A. Jack Benny once said “Debbie, don’t tell obvious jokes, just tell what’s real, because your life is so crazy. All of our lives are so crazy.’’ But I understand that North Shore is a theater in the round?
Q. Yes. You have to perform to all sides of the room.
A. Well that’s pretty terrible. Who wants to see all sides of me?
Q. Did you have a favorite leading man?
A. I loved working with Glenn Ford and Frank Sinatra. They were two of my favorite people. I was a great fan of Jack Lemmon and always wanted to work with him. I mostly loved working with the funny people, the character actors.
Q. You’ve been in the headlines lately not just because of your sassiness, but because you starting selling your famous collection of Hollywood memorabilia.
A. I wanted to build a museum all these years, but I couldn’t seem to make it happen, so I decided that I would sell the collection to share with the world. We had a huge auction on June 18. We raised $12 million. We made $5 million for the little white dress that Marilyn Monroe wore [in “The Seven Year Itch’’]. There is another auction on Dec. 3 for the rest of it. I have a total of 5,000 pieces of memorabilia.
Q. Was the auction sad for you, or was it a relief that you’re no longer responsible for such a massive collection?
A. It was very sad for me because I bought everything for the public. I bought clothes, or bought whole set pieces. I thought that it was important for our history. The only reward came from the fact that it reaped a great harvest, and it shows you the interest that people have in these items that much of the press called foolish and a waste of money many years ago. This was one way that you could visit with your stars. The costumes, the props … I bought everything.
Q. Did you recognize that someday they’d be valuable?
READER COMMENTS »
View reader comments » Comment on this story »