I never met Tim Conway or got his autograph, but I had a number of times I could have. A guy I played racquetball with for 15 years, was a big deal at the Del Mar racetrack. He’s sit in the exclusive “turf club” where a number of famous people were. Since I didn’t bet on the ponies, I rarely went with him. But every time I did, I’d witness an autograph incident. One time it was celebrity couple Anne Bancroft (The Graduate) and Mel Brooks. I watched as someone…

Peter Mayhew, the 7’3” actor who played Chewbacca, has died at 74. He got his start in movies in "Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger," which when I saw as a kid, blew me away with the special effects (if you watch it now, it will feel very, very dated). For the first "Star Wars" (he did 5 of the Star Wars films), it was actually…

I sometimes imagine I’ll be driving by and see an estate sale, with a sign that says “autographed items” and I stop and get a great deal on something. What keeps that dream alive is hearing stories like this. A woman in Maryland bought a used piano at an estate sale from a woman that died in 1969 -- the year of my birth. When…

There’s an incredibly fun and interesting convention for movie theatre owners called CinemaCon. It used to be called ShoWest, and it takes place for a week each year in Las Vegas.

As much as I love having actors sign my favorite DVDs, at events like this I don’t usually get autographs. It’s not very professional, and I’m there to do a job (in fact, the long story I wrote about the convention can be found…