The Producers

[Subdeacon Joe]

When Mel Brooks was sixteen years old, he worked for a cash-strapped theatrical producer who'd raise funds by sleeping with his investors, most of whom were elderly women. "He pounced on little old ladies and would make love to them," Brooks told The Guardian. "They gave him money for his plays, and they were so grateful for his attention." In Manhattan, Brooks also knew a pair of showmen who had more or less failed their way into prosperity. "They were doing flop after flop and living like kings," Brooks said. "A press agent told me, 'God forbid they should ever get a hit, because they'd never be able to pay off the backers!' I coupled the producer with these two crooks and, BANG!, there was my story."

From a 1966 Playboy Magazine interview:
PLAYBOY: "What else are you working on?"
BROOKS: "'Springtime for Hitler.'"
PLAYBOY:"You're putting us on."
BROOKS: "No, it's the God's honest truth. It's going to be a play within a play, or a play within a film, I haven't decided yet. It's a romp with Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun at Berchtesgaden. There was a whole nice side of Hitler. He was a good dancer, no one knows that. He loved a parakeet named Bob, no one knows that either. It's all brought out in the play."

Roger Ebert recounted how he was in an elevator with Brooks and Anne Bancroft in New York City after "The Producers" (1967) premiered. A woman got onto the elevator, recognized him and said, "I have to tell you, Mr. Brooks, that your movie is vulgar." Brooks replied, "Lady," he said, "it rose below vulgarity." 

Brooks cannot read music. "Springtime for Hitler" and "Prisoners of Love" (as were all the songs Brooks writes for his films) were hummed into a tape recorder and transcribed by an expert. When Brooks adapted the movie into a stage musical, he wrote the entire score by himself using the same method.

Brooks has said that one of his "lifelong jobs" is "to make the world laugh at Adolf Hitler." The film was a way to enact vengeance through comedy. "The only real way I could get even with Hitler and company was to bring them down with laughter," Brooks said. (IMDb)

Happy Birthday, Mel Brooks!

[Blackwater 53393]

Back in the days of early television, Sid Caesar did a a variety show called “You Show Of Shows”.  It was very successful. Mel Brooks was one of his top writers.

 

On one occasion during production, Caesar grabbed Mel by both sides of his head and kissed him on the forehead, loudly declaring, “This! This is MINE!”

 

When he did this, Mel picked Sid’s pocket. Mel raised Sid’s wallet and kissed it and then waved it over his head, loudly declaring, “THIS! This is MINE!” 
 

 

 

[Father Kit Cool Gun Garth]

IMHO - Still one of his best!

 

 

[Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103]

Mel Brooks, a genuinely hilarious soul, was an Equal Opportunity Offender!
He could insult anybody, any group, any class, caste or segment, he could make it quite honestly hilarious to everybody involved!

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

When talking to the writers for Blazing Saddles, Mel said he did not want a polite script.

[Sedalia Dave]

Mel Brooks was a master at exposing the injustices of society through humor and satire.

 

He is one of a kind and the world is a better place because of him.