The third act in the life story of Melvin Kaminsky, aka Mel Brooks, was fantastical indeed. His victory lap after The Producers musical was glorious, and in any film, much less one of his own, it would call for a montage of medals and trophies and dollar bills accompanied by cheers, laughter, and applause building with music to a magnificent din.
Perhaps the emblematic moment of this third act occurred in the year that Brooks turned ninety. He launched a national dog-and-pony tour of more than a dozen US cities that wound up, after months on the road, with a triumphant booking, in September 2016, at Radio City Music Hall in the metropolis of his birth. Every seat in the vast Radio City auditorium—Brooks proudly told friends exactly how many seats there were—was filled.
He showed Blazing Saddles to all the audiences, and afterward he performed a variation of the stand-up-comedian routine he had first auditioned in the Catskills before World War II and that, really, had never quite proved his forte. There are rumors that Brooks plans to do this tour again and again for years ahead, as long as he is able, next time showing Young Frankenstein and then The Producers and then perhaps Spaceballs.
Touring paid better than books. Creative Artists, now his agency, saw to it that he received a reported floor of $175,000 for most of the one-nighters, augmented by a share of each house. The format of the 2016 template was simple: after the screening Brooks took a chair onstage and answered questions from adoring fans. But he didn’t stay seated; he jumped up, danced around, and sang, including the complete “name” song from seventy-five years before, his Catskills days, which as ever he ended, Al Jolson style, on bended knee: “I’m out of my mind . . . so please be kind—to Mel-vin Brooooks!”
People love people who make them laugh. Slowly, over the decades, Melvin Kaminsky had turned his invented identity into a brand name of laughter—a delicious taste, like Marcel Proust’s madeleine, that sweetens life and forever after triggers a deluge of affection. When the laughter worked, it was warm, fuzzy, rude, and crude in a balanced recipe.
His material for the national tour might have been mostly reused jokes (“The toughest thing about making movies is putting those holes in the celluloid”), and almost the entirety of it may have been scripted, right down to the questions from the audience. (“Do you wear boxers or briefs?” Brooks was asked at each stop, and his answer: “Depends!”) Still, every night, the comedian gave his all, schvitzing through his suit with each “performance,” so breathless and drenched one might fear he was about to die.
But Brooks was having the time of his life, and at every stop the sell-out crowds of thrilled baby boomers shouted out, “We love you, Mel! We love you! Love you!”
Sources and Acknowledgments
Every book is a journey with many helping hands, some of them invisible (as the source notes indicate, there were more invisible helpers than usual on this project). I am grateful for the extra work and income provided by Cineaste, Film International, the Fulbright Commission in the United Kingdom, and the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s University Belfast. While teaching on a Fulbright at QUB in early 2018, I finished the submission draft of Funny Man; and one fortuitous day I was privileged to enjoy a local “live read” of the Spaceballs script, reminding me how much I like that film.
Thank you to Cal Morgan, Jr., for his guidance and pointers in the past. Jonathan Jao offered judicious advice and strived to improve the book with his meticulous editing. I don’t remember life without my longtime agent, Gloria Loomis, and her associate Julia Masnik, without whom I would be lost (and broke). My wife, Tina Daniell, and family have learned to live with constant mention and/or discussion of my work in progress, but perhaps it was easier for everyone this time as they are all more or less Mel Brooks fans.
ADVICE AND ASSISTANCE
Thank you to John Baxter, Greg Beal, Sheila Benson, Ksenjia Bilbija, Jacob R. Billig, Michael Billington, David Bordwell, Alan Brostoff, Paul Buhle, Mark Burman, Lorenzo Codelli, Melissa Cohen, John Conway, Robert Crane, Gary Crowdus, Douglass K. Daniel, Wheeler Winston Dixon, Jim Drake, David Ehrenstein, Art Eisenson, Thomas Eurell, Scott Eyman, Chris Gage, Myron Gittel, Edward Guthmann, Ray Kelly, Vanda Krefft, Daniel Kremer, Roger Lewis, Vinny LoBrutto, Moira Macdonald, Ken Mate, Tom Matthews, Joseph McBride, Anthony McKenna, Paul Nagle, Gabriella Oldham, Jaclyn Ostrowski, Eddy Portnoy, Burt Prelutsky, David Rensin, Jeremy Robson, Alan Rode, Henry Schipper, Nat Segaloff, Roxanne Sennett, Clancy Sigal, Nile Southern (Executor and Trustee, Terry Southern Literary Trust), Jeffrey Spivak, Nick Thomas, David Thomson, Janet Wainwright, Gwenda Young, and Francesco Zippel.
