A Place for the Footloose to Get Their Act Together : Debbie Reynolds’ Mecca for Dancers

The Debbie Reynolds Rehearsal Studios in North Hollywood is in a “mixed-use” neighborhood. The facility, once a post office, is surrounded by appliance stores, gas stations and, half a block away, an adult entertainment center featuring nude dancing and video peep shows.

Inside, the building on Lankershim Boulevard belies the neighborhood and its own drab exterior. There are hanging plants, wood paneling and a lounge. The Debbie Reynolds Rehearsal Studios is a mecca for entertainers from Madonna to Michael Jackson, a place where they can build their acts, dance step by dance step.

Autographed movie posters cover the main hallway. Another hall ends with a wall-length mirror from the 1937 film “The Good Earth.” French mirrors from the 1938 movie “Marie Antoinette” hang in Debbie Reynolds’ office, and the building’s back entrance is guarded by two props from the 1963 epic “Cleopatra”: large, black Egyptian anteaters.

“I call them Eddie and Harry,” said Margie Duncan, the facility’s executive director, in reference to Reynolds’ first two husbands, Eddie Fisher and Harry Karl.

According to Duncan, the studios have been booked by Ann Margret, John Travolta, Shirley Jones, Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke and Olivia Newton-John. Dancers and choreographers for the new CBS series “Dirty Dancing” recently moved in for a long stay.

Madonna spent several weeks rehearsing her concert act at the facility earlier this year, drawing an unexpected crowd of fans that had to be kept at bay by extra security guards.

“At first the place went bananas,” said Duncan. “But Madonna was working here so often that she soon became part of the scenery, and people let her alone.”

Duncan, a former dancer, brings a maternal touch to the place. She often finds herself tagged by students and young professionals who are the sons and daughters of colleagues she danced with years ago. The caretaker of the facility, Milt Levy, is referred to as “grandpa” by dancers and staff.

Choreographer Michael Peters said of the studios: “When I’m there, I feel at home. Because of Debbie’s and Margie’s love for dancers and dance, it really turned into this family place.”

Peters choreographed Michael Jackson’s dancing for his “Thriller” video in the facility’s Studio D, which at 90 feet by 55 feet, is one of the largest dance-rehearsal spaces in Los Angeles. The other eight studios in the building vary in size and are often leased for acting and dancing classes. They are also used for auditions and rehearsals for industrial shows and other entertainment programs. Hourly rates of the studios range from $15 to $35.

Reynolds said she built the facility to retire there as a teacher of acting and musical comedy. And though she planned to retire two years ago, the 56-year-old actress and entertainer said she has been busier than she anticipated.

Her Las Vegas and Reno night club act goes on tour later this year. Next year, she’ll star in a stage remake of the 1963 movie, “The Unsinkable Molly Brown.” And yes, she said, she’ll rehearse the production in her own studios.

About 30 rehearsal facilities are listed in Los Angeles telephone directories, including the largest: Studio Instrument Rentals, which covers 50,000 square feet on two locations on Sunset Boulevard and is primarily used by rock groups. Other places used as studio space don’t advertise, such as the First United Methodist Church of Hollywood on Franklin Avenue.

But Los Angeles is still short of rehearsal space. Mary Marty, booking manager at Studio Instrument Rentals, said that company is renovating yet another building for rehearsal space. She pointed out that, at this time of year, space is tight.

“Everyone wants to rehearse now; everyone is going on tour,” she said.

Reynolds agreed that it can be difficult to find space and noted that it was worse nine years ago, when she started building her studios. Ben Vereen didn’t wait for construction to finish. With the first room completed, he booked it and crawled over construction equipment and wood planks to rehearse, she said.

Reynolds bought the building in 1979 for $350,000 and paid $800,000 in cash (“my tap-dancing money”) to renovate the 17,000-square-foot structure, which had last served as a used-furniture warehouse. She is considering adding an additional floor, but has set no date for construction.

“I don’t think, in show business, you ever have a timetable. You just wing it,” she said.

She didn’t wing the initial construction, however. She knew precisely what she wanted: “all the things I didn’t have when I was a dancer.”

Reynolds said most rehearsal studios used to be depressing and dirty. There were seldom shower facilities, particularly for the men, and no place to relax. Such conditions are still common at many of the studios in Los Angeles, she said.

Her studios, she said, are clean, soundproof and acoustically sharp. The floors, like most high school gyms, are made of wood strips over rubber squares. Most of the studios are equipped with pianos and private offices.

And then there’s the star’s room, for the likes of Madonna, who may be eager for a moment of privacy. Reynolds, who has appeared in 33 movies, recalls how difficult it was at the height of her own popularity even to go to the bathroom when rehearsing. “You’d be sitting in a toilet stall, and someone would shove a piece of paper under the door and ask for an autograph,” she said.

“Each generation goes through the same thing. What Madonna and Sean are going through, Debbie and Eddie went through,” she said. “After 41 years in the business, I know the pitfalls of pressure and stress. And I wanted to create an atmosphere where it’s much easier to work.”

Reynolds, now married to Virginia developer Richard Hamlett, has other real estate holdings: two lots in Beverly Hills, land in Tehachapi where she plans to build an office complex for her brother, and a 10,000-square-foot warehouse in Glendale where she stores her extensive collection of movie costumes and props.

Although most of her studios are consistently booked, Reynolds said the facility is not turning much of a profit, “and it probably won’t until I teach there.” She added: “But it pays for itself. And, more important, I know I have a place to go when I retire. I won’t be sitting at home, wondering what to do with myself.”