Eddie Fisher & Debbie Reynolds

On 1951, Debbie’s and Eddie’s romance began at the Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D. C., where they both did a show and where they first met. It might also be said that their romance was slow in getting started, for except for a letter from Eddie when he was in Korea, it took them three years to get together again.

When they met for the second time last spring while Eddie was touring the M-G-M studio, it was obvious that they were “in key” this time and Eddie seriously impressed, for he asked her for her phone number. Debbie must have been equally impressed, for despite an already full little black book.She says “I gave the telephone number to him.” She didn’t have to wait long for a call. Eddie telephoned her the next day and continued to call regularly. Long talks and gentle kidding on the phone, though, were all that happened between the two for some time. They didn’t date, for as Debbie now incredulously admits, “I didn’t know anything about him.”

And then one evening in June, while Debbie was finishing dinner, she received a long-distance call from New York. It was Eddie.Could she save him an evening—the seventeenth of June? She could, she replied. And this is where their story begins. . . .For unknown at the time to the pixyish ball of fire, this was not only the opening night of Eddie’s Cocoanut Grove show but she was his date. And this was also to be the opening night of their romance.

On opening night, dressed in a lovely red formal that her mother had made, Debbie sat at Eddie’s table along with her parents, his dad and his best friends. Who knows exactly when during that evening, as she sat listening to Eddie sing to the biggest opening-night audience the Grove has ever had, love stepped in.Perhaps it was when Eddie sang his favorite song to his dad, “Oh! Mein Pa-Pa” and Debbie sensed the deep loyalty and sincerity Eddie has for those he loves.Perhaps for Eddie it was when Debbie, starry-eyed and aglow, pushed forward to congratulate him, full of enthusiasm and pride, so willing and eager to make his night a complete success, to share with him the excitement of the evening. Whenever love entered, neither Debbie nor Eddie know. But they will admit that it sneaked in that evening. “We just kept grinning at each other like two idiots. And the first thing you know,” says Debbie, “we were seeing a lot of each other. And you know how that is. You sort of get the habit of being together and then all of a sudden you know that you like the habit real well.”

Since they first began dating, Eddie and Debbie have handled their relationship with dignity and good taste—not an easy thing to do with millions of eyes eagerly watching them.Eddie admits once saying, “Love and show business are just like oil and water.” They don’t mix, but today he just smiles confidently and says, “She (Debbie) is the greatest.” And Debbie said “Ever since Eddie and I fell in love I’ve had even less privacy than before.So many people are cynical and don’t believe in young love. They seem to think all this is a publicity stunt. I’m embarrassed and annoyed to see the avalanche of press at the airport or wherever we go. I feel that two young people in love need a little privacy. I don’t know how these things get out, but every little thing we do or plan, people find out. I don’t know how they do. I want so much not to make a cheap impression about the feelings we have for each other.”

September 1955, Reynolds, 23, and Fisher, 27 were married.Their's was the ideal marriage, at least to the media. Debbie Reynolds claimed that she waited until marriage to have sex, and that she gave her virginity to Eddie Fisher on their wedding night.From this marriage, they had two children Carrie & Todd (named after their bestfriend Mike Todd).

Fisher was Todd’s best man at his wedding with Elizabeth Taylor (Debbie serving as matron of honor to Elizabeth).When Mike Todd died tragically in a plane crash in New Mexico in 1958, Eddie rushed and comfort grieving Elizabeth. And so began what public would call "one of Hollywood's biggest, most notorious scandals,". Elizabeth Taylor complained "It was distressing to open the papers day after day and see captions under my photographs referring to me as a home wrecker," She later recalled in her autobiography, maintaining that their marriage was already in trouble.

In May 1959 Debbie agreed to divorce Eddie, leaving her former good friend Elizabeth and Eddie to officially marry. When Fisher married Debbie Reynolds in 1955 the headlines read "America's Sweethearts Tie Knot." But when Eddie left Debbie for Elizabeth Taylor in 1958, the gossip columnists savaged him, steamed him and hung him out to dry.From that moment on the name Eddie Fisher became synonymous with public humiliation. His fame waned quickly after the public mood turned sour over him.

A movie they filmed together: Bundle of Joy (1956)