An evening of music and comedy with Debbie Reynolds

The entire world knows her simply as Debbie.

The titles come to mind: "Singin' in the Rain" (largely regarded as the greatest movie musical of all time). "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" (for which she was nominated for an Oscar). "How the West Was Won" (apparently by Debbie's pluck and verve). "The Singing Nun" (which some critics called "nauseating," although it remains a Pollyanna favorite with fans). "The Tender Trap" (working with Sinatra).

With the great work, however, came some tough times. Unfortunate (disastrous) marriages. Bankruptcies. Hitting the skids in the 1990s. Paybacks and pay-ups as she went from Hollywood to the people to sustain a form of show business that some had written off as a remnant of a glorious past.

She brings to mind, too, words: "pert," "vivacious" and the word most often used to describe her - "indefatigable."

Debbie Reynolds, in person and still kicking, arrives at Sandler Center for the performing Arts for performances Friday, Saturday and Sunday billed as "an evening of music and comedy." It is more than just a song-and-dance diversion. It is a triumph of old-time show biz guts.

"I guess I'm a little bit crazy," she said on the day after Thanksgiving - talking from what she described as her "small home in Beverly Hills." At 76, she tours 42 weeks out of every year. "I'm always on the road, singing and dancing. I love it, and to put it frankly, I think I'd better keep doing it now while I still can. I figure I have two more years, at least. If I get off the stage, they'll have to drag me off."

She lived in Roanoke for five years before the unfortunate end to her third, and she says "final," marriage. It was to a Roanoke real estate developer whom she talks about candidly: "He was a good-looking man and a Southern gentleman. I loved him and I thought he loved me, but he was just after the money. Before the marriage was over, I lost my casino in Las Vegas. Never again. How could one woman make three choices that ended the way mine did? I'd better retire from that game."

In her show, she used to quip about her husband: "He'd always tell me he was longing to get back to Virginia. I thought he meant the state."

She sometimes talks about "Debbie" as if she were another person, describing her audiences as "cheerleaders."

"They come to see Debbie and they call out from the theater to cheer me on. They say 'Don't quit' and things like that. They feel they know me. It's a little like a party and I love parties."

In 1959, the world took note when it was discovered that her first husband, the pop singer Eddie Fisher, had been spotted with Elizabeth Taylor, the widow of his best friend and mentor, showman Mike Todd. Daily reports on the Liz-Eddie-Debbie triangle were on the front pages of newspapers, not the entertainment pages. There was international outrage when Taylor was quoted (misquoted, according to Taylor) as saying: "What do they expect me to do? Sleep alone?"

Eddie married Liz but Liz soon dropped him for Richard Burton - and Debbie, left with children Todd and Carrie, emerged as the "wronged woman" and a bigger star than ever.

"Isn't it a little ironic that both Elizabeth and I ended up living in Virginia for a while?" Debbie said, laughing. She has long since made up with Taylor, who was one of her best friends before the "triangle." They co-starred in a TV movie called "These Old Broads" in 2001 and have made sisterly, but highly negative, remarks about their experience with Fisher.

In 1960 Debbie married shoe-manufacturer millionaire Harry Karl, but at his death she learned that he had gambled away all his money, and hers. "They came and took the mansion, four cars, everything," she recalled. "Harry was a good man but not a good businessman. He was a compulsive gambler, more than I knew. His debts amounted to $100 million. I worked for the next 10 years to pay them all off - and I did. I had to work. I suppose I could have declared bankruptcy or whatever but I believe in paying debts. I was raised that way."

Born in El Paso, Texas, Mary Frances Reynolds grew up in a run-down shack. Her father moved the family to Burbank, Calif.

In high school, she was a baton-twirling cheerleader and played the French horn in the band. To win a scholarship, she entered the Miss Burbank competition. She not only became Miss Burbank, she was noticed by talent scouts from the studios.

She got her first break in 1950 with roles in two MGM musicals, "Three Little Words," in which she played Helen Kane, the Boop-Boop-A-Doop girl (with Kane's real voice dubbed), and "The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady."

She describes her MGM early years as "like going to college. I was 17 when I arrived. We had classes all day long when we weren't filming. We had dance classes. Singing classes. Speech classes. Classes on how to ride a horse or to fence. Never knowing what role might be next, all the contract players at MGM had to be ready. We went to the studio for work every day, even if we weren't filming. The only time we got out of classes was when we were filming."

She remembers one day when Fred Astaire came in a rehearsal studio and noticed her sitting underneath a piano, crying. Her feet were bleeding and she hadn't been able to learn a dance routine. "He encouraged me and told me that I was one of the ones that would make it because I sweated. I didn't perspire. I sweated. When I realized how hard a great dancer like Fred had to work at routines, I knew it was a part of the profession. I never cried again. Well, not often."

She became a major star when studio head Louis B. Mayer cast her opposite Gene Kelly in "Singing in the Rain" in 1952.

"It was Mr. Mayer who made me a star. Gene was upset because I was still a beginning singer and dancer, but Mr. Mayer told everyone 'The little girl is playing the part and that's that.' No one questioned Mr. Mayer."

During the limited time she is in California, she works tirelessly for mental health causes. "I've always been close to that cause - never more so than now because my daughter, Carrie, is a manic-depressive."

Her lifetime ambition to organize a museum to house her collection of Hollywood memorabilia may come true in 2009. It will be near Dollywood at Pigeon Forge, Tenn.

"It's important that we remember Hollywood's history because it is the history of this nation," she said. "I wanted to locate the museum in Los Angeles, but that never worked out. Now, the building is half completed in Tennessee, just 10 minutes from Dollywood, where 8 million people visit a year."

As for her show, she said, "I'll do a tribute to Judy Garland. I'll do impressions, like of Barbra (Streisand) and, maybe Zsa Zsa. We'll show some clips from my movies. It'll be fun. Some people call it a 'concert.' I call it vaudeville. It's, maybe, the last vestige of that form of show business, and you can bet that Debbie is going to give it her all. I love doing it. When I get out on that stage, I'm more alive than anywhere else."

Mal Vincent, (757) 446-2347, mal.vincent@pilotonline.com.