I figured during this pandemic, I wouldn't be getting any autographs. But I got one I totally wasn't expecting.

A guy that I played racquetball with for 20 years, used to manage a movie theatre. He has a lot of interesting items from his days running it. One of them was an original Star Wars movie poster, when the film had a different title (I forgot now what it was, and I'm too lazy to Google it).

He got hundreds of "wooden nickles" from the movie Blazing Saddles. We used to play poker with them. On one side it said "In Mel We Trust" and the other side had the name of the movie.

I wrote about Gene Wilder doing a book signing, when they were strict about the "only the book will be autographed" thing. A person in front of me had every DVD imaginable and he got yelled at by Wilder. I had a different approach. I told him about these wooden nickles, and said "I figured you might like to have some." And as I put five on the table, his much younger wife got so excited. She said, "Oh my god, we don't have these. Thank you so much!" I then added, "Of course, I want you to at least autograph one of them for me."

Wilder was pissed, made a growl, and started looking around. His wife pleaded, "Oh honey, just sign one for him" and he sighed, signed one, and slammed it down in front of me."

Anyway, my friend that gave me these...always ran into Mel Brooks at various events. Mostly the race track in Del Mar. He kept one of those on him, knowing that I like autographs. He had gotten it signed by Brooks awhile ago, but since we don't hang out as much anymore, he forgot to give it to me. When we met up the other day (with 6 feet apart, of course)...he handed it to me. I was thrilled.

I then looked up the rest of the cast of Blazing Saddles, wondering if I could get any more of these things signed. I couldn't believe how many in the cast had passed away. I knew Cleavon Little and Harvey Korman had passed away, and I remembered Brooks' long-time co-star Madeline Kahn was no longer with us. But, former football star Alex Karras has passed away. As has Slim Pickens. I knew Dom DeLuise wasn't around. Now, I saw that the gorgeous Robyn Hilton was still alive, but...she went into porn, and then disappeared. So, I'm guessing the two wooden nickles I have signed by Wilder and Brooks...I'll have to be content with.