$4.6 million + $1,058,000 premium = $5.658 million

I was curious to attend the huge Debbie Reynolds Hollywood memorabilia auction yesterday, but it would have entailed flying in and landing the morning of, then hoping I'd get into the gallery, then flying back on the red-eye, all the while sacrificing a day I was spending with my family in Chicago.

Cleopatra concept painting = $17,000

Ultimately, I'm glad I didn't go, but (most) everything else went—and for big, big, record-breaking bucks.

Rudy was derided by male movie-goers as a "pink powder puff"

I had a hunch the Marilyn Monroe subway dress from The Seven-Year Itch was dramatically undervalued with an estimate of $1 million to $2 million, and once earlier pieces like Rudolph Valentino's matador outfit from Blood and Sand started exceeding their estimates (it was estimated at $60K to $80K and went for $210K!), I knew it would be a memorable final bid. In the end, Marilyn's simple halter dress went for over $4 million. If that doesn't blow Debbie's skirt up, nothing will.

An interesting quote regarding the breaking up of Reynolds's collection:

"Hollywood may come to rue the day that the Reynolds collection was broken up and distributed around the world. Several of the buyers were from Saudi Arabia and Japan.

"Randy Habercamp of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, who attended the auction but did not buy, said: 'Well it happened to the treasures of Greece. It happened to Italy. I guess now it's our turn.'"

Other highlights and points of interest for me (all prices are NOT INCLUDING the auctioneer's premium)...

Lock of Mary Pickford's hair = $3,500

Charlie Chaplin's "Tramp" character hat = $110,000

Freddie Bartholomew's Anna Karenina shooting diary = $1,600

Harpo Marx's hat and wig = $45,000

Tyrone Power's Marie Antoinette suit = $27,500

Marlene Dietrich's Destry Ride Again outfit = $8,000 (one of the disappointments)

Judy Garland's Wizard of Oz dress = $910,000 (10+ times the high end of the est.)

Wizard of Oz ruby slippers = $510,000

Lena Horne's Stormy Weather gown = $8,000

Elizabeth Taylor's National Velvet riding suit = $60,000

Joan Crawford's Mildred Pierce waitress uniform = $22,500

Marilyn Monroe's Gentlemen Prefer Blondes gown = $1.2 million

Marilyn Monroe's "Heat Wave" outfit = $500,000

Elizabeth Taylor's Cleopatra headdress = $500,000

Audrey Hepburn's My Fair Lady gown = $3.7 million

Julie Andrews's signed The Sound of Music guitar = $140,000

Barbra Streisand's Hello, Dolly! gown = $100,000

Madonna's Evita gown = $22,500