REYNOLDS STILL UNSINKABLE 

By Jennifer Rose Marino 

October 29, 2002

The air was different at the Lucas Theater Monday evening.

The magnificent 1921 movie palace buzzed with the kind of energy it was created for, when Hollywood legend Debbie Reynolds graced its stage Monday. Here from Los Angeles to accept a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Savannah College of Art and Design, Reynolds pulled up to the Lucas showbiz style in a white stretch limousine and was immediately greeted by a throng of adoring fans. Now 70 and not looking a day over 50, the magnanimous actress sweet talked her way inside, singing "Hi y'all," Savannah style to each person in her path.

After a special SCAD created retrospective on her career, Reynolds took the stage and graciously accepted the honor, sprinkling jokes about her age in her remarks. In one of them, she compared herself to the Lucas.

"I always call theaters girls," she told the audience. "We get older, we get moldy. Just remodel us and put some paint on us and we look terrific."

Presented as part of the college's week long Film and Video festival, the Lifetime Achievement Award acknowledges Reynolds and her more than 50 years of experience in the entertainment industry. Today, in a closed-to-the-public workshop, the actress will meet with selected SCAD students to talk about what it takes to make it in Hollywood. She should know. Reynolds has starred in more than 30 motion pictures and Broadway and television productions, including "Singin' in the Rain" and "The Unsinkable Molly Brown." For the past several years, Reynolds has also been a mainstay on the nightclub circuit, performing in every major city in the United States.

"Debbie Reynolds is someone who works 48 weeks of the year, three shows a week all year long," said Danny Filson, executive director of SCAD's Trustees and Lucas Theaters, where the film festival is being showcased.

"She's been doing that now for years -- in addition to her film work, in addition to her stage work, in addition to her charity work. She still does all that."

Besides volunteering for several charities, Reynolds is known as one of the leading Hollywood Golden Age costume/prop preservationists. She is the founding president of The Thalians, an organization that raises money for emotionally disturbed children at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. And she's a lifelong supporter of the Girl Scouts of the USA.

"She's so beautiful and talented," said Fran Powell Harold, director of Savannah's Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace (Low founded the Girl Scouts). "We would love to get her over here to see this house."

If not this trip, maybe the next one. Reynolds is scheduled to perform with the Savannah Symphony in January. And in April, her legacy will continue when students from the SCAD Media and Performing Arts Department present "Singin' in the Rain" at the Lucas Theater.

"Study hard," Reynolds told students and non-students alike during her closing remarks. "Accomplish, because life is good.