Who Doesn't Love Mel Brooks?
Who doesn't love Mel Brooks?
No one I know, I said, smiling politely.
This is my sweet way to begin an endearing feature about Mel, highlighting his vast and versatile award-winning comedic career which spans more than seven decades!
A renaissance man, Mel Brooks has mastered much during his eleven decades, wholeheartedly living with laughter and love.
Mel Brooks is a wildly successful actor, comedian, songwriter, filmmaker, and playwright, winning multiple awards, including an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony, (known as an EGOT and Mel is one of only a few to achieve that elite status.) Evermore award recognitions were bestowed upon him: The AFI Lifetime Achievement Award, a National Medal of Arts, a BAFTA Fellowship, an Honorary Academy Award, as well as being a Kennedy Center honoree.
Awards aside, Mel has given us belly laughs and endless smiles from a hugely creative inventory of entertaining projects he has had his humorous hand in through the year.
His early career path began in the Borscht Belt, in nightclubs in the Catskill Mountains, where singers and comedians perfected their stand-up and performance acts.
In The New Yorker Interview by Michael Schulman, Mel was asked "What was your first professional comedy gig?"
Mel: "When one of the comics got sick at the Butler Lodge, in Hurleyville, in the Borscht Belt, I filled in for him, because I knew his stuff. "I just flew in from Chicago, and boy, are my arms tired." "I met a girl in Chicago that was so skinny. I brought her to a restaurant, and they said, 'Check your umbrella.' " I just took the material he did, and I got a few laughs. But every once in a while somebody would come in and sit down, and I'd say, "Mrs. Schwartz, you're late!" Then the big laughs happened, and I realized then and there, Oh, when it's my observation, they laugh. Really laugh. If I'm going to be a comic, I'd better think of my own things to say."
And Mel paved his way with his distinctively individual brand of humor.
En route to success, his next big showbiz break arrived, penning jokes for Sid Caesar's groundbreaking television program "Your Show of Shows" while working alongside Sid and a cast of comic greats: Neil Simon, Larry Gelbart, Woody Allen, Imogene Coca, and dear pal, Carl Reiner.
As Mel's personal and professional friendship with Carl Reiner blossomed, it led to the duet of one of the zaniest and funniest skits in comedic history, The 2000 Year Old Man. In an interview on NPR (Weekend Edition Saturday) with both Mel and Carl, they were asked about the 2000 Year Old Man album. Carl Reiner relates a story:
Carl Reiner: "When we made the album, the album came out, we weren't sure yet whether everybody was going to like it. And it was Cary Grant, who was my neighbor at Universal, he came over and I gave him a record and I said the new record came out, you may like this. And he came back a week later, said, Can I have two dozen? I said, What are you going to do with them? He said, I'm going to take them to England.I said, You'll take these to England? He said, Yeah, they speak English there. Anyway, he came back and said, She loved it. I said who? The Queen Mother. I said, You played this in Buckingham Palace? He said yes. And then Mel says, Well, if the biggest shiksa in the world loves it, we're home free."
Mel continued on his road to success, creating (along with Buck Henry) the highly popular television spy spoof show "Get Smart" starring Don Adams and Barbara Feldon, which ran for 5 years and won 7 Emmy awards.
At the top of his comedy game, Mel shifted from television and entered into the pursuit of filmmaking, combining his producing, directing, writing, and acting skills in a plethora of innovative films: The Producers (1967) (which won Mel an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay); The Twelve Chairs (1970) Blazing Saddles (1974); Young Frankenstein (1974) High Anxiety (1977); History of the World Part 1 (1981); Spaceballs (1987); and Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993), just to name a few.
There is so much more to Mel's tour de force and unique rise to stardom. Broadway beckoned and Mel was triumphant. He adapted The Producers for the stage, where the critically acclaimed show became a box-office smash, winning 12 Tony Awards.
Yet after all of Mel's marvelous accomplishments (and many more not mentioned here, so please forgive!) I must raise a tip of the hat to Mel's vocal tones!
The first time I heard the theme song from the film "High Anxiety", I immediately thought, as did many others, that Mel sounds like Frank Sinatra! (What a voice!)
