Make 'Em Laugh: Short-Term Memories of Longtime Friends - Hardcover

Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Debbie Reynolds was an actress, comedienne, singer, dancer, and author best known for her leading roles in Singin' in the Rain and The Unsinkable Molly Brown, and on TV as Bobbi Adler in Will & Grace. After more than sixty years in the entertainment industry, she was a true Hollywood icon, beloved by millions of fans of all ages around the world. Debbie Reynolds died on December 28, 2016, at the age of 84, just one day after the death of her daughter, actress and author Carrie Fisher.

Dorian Hannaway was the director of late-night programming at CBS-TV for more than fifteen years, supervising the production of The Late Show with David Letterman; The Kids in the Hall; and The Late, Late Show. She has known Debbie for more than thirty years, and has written and produced many projects with her.

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An entertaining collection of vignettes, stories, jokes, and random musings from a woman who has seen it all——and done most of it!

From her acclaimed performances to her headline-making divorce from Eddie Fisher, and from raising a famous daughter and being a proud grandmother to hitting the road with a successful one-woman show, Debbie Reynolds’s life has been splashed across newspaper headlines and magazine covers for decades. She’s met presidents, performed for the Queen of England, and partied with kings. A show-business icon, she can still sing and dance—and can drop more names than the most connected talk-show hosts.

In this fabulous personal tour through sixty-five years onstage and on-screen, Debbie recalls wonderful moments with the greats of the entertainment world—Lucille Ball, Frank Sinatra, Bette Davis, Phyllis Diller, Gary Cooper (“one of the handsomest men I’d ever met, and I’ve met quite a few lookers”), her dear friend Judy Garland, Bob Hope, and many, many more—sharing stories that shed new light on her life and career and on the glittering world of Hollywood then and now. Debbie has plenty to tell, and in Make ’Em Laugh, she dishes it all in the warm, breezy, down-to-earth voice her fans adore.

Debbie shares intimate memories of late-night pals and of some of the greatest comedians of all time, tales from the big screen and small, and anecdotes of marriage, motherhood, and children. Combining her wicked sense of humor and appealing charm, she reveals the personal side of show business and fame in funny, poignant, and delightful reminiscences: meeting Greta Garbo and Joe DiMaggio; surviving a gig with a killer whale; jitterbugging with Johnny Carson; making her immortal mark at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre (“outside of New Jersey, there aren’t a lot of occasions when people ask you to put your feet in cement”); and being recognized by her peers when she was presented with the Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award. Nothing is off-limits: Debbie talks about her sex life and her family drama, and even shares a secret recipe.

As irresistible as the woman at its heart—an irrepressible “baggy-pants comedienne” game for anything—this funny and charming collection displays the consummate skill of a beloved entertainer who truly knows how to make ’em laugh.