Home Entertainment Joey Reynolds Remembers Debbie Reynolds And Carrie Fisher

Joey Reynolds Remembers Debbie Reynolds And Carrie Fisher

Actress Debbie Reynolds (L) and her daughter Carrie Fisher (R) arrive at the 2011 Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards in Los Angeles September 10, 2011. REUTERS/Danny Moloshok
FILE PHOTO: Actress Debbie Reynolds is photographed by fans as she arrives at the world premiere of the 40th anniversary restoration of the film “Cabaret” during the opening night gala of the 2012 TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood, California April 12, 2012. REUTERS/Fred Prouser/File Photo

I came to know Debbie Reynolds on several levels. When I was a kid at the Boys Club of Buffalo, one of my first 45 RPM records was Tammy. We always ended every dance with a slow romantic record, Tammy was a favorite.

Today I am writing this piece from KABC’s new studios on the grounds where MGM used to make musicals at the rate of one a week. It is raining and it reminds me of her singing in the rain with Donald O’Conner.

 

debbie reynolds
Wikipedia

Debbie had a good heart and was very generous.  She went on to form an organization called Thalians, for needy children, where she collected most of the MGM treasures like the shoes from Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz and the umbrella from Singing in the Rain, etc.

Faith Based Events

I  became friends with Mickey Rooney and his wife, Jan Chamberlin. We did a cooking show on TV from their home in Westlake.  Before Sugar Babies on Broadway with Mickey Rooney, he and Debbie opened a casino in Las Vegas when I was President of Wayne Newton’s company. We laughed about my fake name “Reynolds.”

The hotel and casino was a showroom for entertainers and limited gaming so as not to compete with the big money guys. The Hotel went under as they tried to get high rollers to spend money on card games and slots.  Debbie peppered the place with Memorabilia, it was very cool.

A long time ago, on a street corner far away. Left to Right: Han Solo, Darth Vader, Chewbacca, Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker, R2-D2 (LG 104.3/Joey Reynolds/facebook)

In 1977,  I was Creative Director at 20th Century Fox and met Carrie Fisher on the lot at the commissary. We had lunch in the Shirley Temple room for execs and joked about how the Fox corporate guys coming to lunch were like the Cantina bar scene in Star Wars.

Carrie was very bright and at the time I was doing some album photography shoots with Barry White who was on 20th Century Fox records.  I asked Barry to come meet Carrie Fisher, Annie Bancroft and Shirley Mclaine who were filming Turning Point.   He said Carrie was “a little genius.”

In the next chapter of my life I was the host of the first satellite show called “Satellite Live from LA”  every week.  I put Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds together and we had a blast.  Carrie was outspoken and Debbie was more private in the Hollywood tradition.

I wish Rona Barret would talk to me on my new show, no one knew Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher better than Rona. She’s the Yoda of Hollywood!

We lost two greats and they know no equal.

 


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Joey Reynolds is the pseudonym of Joey Pinto, host of the U.S. radio program The Joey Reynolds Show via the WOR Radio Network.[1] Reynolds' broadcasting career started on TV- in Buffalo at WGR TV 2 his first radio job was WWOL in Buffalo with Dick Purtan then WKWK,Wheeling,WV after that he continued at several venerable stations, including WKBW in Buffalo, New York, WHTZ and WNBC in New York City, KQV in Pittsburgh, KMPC and KRTH in Los Angeles, WDRC in Hartford, WIXY in Cleveland, and WIBG and WFIL in Philadelphia. He rose to fame as a Top 40 radio personality during the 1960s and 1970s, amassing huge audiences in places such as Hartford, Connecticut, Cleveland, Ohio, Detroit, Michigan, and his hometown of Buffalo, New York. Reynolds is often regarded as the originator of "shock talk radio", whose sometimes outlandish on and off-air stunts garnered widespread publicity. (The Four Seasons even produced a special radio jingle for the introduction of his daily radio show). He was the focus of a two-part series on The Oprah Winfrey Show concerning talk radio personalities, on which more than a dozen of Reynolds' media peers paid tribute to him. Moreover, he has been invited to speak about entertainment media at several radio industry conferences.