Thank you as well to Lisa Pearl Rosenbaum, formerly of the Jewish Television Network, for supplying a copy of A Conversation with Robert Clary; and the Research & Study Center in the UCLA Film & Television Center for screening “Later with Bob Costas.”
CORRESPONDENCE AND INTERVIEWS
Many interviews were confidential. Although I have written other books about people alive at the time of my research—Robert Altman, Jack Nicholson, Clint Eastwood—I have never been faced with as many people who either did not reply to inquiries, expressly declined to cooperate with an interview, or spoke on the condition of anonymity. Probably in the majority of cases, but certainly for those who spoke off the record—I know because I heard the constant refrain—people feared Brooks’s temper or litigiousness. While corroborating their interviews, I have protected their identities.
The list of people who went on the record, either for interviews or in correspondence (or email), includes Sanford C. Allen, William Arnold, Andrew Bergman, Ofra Bikel, Norman Blagman, Ken Brown, Carleton Carpenter, Martin Charnin, Charles Cohen, Nisan (Nathan) Cohen, Michael Elias, Mallory Factor, Raoul Felder, Bob Gill, Sandy Glass, Stuart Gordon, Ezio Greggio, Gilda Grossman, Valerie Hanlon, Hope Holiday, Lawrence Holofcener, Whitney R. Hunter, Gretchen Kanne, Nora Kaye, Norman Lear, Barry Levinson, David Lunney, Djordje Nikolic, Alfa-Betty Olsen, Stevie Phillips, Jay Plotkin, Saria Kraft Richmond, Bob Schwartz, Norman Steinberg, Charles Strouse, and Alan Uger.
ARCHIVES AND ORGANIZATIONS
Special Collections (including the Paramount Studio Collection), Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Los Angeles, CA); Peter Ward, Brentwood Public Library (Brentwood, NY); Mark Burman, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC, UK); Colleen Bradley-Sanders, College Archivist, Brooklyn College of the City University of New York; Library & Archives, Brooklyn Historical Society (New York); Broward County Main Library (Fort Lauderdale, FL); Ellenville Public Library (Ellenville, NY); Brenda L. Burk, Special Collections & Archives (including the Charlie Spivak papers), Clemson University Libraries (Clemson, SC); Heidi Marshall, Archives & Special Collections (including material relating to Walter H. “Wally” Robinson), Columbia College (Chicago, IL); American Comedy Archives, Emerson College (Boston, MA); Mary Paige Lang-Clouse, Director, Ethel B. Crawford Public Library (Monticello, NY); Fallsburg Library (Fallsburg, NY); Bill Guiton, Reference Department, Fort Lee Public Library (Fort Lee, NJ); Freeman/Lozier Library (including the video interview with World War II veteran Stanley Kaplan), Bellevue University (Bellevue, NE); Regina G. Feeney, Librarian/Archivist, Freeport Memorial Library (Freeport, NY); Special Collections (including the Jared Brown papers), Ames Library, Illinois Wesleyan University (Bloomington, IL); Elisabet Paredes, Johnson Public Library (Hackensack, NJ); Patrick Kerwin, Manuscript Division (including the Theodore Granik papers), Library of Congress (Washington, DC); Robin Sampson, Archivist, Special Collections (including the Clive Exton papers), London College of Communication, University of the Arts London (UK); Middletown Township Public Library (Middletown, NJ); Milwaukee Public Library (Milwaukee, WI); Monmouth County Archives (Manalapan, NJ); The Monmouth Journal (Red Bank, NJ); National Archives (College Park, MD); Alumni Relations, The New School (New York); Isaac Gewirtz, Curator, Berg Collection (including the Terry Southern papers), New York Public Library; Billy Rose Theatre Division (including the Joe Darion, Doris Frankel, Lucille Kallen, Ma
x Liebman, Edward Padula, and Michael Stewart papers), New York Public Library; The Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy, New York Public Library; Division of Corporations, New York State Archives (Albany, NY).
