Vegas Magazine - Niche Media - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.
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F ront Runners The all-American young lovebirds hit Vegas for the Fourth of July in 1954. the courtship of eddie fisher YEARS BEFORE EDDIE FISHER'S AFFAIR WITH ELIZABETH TAYLOR ROCKED HOLLYWOOD, HE AND DEBBIE REYNOLDS SHARED THEIR INNOCENT BUT ILL-FATED LOVE IN LAS VEGAS. BY KHUSBU BHAKTA 10 PHOTOGRAPHY BY AP PHOTO I n 1954, one year before Hollywood It couple Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher tied the knot, they celebrated Independence Day weekend in Las Vegas. Twenty-two-year-old Reynolds, America's sweetheart, was on a break from filming Susan Slept Here, a future Academy Award nominee, while 25-year-old Fisher, known as "the Jewish Sinatra," had just released his fifth single, "I Need You Now," which would shoot to No. 1 on the Billboard chart. On July 8 of their Vegas jaunt, the couple enjoyed a carefree lunch and respite from the blazing heat at the pool of Wilbur Clark's Desert Inn, where Reynolds would perform off and on for decades. The previous night, they had attended a dinner show at the Sands, setting off a photographic frenzy. On September 26, 1955, they said "I do" to what would be a four-year union, during which they jetted back to Vegas in 1957 so he could headline The Eddie Fisher Show at Tropicana. The premiere was attended by none other than Elizabeth Taylor (at the time married to Fisher's best friend, Mike Todd, who would die in a plane crash the following year), with whom Fisher would soon ignite a legendary extramarital affair. Reynolds and Fisher's divorce in 1959 left Hollywood gossiping for years. Fisher fell madly in love with and married Taylor, but she soon left him for her Cleopatra costar Richard Burton. Years later, Taylor and Reynolds buried the hatchet and costarred in the TV movie These Old Broads (written by Reynolds's daughter with Fisher, Carrie). As for Fisher, he moved on to third, fourth, and fifth wives, plus a bout in rehab, while riding out a roller-coaster singing career. Reynolds's Vegas legacy, however, lasted much longer than her marriage to him. In 1992 she bought her own Las Vegas hotel, transforming it into the Debbie Reynolds Hotel and Casino, which stayed open for six years. And recently she played up her Vegas past in HBO's Liberace biopic, Behind the Candelabra, portraying the famed pianist's mother. V VEGASMAGAZINE.COM 010_V_FOB_FR_Sum13 10 6/17/13 1:18 PM