To illustrate, Mel talks about a flattering note he received from Frank, in an article by Stephen Deusner, in Salon.com:
Mel: "When I did "High Anxiety" [which includes a scene of Brooks crooning the theme song], I got a note from (Frank) Sinatra. He said, "Mel, I'm serious. If I can't make a date at the Sands for some reason, if I'm sick or stuck in traffic or whatever, you've got to sub for me. You are me as a Jew." I said, "You got it!"
I agree with Frank.
Listen to the song High Anxiety and the Sinatra-esque quality in Mel's delivery.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=heLBlQgMfo8
Mel also channels Frank Sinatra in a segment from the television program, The Dick Cavett Show, during his special guest appearance. Mel, sitting on a stool with a microphone in hand, holding a cigarette, imitates Frank, singing American the Beautiful. It is a funny bit, and Mel knocks it out of the park with his rendition.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eoj1i9lRfSE&pp=0gcJCdgAo7VqN5tD
As a long-time Sinatra fan, I do admit I love Mel's voice as he recreates a signature Sinatra singing style strikingly similar to Frank's! Frank Sinatra is truly difficult to impersonate, and Mel comes as close to the master as anyone.
Mel did impersonate Bing, singing the song "Dancing in the Dark", as part of a live UK show, An Audience with Mel Brooks (LWT Comedy Show) The setup: Mel was asked by an audience member about his beginnings as a comedian performing in the Borscht Belt. He amusingly tells how elder Jewish folks (known for vacationing in the Borscht Belt frequently) would try to sing the "Dancing" song in too high a key, and then he segued, crooning as Bing Crosby would back in 1928.
Mel Brooks is the ultimate talent bonanza. He Sings. Acts. Writes. Directs. And so much more. But he always finds a way to make us laugh, and we are all grateful.
Carl Reiner, in this quote from the AFI's Mel Brooks Tribute, sums it up: "I'd like to acknowledge three people who early on knew Mel Brooks was one of the funniest people in the world: Sid Caesar, me and Mel Brooks.
This article wouldn't be complete without including Mel's wife, the lovely and exceptionally talented Anne Bancroft, who sadly passed away in 2005. Married for 41 years, their devotion to each other was unquestionable, and a true Hollywood love story. In an interview with People Magazine, Mel recounts Anne's wisdom. "She always said, 'Follow your heart. It will be a good adventure.' What an adventure life turned out to be," Brooks said.
I began this article by asking Who Doesn't Love Mel Brooks? My affectionate answer: What's not to love?
To love Mel more, read his latest book: All About Me! My Remarkable Life In Show Business, or as M. Brooks says "Not since the Bible have I read anything so powerful and poignant. And to boot—it's a lot funnier!"
An Extra Bonus Added!! Many thanks to Billy Paul, a fine musician, who is also the nephew of actor Buddy Lester. He shares below some special first-hand stories about Mel!
I'm sitting here in LA and had a minute to write you a couple of Mel Brooks stories. Mel loved Sid Caesar ( I played a tribute to Sid in 1987 at what is now the Kirk Douglas Theater near MGM, now Sony Pictures). Mel told a story of Sid being funny and strong, physically, especially when Sid was drinking in the early 1950's. One day Mel and Sid took a cab in NYC. Sid noticed the cabbie had overcharged the two of them. So, an angry Sid got out of the cab and with the driver's window half open.. Sid started to pull the driver out of the window and said to him, " Remember Birth!! ". Well Mel cracked up, help to diffuse the situation and a new story was born.Mel wore a hat during the " Your Show of Shows" period. Every morning he would come into the writers room and fling the hat to the hat rack… if he made it he would say " Lucky Lindy made it".It was also noted Mel was very smart and extremely well read. He especially loved the Russians. He was and is a voracious reader.In addition, Mel started as a drummer before he was a comedian. He claimed that he had a lesson from fellow Brooklynite Buddy Rich. Buddy did not remember this but Mel told a story of Buddy telling Mel around the time of Blazing Saddles coming out that Mel, if he stuck with it, could have been a great drummer. That's a great story.