Three of the film's most famous participants died either before or shortly after the documentary's festival premiere in September 2021. Comedy legend Carl Reiner and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg both passed away in 2020, and former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell passed away in October 2021. A message added to the dedications after the end credits reads, "The producers would like to remember Mr. Reiner, Justice Ginsburg and General Powell and thank their teams."
First-time filmmaker Lisa Hurwitz was able to secure the star power of comedy legend Mel Brooks through her acquaintance with Brooks's friend Carl Gottlieb. Hurwitz had assisted Gottlieb when he was a guest at her local theater in Olympia, Washington, and the two became Facebook friends. When Hurwitz launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund this documentary film about the Automat, the Facebook post showed up in Gottlieb's news feed and caught his attention. With Hurwitz's blessing, Gottlieb mentioned the project to Brooks in conversation over dinner, and Brooks had such nostalgic enthusiasm for the Automat that he agreed to be interviewed for the documentary and even recruited his longtime friend Carl Reiner to be interviewed, as well.
In Sadie McKee (1934) (at around 28 mins), Joan Crawford pours a cup of coffee with cream in an automat as it is described in this documentary.