Free Library of Philadelphia (Philadelphia, PA); Reference Desk, Palm Beach County Library (Palm Beach, FL); Office of Alumni Relations, Red Bank Catholic High School (Red Bank, NJ); Lisa Iannucci, Red Bank Public Library (Red Bank, NJ); Gina Garcia, Public Information Officer, Santa Cruz Public Libraries (Santa Cruz, CA); Special Collections (including the Eulalie Spence papers), Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (New York); Michele R. Combs, Special Collections (including the Mike Wallace papers), Syracuse University Libraries (Syracuse, NY); Carol Montana, Sullivan County Democrat (Callicoon, NY); Sullivan County Historical Society (Hurleyville, NY); W. S. Hoole Library, University of Alabama; Kristin Lipska, California Audiovisual Preservation Project (including the Mel Tolkin oral history by the Kitchen Sisters Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva), University of California, Berkeley (Berkeley, CA); Special Collections (including the Stanley Chase and Larry Gelbart papers), Charles E. Young Library, University of California at Los Angeles (Los Angeles, CA); Jacque Roethler, Special Collections (including the Gene Wilder papers), University of Iowa Libraries (Iowa City, IA); USC Archives of the Cinematic Arts (including the Hal Humphreys, Jerry Lewis, Hunt Stromberg, and Jerry Wald papers), University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA); Kyle Hovious, Special Collections, Hodges Library, University of Tennessee (Knoxville, TN); Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research (including the Kermit Bloomgarden, Hillard Elkins, Moss Hart, Joseph Stein, David Susskind, and Nick Vanoff papers and National Broadcasting Corporation Records 1921–1976), University of Wisconsin (Madison, WI); Mary Laura Kludy, Archives and Records Management, Virginia Military Institute (Lexington, VA); Missy Brown, Agency Coordinator, Writers Guild of America West (Los Angeles, CA); Molly Beer, Communications Coordinator, Writers Guild of America East (New York); Hilary Swett, Archivist, Writers Guild Foundation (Los Angeles, CA); Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library (including the Max Wilk papers), Yale University (New Haven, CT).
Special thanks to the following for graciously handling many queries and requests: Alla Roylance, Senior Librarian of the Brooklyn Collection, Brooklyn Public Library; and Edward “Ned” Comstock, USC Archives of the Cinematic Arts. Colin Sandell in nearby (to Milwaukee) Cedarburg supplied his expertise for documenting MB’s role in World War II. Aaron Prah, a Preservation Technician of the National Archives at Riverside (Perris, CA) labored to dig out court case transcripts and documents. I relied upon the resourceful Mary Troath for research in London. From Serbia, Miroljub “Miki” Stojanovic generously volunteered sources and information relating to The Twelve Chairs. The voluminous archives—and helpful archivists—at the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research kept me busy with trips to Madison. Marquette University in Milwaukee, my home academic institution, found rare items through the Interlibrary Loan Department, and the Reference Desk answered my frequent questions. (Nia Schudson, above all, went the distance on queries and requests.) Last but definitely not least, my son, Sky McGilligan, who was living in Brooklyn as I worked on this book, invaluably assisted me in tracking down material in New York libraries and courts.
PHOTOGRAPHS
Andy Sharlein, Allied Digital Photo; Getty Images; Historic Images; Jerry Ohlinger’s Movie Material Store; Movie Market; Adam Miszewski; New York Public Library; Djordje Nikolic; Alfa-Betty Olsen; Photofest; Norman Steinberg; and the author’s collection.
KEY TEXTS
Three earlier books were essential reading and rereading: Seesaw: A Dual Biography of Anne Bancroft and Mel Brooks by William Holtzman (Doubleday, 1979); It’s Good to Be the King: The Seriously Funny Life of Mel Brooks by James Robert Parish (Wiley, 2007); and Anne Bancroft: A Life by Douglass K. Daniel (University Press of Kentucky, 2017). Many others were useful—I will spare the readers an overlong bibliography—but especially valuable and insightful was the unpublished “Where Did I Go Right?: My Days from the Czar to the Kings of Comedy” by Mel Tolkin, from the Writers Guild Foundation archives.
William Holtzman and I have in common the fact we both worked for the Boston Globe at different times long ago. I have known James Robert Parish since the 1970s, when he befriended me; I value all his books, and his biography of Brooks is one of his best. Douglass K. Daniel published his biography of Richard Brooks in the Wisconsin Film Studies series under my editorship at the University of Wisconsin Press, and his Bancroft biography under my Screen Classics series editorship at the University Press of Kentucky. When, ages ago now, Daniel told me that he was developing a biography of Bancroft, I urged him to include Brooks as a dual subject, à la William Holtzman. He demurred and strategically covered Brooks’s life and career in his Bancroft book. When I took up the gauntlet of Brooks as a subject, I had Anne Bancroft: A Life as a constant reference, and also Daniel’s goodwill, advice, and many favors as I progressed.
