I met Charlton Heston at the Golden Boot Awards Banquet in Santa Monica in 1991. The ceremony was an annual affair to honor the men and women who made and starred in western movies. It was created by Pat Buttram, Gene Autrey’s old sidekick.

The evening started with a meet and greet period with the movie people scattered around the hall so you could meet and talk with them. This was followed by dinner, then the awards program, and then another period for meeting the movie people.

At the end of the evening, I was still shaking hands and spotted Charlton Heston heading for the exit. I hadn’t seen him during the evening, so I hurried and caught up with him. I spoke his name, and he stopped and turned to me. I introduced myself and told him how much I had enjoyed his movies. He graciously replied and we chatted for a couple of minutes. Then, he said he had another function to attend and needed to hit the road.  I thanked him for stopping, and we parted. It was a good experience, and I enjoyed it.

Yes, in 1991 I admired and respected Charlton Heston, the actor. However, nearly 25 years later, in 2015, he showed himself to be the poster boy for the NRA. He gave a speech that mostly had to do with whining about his 2^nd Amendment Rights and AR-15 rifles. However, rather than making an effort to construct an intelligent argument to convince the rest of us that owning an assault rifle was a good thing for ordinary citizens to do, he gave us adolescent bullshit. He proclaimed that the only way we could take his gun was “to pry it from his cold, dead hands.” This information has established him as a world class class drama queen. You’ve lost me. Adios, Chuck

Dave Thomas

11/2/23