On this hectic news day, with more evidence surfacing of the criminality of trump and his enablers in the republican party, let’s take a few moments to wish Happy Birthday to the incomparable Mel Brooks, who turns 96 today.
For many, Mel Brooks is perhaps the greatest comedian of all times, not just as an actor but also as a writer, director and film producer. Like Mel, his films never seem to age; you can watch them over and over again and enjoy them a bit more each time.
First some background on Mel Brooks from en.wikipedia.org/… —
Brooks was born on June 28, 1926, in Brooklyn, New York City, to Kate (née Brookman) and Max Kaminsky, and grew up in Williamsburg. His father's family were Jewish people from Gdańsk, Poland; his mother's family were Jews from Kyiv, in the Pale of Settlement of the Russian Empire (present-day Ukraine).
Brooks was a small, sickly boy who often was bullied and teased by his classmates because of his size. He grew up in tenement housing. At age nine, he went to a Broadway show with his uncle Joe—a taxi driver who drove the Broadway doormen back to Brooklyn for free and was given the tickets in gratitude—and saw Anything Goes with William Gaxton, Ethel Merman and Victor Moore at the Alvin Theater. After the show, he told his uncle that he was not going to work in the garment district like everyone else but was absolutely going into show business.
He began his career as a comic and a writer for Sid Caesar's variety show Your Show of Shows (1950–1954) alongside Woody Allen, Neil Simon and Larry Gelbart. With Carl Reiner, he created the comic character The 2000 Year Old Man. He wrote, with Buck Henry, the hit television comedy series Get Smart (1965–1970).
In middle age, Brooks became one of the most successful film directors of the 1970s, with many of his films being among the top 10 moneymakers of the year they were released. His best-known films include The Producers (1967), The Twelve Chairs (1970), Blazing Saddles (1974), Young Frankenstein (1974), Silent Movie (1976), High Anxiety (1977), History of the World, Part I (1981), Spaceballs (1987), and Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993). A musical adaptation of his first film, The Producers, ran on Broadway from 2001 to 2007 and was remade into a musical film in 2005.
Brooks endorsed Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election, in his first-ever public endorsement of a political candidate.
Here are a few tributes to Mel from his friends and a few clips of his popular movies. Let’s hear about your favorite memories of Mel Brooks and your favorite films and film segments.
With wife Anne Bancroft -
With the late Gene Wilder -
The cast of Young Frankenstein -
Mel Brooks quips -
A few quotes — philosophy with a dash of humor 😄
- "If you're quiet, you're not living. You've got to be noisy and colorful and lively."
- "Rhetoric does not get you anywhere, because Hitler and Mussolini are just as good at rhetoric. But if you can bring these people down with comedy, they stand no chance."
- "Oh, I'm not a true genius. I'm a near genius. I would say I'm a short genius. I'd rather be tall and normal than a short genius."
- "It's talent. Either you got it or you ain't."
- "He who hesitates is poor."
- "Anybody can direct, but there are only eleven good writers."
- "Bad taste is simply saying the truth before it should be said."
- "But I have bad taste with a deep fount of intellectuality."
- "Everything we do in life is based on fear, especially love."
- "As long as the world is turning and spinning, we're gonna be dizzy and we're gonna make mistakes."
- "Feeling different, feeling alienated, feeling persecuted, feeling that the only way to deal with the world is to laugh - because if you don't laugh you're going to cry and never stop crying - that's probably what's responsible for the Jews having developed such a great sense of humor. The people who had the greatest reason to weep, learned more than anyone else how to laugh."
A quick look at his popular films -
From 1975 — “The 2000 Year Old Man” -
History of the World (1981) 😄
History of the World compilation -
Blazing Saddles (1974) —
Spaceballs (1987) —
Silent Movie (1976)
Robin Hood men in Rights (1993)
The 2015 National Medal of Arts awarded to Mel Brooks by President Obama “for a lifetime of making the world laugh.“
And Mel is not done yet!
Happy Birthday again, dear Mel Brooks. May you live long and prosper.