Movie star and movie memorabilia collector Debbie Reynolds is bringing Hollywood's yesteryear to Tennessee's future.

Reynolds, who starred in Singin' in the Rain, Tammy and the Bachelor and The Unsinkable Molly Brown, plans to locate her Hollywood Motion Picture Museum at Pigeon Forge's Belle Island Village, where it will open in spring 2005.

''We had interested people here, investors and people that foresee the future for the museum, whereas in Los Angeles and Hollywood, we have a more difficult time of it. There's no land, no area, and we haven't been able to get the proper funding together in the Hollywood community or interest in the community to create a museum,'' Reynolds said in a phone interview yesterday afternoon.

Earlier in the day, she had announced the news at the Music Road Hotel and Convention Center in Pigeon Forge, about 35 miles southeast of Knoxville.

''Many people in the motion picture business feel someone else should do it. So, it's never going to get done unless we go to America, the people. Millions of people come to Hollywood to see a motion picture museum, and there isn't any there. So now they'll have to come to Pigeon Forge because we're going to put it here,'' said Reynolds, who made about 45 feature films.

Her collection of more than 3,500 costumes and thousands of movie props and posters is valued at more than $50 million. It is believed to be the largest private collection of Hollywood memorabilia in the world. She purchased many of the movie artifacts at auctions held over the past 35 years by such studios as MGM, Fox, Paramount, Warner Bros. and Columbia. Her museum includes items from almost every Academy Award-winning film from the era of silent movies through the present.

''I have lots from the epic films as well as the smaller films. I have 4,000 costumes. We have so much memorabilia that it won't be one exhibit ... it will be forever changing,'' said Reynolds, who may have a fondness for two items.

''I like Marilyn Monroe's subway dress she wore in The Seven Year Itch and Judy Garland's gingham dress from The Wizard of Oz.''

Reynolds and her son will be closely involved with the design and display of the museum.

''My son Todd Fisher is the designer of the entire complex. ... They're allowing us to have free artistic control design-wise. We'll have three theaters for epic pictures, musicals and dramas. You'll be able to see the film clips, the costumes and the props,'' said the actress, who appears occasionally on TV's Will & Grace as Grace's mother.

''They're aiming for my (73rd) birthday, April 1 (2005). I don't see how it's possible to get all this done by then because it's such a huge development. It's so ambitious that it would stagger anybody's mind,'' said Reynolds, who hopes to bring a caravan of celebrities with her for the big day, including actress-author daughter Carrie Fisher, famous as Princess Leia of Star Wars.

Debbie Reynolds' Stuff

Among the thousands of items in Reynolds' collection:

• A statuette of the Maltese Falcon.

• An original pair of Dorothy's ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland for The Wizard of Oz.

• An authentic Civil War cavalry saber that was part of John Wayne's costume in How the West Was Won.

• Costumes worn by Sean Connery in Highlander and Highlander II.

• Costumes worn by Carrie Fisher in Star Wars.

• A selection of Vivien Leigh's hats from Gone With the Wind.

• The tuxedo Tom Hanks wore in Big.