Funny Man

by Patrick McGilligan

  The saga of “All-American” is pieced together from many newspaper, periodical, and other published sources. Important books covering the production include Charles Strouse’s Put On a Happy Face: A Broadway Memoir (Union Square Press, 2008) and Josh Logan’s Movie Stars, Real People, and Me (Delacorte, 1978). Unless otherwise noted, Strouse and Logan are always quoted from their memoirs. “He’s never done domestic comedy” is CR from Mel Brooks: Make a Noise. “If I said, ‘Here now is . . .” and “Would WASP America . . .” are from My Anecdotal Life. “In the dress rehearsal . . .” is from MB’s Feb. 14, 1960, appearance on Open End.

  “She was gorgeous! . . .” is from “Mel Brooks ‘Makes a Noise’” by Kam Williams, Philadelphia Sun (May 17, 2013). “Following me around” is Anne Bancroft (henceforth AB) from Anne Bancroft: A Life. Frank Langella is always quoted from Dropped Names: Famous Men and Women as I Knew Them (HarperCollins, 2012). “He’s like a boxer . . .” is from Karen Herman’s 2005 interview with Charles Strouse and Lee Adams in the Television Academy Foundation oral history archives. “[Brooks] does his best work . . .” is Edward Padula and “having the professor first . . .” is MB from “How to Succeed in Show Business by Really Trying” by Robert Wahls, Daily News (New York) (April 15, 1962). “My friend Moishe . . .” is from “Where Did He Go Right?” by Lisa Rosen, Written By (January 2016). Padula first announced “Springtime for Hitler” in the Dec. 17, 1961, New York Times.

  CHAPTER 7: 1962: THE WARM AND FUZZY MEL

  “Logan is a crazy lady” is from Stuart Ostrow’s Present at the Creation: Leaping at the Dark, and Going Against the Grain (Hal Leonard, 2005). “Keeps swinging wildly . . .” is Charles Strouse from Seesaw. “We wanted to salute . . .” is from “How to Succeed in Show Business by Really Trying.” “If a maid ever took over . . .” is from “Smart Money,” Time (Oct. 15, 1965). Kermit Bloomgarden is quoted from his Nov. 15, 1962, letter to investors, in his collection. Stanley Chase’s papers include scripts, memoranda, and production records for the unrealized “The Zero Mostel Show” and the Inside Danny Baker pilot and projected series. I also consulted Jared Brown’s Zero Mostel: A Biography (Atheneum, 1989). “Somebody else’s idea . . .” is from Jim Benson’s interview with MB on tvtimemachine.com (YouTube) (undated). A transcript of the Inside Danny Baker promotional spot is in the David Susskind collection.

  “Like a pup watching you . . .” is from MB’s commentary on The Incredible Mel Brooks box set. “When two people have both . . .” is AB from Sidney Field’s column in the New York Mirror (April 7, 1963). “Mel used to come by . . .” is from “Postcards from Hollywood: Things I Did and Things I Think I Did” by Freddie Fields and David Rensin, unpublished, and quoted with Rensin’s permission. “He was very unhappy . . .” is from the New Yorker profile. “A fake Norman McLaren short” is from “Blazing Mel.” “I said, ‘Roll ’em again’ . . .” is from MB’s commentary on The Critic on The Incredible Mel Brooks box set. “There are no autos . . .” is AB from “The Craft of Bancroft” by Hedda Hopper, Chicago Tribune (Oct. 31, 1965). “After dinner . . .” is from Gene Wilder’s Kiss Me like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art (St. Martin’s Press, 2005); unless otherwise noted, Wilder is always quoted from his memoir. I also drew on the insightful Gene Wilder: Funny and Sad by Brian Scott Mednick (BearManor, 2015).

  The Gourmet Club is reconstructed from No Laughing Matter, the New Yorker profile, “The Gourmet Club” (Vogel), and “Eating with Their Mouths Open,” The New York Times Sunday Magazine (Nov. 3, 1985). “To talk about the future” and “He had no money—zero . . .” are Alan U. Schwartz from “Brooks’ Bookshop.” “Mel is as intelligent . . .” is Schwartz from the New Yorker profile. Drafts of “Marriage Is a Dirty Rotten Fraud” and “The Last Man” are among Terry Southern’s papers in the Berg Collection at the New York Public Library.

  Unless otherwise noted, all production background, memoranda, and contracts relating to Get Smart and “Triplets” are cited from David Susskind’s papers, which include Kirk Honeystein’s and Daniel Melnick’s Talent Associates files. I also drew from David Susskind: A Televised Life by Stephen Battaglio (St. Martin’s Press, 2010) and consulted The Get Smart Handbook by Joey Green (Collier Macmillan, 1993) and The Life and Times of Maxwell Smart by Donna McCrohan (St. Martin’s Press, 1988). “We were completely intimidated . . .” (Buck Henry), “I could have beaten him . . .” (MB), and “I’ve got a much better memory than you” (Henry) are from the Get Smart “extras” on The Incredible Mel Brooks box set. “[The script] took us a long time . . .” is from Jenni Matz’s 2009 interview with Henry in the Television Academy Foundation oral history archives. “Mel is so wonderful . . .” is from AB’s interview in American Weekly (Aug. 5, 1962). “Mel Brooks, an American writer . . .” is from Michael Wall’s “Miss Italiano Thriving on Challenges,” The Guardian (UK), reprinted in the Washington Post (Sept. 15, 1963). “When somebody becomes a star . . .” is from It’s Good to Be the King.

