If I Knew Then
About this ebook
“I’m Debbie Reynolds.
“Well, I’m not really Debbie; I’m Mary Frances. But if you like Debbie you can call me that. Or you can call me Sis, like my father, or Frannie, like my brother, or Mrs. Karl or—Whatever you want to call me, I’m pleased to meet you.
“Now let’s get down to cases. Like the Case of Why Debbie Reynolds Is Writing a Book. That’s one that even Perry Mason would have trouble solving.
“Me write a book?
“I can imagine the hubbub this will arouse in certain quarters
“People who know me well know I will not be swayed by flattery. I am going to write this book, anyway. First I’d better list what this book is not.
“1. It is not an autobiography of Little Me. The life and times of this belle will have to be written a few decades hence.
“2. It will not teach you how to play the piano in forty-five (45) days.
“3. It will not cure nervous tension, negative thinking or excess acidity.
“Then what is it?
“It is a book about the things I have learned, often the hard way. It was prompted by the people who have written me for advice on a variety of subjects, mainly personal. Why me, I don’t know. But they write....”—Debbie Reynolds
About the author
MARY FRANCES “DEBBIE” REYNOLDS (April 1, 1932 - December 28, 2016) was an American actress, singer, businesswoman, film historian and humanitarian. Born in El Paso, Texas, to Maxene “Minnie” and Raymond Francis “Ray” Reynolds, her family moved to Burbank, California in 1939, where she attended Burbank High School. In 1948, aged sixteen, she won the Miss Burbank beauty contest and was first discovered by talent scouts from Warner Bros. and MGM. Her breakout role was her first leading role, as Kathy Selden in Singin’ in the Rain (1952). Other successes quickly followed, including The Affairs of Dobie Gillis (1953), Susan Slept Here (1954), Bundle of Joy (1956), and Tammy and the Bachelor (1957), in which her performance of the song “Tammy” reached number one on the Billboard music charts. Her first pop music album, Debbie, was released in 1959. Numerous starring roles followed throughout the 1960s, including The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964), which earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. In 1969, she starred on television in The Debbie Reynolds Show, receiving a Golden Globe nomination. She founded the Debbie Reynolds Dance Studio in North Hollywood in 1979. She received the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2015, and the Academy Awards Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 2016, before she passed away the same year, aged 84.
