these objects deserved protection, not disposal.
Kirk McKoy / Getty Images
Rescuing Hollywood’s Greatest Treasures
The collection Reynolds began assembling in 1970 eventually included some of the most recognizable costumes and props in movie history.
Among its treasures was Marilyn Monroe’s famous ivory-pleated dress from The Seven Year Itch, along with a pair of ruby slippers associated with Judy Garland’s screen test for The Wizard of Oz. Reynolds also acquired a headdress worn by Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra, the acoustic guitar Julie Andrews played in The Sound of Music, Charlie Chaplin’s signature bowler hat, and hats worn by Vivien Leigh in Gone With the Wind.
Reynolds collected with the enthusiasm of a devoted fan. She once approached her friend Joey Bishop to ask for his tuxedo trousers. Bishop responded by giving her a complete set of Rat Pack tuxedos belonging to himself, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., and Peter Lawford.
Her passion was not confined to famous dresses or expensive artifacts. She believed every piece could tell a story. Joe Maddalena, founder of Profiles in History, the auction house that handled the sales of her collection, remembered that Reynolds’s enthusiasm was the same whether a costume was worth $50 or $1 million. Each item had a connection to an actor, a film, or a moment she treasured.
Her ambition extended far beyond collecting. Reynolds wanted to create a permanent museum where the public could experience Hollywood’s history firsthand and appreciate the craftsmanship behind the movies.
She imagined a place where these costumes would be displayed for future generations rather than hidden away in private collections.
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The Museum Dream
Reynolds pursued several museum projects, including a proposed attraction connected to a Las Vegas hotel and casino. She eventually opened a Hollywood memorabilia museum in Las Vegas in 1995, but the venture did not provide the permanent, financially sustainable home she envisioned for her collection. Later plans, including a proposed project in Tennessee, also failed to secure the financing needed to move forward.
She continued looking for a partner who would help preserve the collection as a unified archive. Reynolds approached the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences repeatedly, hoping it would work with her to establish a permanent home for the treasures. According to The New York Times, the Academy turned her down five times. The partnership she envisioned never materialized during her lifetime.
Meanwhile, the costs of maintaining the collection took their toll. The woman who had spent decades rescuing Hollywood history was struggling to keep her own dream alive. Eventually, she faced a heartbreaking decision: sell the collection she had devoted much of her life to building.
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When Her Collection Became a Financial Lifeline
In 2011, Reynolds began auctioning off her treasures through Profiles in History. The decision was bittersweet. She was not simply selling valuable objects; she was parting with pieces she had rescued, cherished, and hoped to share with the world through her museum.
The first major auction, held in June 2011, generated approximately $22.8 million. A second sale later that year brought the proceeds from the first two auctions to roughly $25 million. A third and final auction followed in May 2014, offering additional pieces from her collection.
These sales came after years of financial hardship, including difficulties associated with her former husband Harry Karl’s gambling debts, as well as the expense of maintaining her collection and the failure of her museum ventures. The auctions provided important financial relief while bringing her treasured artifacts to collectors around the world.
Silver Screen Collection / Getty Images
A Surprise for the Memorabilia World
Monroe’s white dress from The Seven Year Itch sold for $4.6 million before buyer’s fees. Audrey Hepburn’s dress from the Ascot race scene in My Fair Lady attracted a $3.7 million winning bid, bringing its price to approximately $4.4 million with fees. A pair of ruby slippers associated with Garland’s Wizard of Oz screen test also sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
These extraordinary prices reflected both the historical significance of the objects and the affection many people felt for Reynolds. The auctions confirmed what she had understood all along: these pieces mattered.
Her financial circumstances had forced her to relinquish many of the treasures, but the sales demonstrated that the costumes and props she had worked so hard to preserve possessed cultural and historical value far beyond their original use on a film set.
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A Legacy That Lives Beyond the Auction
Reynolds never realized her dream of opening a permanent museum for her entire collection. Once the auctions were complete, the objects were dispersed among buyers, and the collection she had worked so hard to keep together became part of many separate collections.
Yet her efforts helped strengthen the case for treating Hollywood costumes and props as significant historical artifacts.
Film costumes are the products of designers, tailors, embroiderers, and other skilled craftspeople whose contributions were often overlooked. For decades, garments from old productions were sometimes discarded, altered for reuse, or lost. Reynolds understood that preserving them meant protecting an essential part of movie history.
Reynolds died on December 28, 2016, at the age of 84, one day after the death of her daughter, Carrie Fisher. She did not live to see all her museum ambitions fulfilled, but her contribution to preserving Hollywood’s past remains significant.
Every rescued costume preserved a connection to the actors who wore it, the artists who created it, and the audiences who fell in love with the films. Reynolds understood that movie history lived not only on screens but also in the physical objects that made those stories possible.
A Dream Finally Realized
In a poignant turn, Reynolds’s long-held dream of seeing Hollywood’s cinematic history preserved in a museum gained renewed recognition in 2020, four years after her death. The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, developed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, moved to honor her legacy by naming its conservation studio the Debbie Reynolds Conservation Studio. The recognition carried particular significance because the Academy had turned down her proposals five times during her lifetime.
By then, much of her original collection had been sold, but Reynolds’ son, Todd Fisher, still held some of its surviving treasures and agreed to work with the museum to help make important artifacts accessible to future generations. The museum opened to the public on September 30, 2021.
Although Reynolds never lived to see that milestone, the institution that had once declined to support her vision was now recognizing her contribution to film preservation. Her legacy extends beyond the millions of dollars her collection generated at auction. She helped champion the idea that Hollywood’s costumes and props are irreplaceable pieces of cultural history. They deserve the same care and respect as the films themselves. As Reynolds once said, “These pieces are cultural touchstones that still carry the energy of the stars who performed in them.” She added, “There is magic in every thread, button and bow.”
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This story was originally published by Parade on Oct 25, 2026, where it first appeared in the Entertainment section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.