Jimmy,

JA>I remember him from Blazing Saddles as well, but yeah - he'll always be
JA>Wonka to me as well. :-)

  I remember reading the book that the movie was based on. As a side
note, I saw a picture on Facebook, with a weiner dog, dressed up as an
Oompa-Loompa...singing "Oompa, Loompa, Doopity, Doo. I left a present,
here in your shoe". :P

  I think in some places, one can also still buy the WONKA brand candy.

JA> DS>   He was married to the late Gilder Radner, who died of ovarian cancer
JA> DS> about 5 years after they were married.

JA>Yep - was also a sad loss.

  The organization he founded after her death was a noble gesture, IMO.

JA>From what few interviews I heard him on, he sounded like a really nice guy!
JA>Someone you'd want to meet and hang out with.

JA>Kinda like Bill Murray. He could play a jerk, but could also play a sad
JA>straight guy, but would be fun to just have a meal with.

  There's a video on YouTube of "The Making Of Silver Streak", and it
had some of the "bloopers" and "out-takes".

  The one scene is where Gene Wilder (George Caldwell) and Richard Pryor
(Grover Muldoon) are being interviewed by Police Chief Donaldson.

  After the chief finds out that villain Roger Devereau (Patrick
McGoohan) is "getting off at Rockdale instead of Chicago", they set up a
"stop" for the train at "the Harris Mill Junction". He
tells Caldwell to
"come with us", then asks Muldoon (Pryor dressed up like a Dining Car
Steward to get into Devereau's private bedroom in the Pullman Car)
"Steward, what do you want to do?". Pryor sobbingly replies
"It's been a
nerve shattering experience for me, sir. I'd like to go home!". Chief
Donaldson then says "Boys, take him anywhere he wants to go".

  There seemingly is a pause in the scene, and the director (I forget
his name) asked Pryor "Are you all right??". It brought the house down
in laughter.  Of course, in the movie, it goes right on through. In a
scene outside the abandoned railroad station, now used as a police
command post, Wilder can be seen laughing wildly with the crowd. :)

  And, who could forget the line he told to Hillie Burns (Jill
Clayburg), to "Always be nasty to nastertiums". 

  A few other crazy things in the movie:

1) Wilder apparently has trouble milking a cow -- never mind the woman
always calling him "Steve". :P

2) He later has a time with a county sheriff, who first wants to know
"Who shot Rembrandt?". :P

3) When Pryor puts the brown shoe polish on Wilder, the exchange is a
scream...

Wilder: I can't pass for black!!
Pryor: Who you tellin'??!! I didn't say I was gonna make you black. I
said I was gonna get you on the train.

  As they leave the bathroom together, Wilder says "I don't think we'll
make it past the cops"...and Pryor replies "We'll make it past the cops.
I just hope we don't see no Muslims". :P

  Hard to believe that film was done 40 years ago, and what a stir some
parts of it would be today!!

  In the end, they used an old airplane hangar to double as the "end of
the line (Chicago Union Station)" for where the Silver Streak (using a
consist from Canadian Pacific Railway, I think), to smash through the
end of track bumper.

Daryl


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