As a teenager, when I heard the name Bonham, I thought of one of the greatest dummers ever – John Bonham of Led Zeppelin. Now, as an autograph collector, I hear the name and wonder what interesting items I’ll hear about at the Bonhams auctions. They had one recently with lots of memorabilia that the folks on this website will be interested in.

Lots of Norma Shearer items, including manuscripts, which will probably sell more than her shoe trunk sold for last year. That went for over $30,000. Her ivory sheets -- $1,220.

Charlie Chaplin’s bamboo cane and black bowler hat went for over $35,000. In my opinion, somebody got that for a steal. The cane was used in 1936, around the time Chaplin retired the Little Tramp character. They were given to a woman that did a wax replica of Chaplin. She passed them on to a wax museum called Mammoth Cave Wax Museum in Kentucky. It went under. And I’m guessing there just isn’t enough interest in a life-size wax replica of the Tramp to make the trip from Kentucky to Hollywood.

For cartoon collectors, there were pieces by Charles Shulz of the Peanuts, and some work for Disney animators.

As a music lover, I was interested in the alto sax Charlie Parker once pawned (I still have a friend who knows a famous musician that wants to sell a Miles Davis trumpet, if anybody is interested).

There was some Jimi Hendrix turquoise jewelry, which reminded me of a woman here in San Diego that used to date Hendrix. She donated a shirt he wore (which she had pictures of him wearing in concert), to the Hard Rock Café in La Jolla. They placed it in the window and…two years later, it was faded and ruined. A little lawsuit ensued.

I’m not sure if the person that bought the Chaplin hat also bought the Bing Crosby straw hat and scuffed up golf shoes.

If you do like the autographs more – there were almost a thousand cancelled checks.

For people into the Hollywood collectables, there’s the battery-illuminated wand Daniel Radcliffe used in two of the Harry Potter films. I’d rather have the light saber that Dark Vader or Luke Skywalker used in Star Wars, but then…so would everyone, right?

It amazes me that some people would even want certain items. As much as we all liked Jimmy Stewart, what are we going to do with two mahogany-stained beds from his childhood room? They came from the Jimmy Stewart Museum.

Now, John Belushi’s brown bathrobe (assuming that’s the color of the robe and not from…uh…anything else); or a jacket Elvis Presley wore on his last tour. I would’ve so worn that to a Halloween party dressing as the King, and then probably complaining after even more brown stains were on these items.

You’d have a lot less luck if you bid on the Sammy Davis Jr. glass eye. I kid, I kid. The suits of his. I’m guessing they wouldn’t fit you, unless you’re Paul Williams. They were displayed on child mannequins.