I am grateful to Daniel, moreover, for reading several drafts and pointing out inaccuracies and making helpful recommendations for changes. Sheila Benson and Michael Elias also read and commented constructively on the manuscript. Yet another tip of the Hatlo hat goes to my old friend Joseph McBride, an eminence in the field, who selflessly read draft after draft. McBride has been a diligent early reader of many of my books, identifying problems and making sharp criticisms. Other key people who must remain nameless read the drafts, too, and everyone tried to steer me in better directions. Any stubborn errors of fact or interpretation are regretfully my own.
Chapter Notes
People identified by name in the text are quoted from their interviews with me, our (email or paper) correspondence, or—as chapter-listed below—from published sources.
Only key published sources are acknowledged. Mel Brooks (hereafter MB) often began interviews with a disclaimer: “I don’t like doing interviews, you know—I never do ’em” (Jan. 22, 1974, New Times). But at the height of his fame he was likely to answer the office telephone himself and spend “twenty minutes explaining why he didn’t want to be interviewed,” as a New York Times journalist told Lucille Kallen in 1982, busily giving the interview that he wasn’t giving. In fact, during his career MB gave interviews to literally thousands of newspaper and magazine outlets, book authors, and radio, television, and other media; he turns up, in a supporting role, in numberless other published works and Internet pieces. Though I have tried to collect and consult every source possible, my notes are confined to what has been incorporated and cited.
CHAPTER 1: 1926: LITTLE WORLD
Trying to reconcile disparate accounts and reconstruct the Kaminsky/Brookman genealogy, I looked at telephone directories, US and New York State Census records, World War I draft registration papers, New York State marriage and death records, probate filings, and New York Hebrew Orphan Asylum archives. I also drew on MB’s interview touching on his family history, broadcast in March 1990 on A Conversation with Robert Clary, a short-lived series produced for the Jewish Television Network.
One of the early substantial profiles of Brooks is “Frolics and Detours of a Short Hebrew Man” by Kenneth Tynan in The New Yorker (Oct. 30, 1978), and one of the most extensive and searching interviews is Brad Darrach’s Q and A for Playboy (Feb. 1975). Both these pieces are quoted from frequently in the text. In this chapter “the strange amalgam . . . ,” Joseph Heller’s “There’s a side of Mel . . . ,” “an avid talker and doer,” and “the first sketch I ever wrote” are from the New Yorker profile. “A great softball pitcher,” “the lady next door . . . ,” “lively, peppy, sang well,” “They were afraid . . . ,” “as a boy, I could make . . . ,” “swoon with ecstasy,” “the best cook . . . ,” young MB’s sex life, “The class would laugh . . . ,” and “undisputed champ . . .” are from the Playboy interview.
“My feet never touched . . .” is from “The Making of The Producers” by Sam
Kashner, Vanity Fair (January 2004). “A little Jewish rhino” is from Alan King: Inside the Comedy Mind: Mel Brooks, broadcast on Comedy Central in 1991. “So short she could walk . . .” is from “Mel Brooks: Live in London” by Alice Jones, The Independent (UK) (March 22, 2015). “Absconded” is inscribed in New York Hebrew Orphan Asylum records. New York State Corporation Records confirm Max Kaminsky’s involvement as an officer or investor in various businesses publicly listed in the New York Times and other East Coast newspapers.
Marc Eliot’s Song of Brooklyn: An Oral History of America’s Favorite Borough (Broadway Books, 2008) contains MB’s reminiscences about his boyhood. “Close to the corner of Hooper . . . ,” anecdotes about his youthful moviegoing, his brother’s help with homework (“I got an A on the exam”), and the long walk across the Williamsburg Bridge to the Lower East Side (“there were a lot of Jews there”) are from Song of Brooklyn.
Another excellent account of Brooks’s early life is “Williamsburg Days,” the interview with MB in Brooklyn: A State of Mind, edited by Michael W. Robbins (Workman, 2000). “And he’d often get into the picture . . . ,” “He gave us money sometimes . . . ,” “with dirty old, very thick cards,” “We were really poor . . . ,” “One big bed for us . . . ,” “Without thinking I turned . . . ,” “I could call the police . . . ,” “Right near the sea . . . ,” “bathing suit sashes,” “enormous bags,” “Roughly a year . . . ,” and “I think my mother missed her mother . . .” are from Brooklyn: A State of Mind.
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