  CHAPTER 8: 1965: SPRINGTIME FOR MEL

  “I hired that girl . . .” is from MB’s commentary on the Get Smart: The Complete Series box set (2008). Lewis H. Lapham’s “Has Anybody Here Seen Kelly?” was published in the April 24, 1965, Saturday Evening Post. The “cease and desist” correspondence and papers relating to the Moose Charlap–Eddie Lawrence lawsuit are among David Susskind’s papers. The making of the Ballantine Beer commercials was recalled by Dick Cavett in “The Great Melvino, or Our Mr. Brooks,” New York Times (Sept. 9, 2011).

  “I got a [royalty] check today . . .” is from “Pell-Mel.” “Tell him from me . . .” and “I had a reputation . . .” are from the New Yorker profile. “It’s a show in which you can comment . . .” is from a 1965 New York Herald-Tribune interview quoted in Seesaw. “It’ll never be Petticoat Junction . . .” is from “Viewers ‘Get Smarter’ with Breakthrough in Hip Satire” by Don Page, Los Angeles Times (Jan. 28, 1966). The Cary Grant anecdote is reconstructed from several versions, including the one MB told on the February 13, 1975, broadcast of The Tonight Show and reprised on his final appearance on the program during Johnny Carson’s last week (May 19, 1992). “Who can tell when the manic Mr. Brooks . . .” is from “Maybe Forgetting a Detail, but Never a Punchline” by Walter Goodman, New York Times (Aug. 19, 1996). Brooks showed storyboards of “Marriage Is a Dirty Rotten Fraud” to Digby Diehl for his profile in Action (January-February 1975).

  “I like what I do . . .” is from “And Then He Got Smart.” “I don’t know what it meant . . .” is from the New Yorker profile. “Max and Leo are me, the ego and id . . . ,” “They worked in their bathing suits . . . ,” “to a horse-racing stable . . . ,” “All my fears dissolved” (Gene Wilder), “Mel loved that character” (Kenneth Mars), and “I didn’t know if the character . . .” (Wilder) are from “The Making of The Producers” by Sam Kashner, Vanity Fair (January 2004). “Some of which weren’t too funny . . .” is Sidney Glazier from Ralph Rosenblum’s When the Shooting Stops, the Cutting Begins: An Editor’s Story (Viking Penguin, 1980). Lee Meredith is always quoted from Tom Lisanti’s Glamour Girls of Sixties Hollywood: Seventy-Five Profiles (McFarland, 2017). Alan Johnson is quoted in this chapter from “Alan Johnson, 81, ‘Springtime for Hitler’ Choreographer, Dies” by Richard Sandoir, Johnson’s obituary in the July 12, 2018, New York Times. MB’s reflections on composer John Morris and his film music are from “Lost Issue: Mel Brooks Interview 1997” by Jeffrey K. Howard, Film Score Monthly (August 2001). I also drew on “John Morris Interview” by Howard, in the same issue.

  CHAPTER 9: 1967: AUTEUR, AUTEUR!

  Michael Hertzberg is quoted from “The Making of The Producers.” Ralph Rosenblum is always quoted from his memoir When the Shooting Stops . . . the Cutting Begins: An Editor’s Story (Viking Penguin, 1980). Dom DeLuise is quoted from his appearance in the Screen Actors Guild Foundation Conversations series in 2006, the transcript of which was provided to the author by Nat Segaloff. Joan Barthel visited the set of The Producers and wrote about the e
xperience in “Brooks: To Lie and Sound Jolly?,” New York Times (Sept. 3, 1967).

  “[Brooks] keeps you on edge” is Dick Shawn from Seesaw. “Mel has great craziness . . .” is Zero Mostel from “Brooks: To Lie and Sound Jolly?” “Heaven and hell” is from “Mel Brooks and David Steinberg Trade Tales from Film and TV’s Golden Years at the Wallis” by Jordan Riefe, Hollywood Reporter (Oct. 7, 2015). “With Gene I was simple . . .” is from “The Making of The Producers” “extra” in The Producers DVD. “There were certain things . . .” is Sidney Glazier from When the Shooting Stops . . . the Cutting Begins. Alan Heim is quoted from Vincent LoBrutto’s Selected Takes: Film Editors on Editing (Praeger, 2000). Alfa-Betty Olsen recounted the Philadelphia preview of The Producers in “I Have Loved Every Job I Ever Had Even When There Was Heartbreak Involved,” published in the WGA East’s event program for the 59th Annual Writers Guild Awards (Feb. 11, 2007).

  “She said my leading man . . .” is from “The Producer” by Frances Hardy, Daily Mail (UK) (Dec. 26, 2005). “It’s impossible for a profit participant . . .” is from Jason E. Squire’s The Movie Business Book (Simon & Schuster, 2004). “I shot a lot of it myself . . .” is from “Mel Brooks on High Anxiety” by Robert Rivlin, Millimeter (December 1977).

  “I’m a moody person . . .” is from Hedda Hopper’s column in the Chicago Tribune (Oct. 31, 1965). “My wife is my best friend . . .” is from the Playboy interview. “I can never let a picture go . . .” is from “Mel Brooks” by Jacoba Atlas, Film Comment (March–April 1975). “What you want in the end . . .” and “I may have moved ahead . . .” are from “Confessions of an Auteur” by Franklin Heller, Action (November–December 1971). “I’m a Russian Jew . . .” is from Maurice Yacowar, Method in Madness: The Comic Art of Mel Brooks (Book Sales, 1983). “A private story with universal features” is from “The Making of The Producers.”

  CHAPTER 10: 1971: BLAZING MEL

  “He thought I was God . . .” is from the New Yorker profile. All background relating to “The People on the Third Floor,” “Annie,” and The Comedians comes from the David Susskind papers. “Strange labor pains . . .” is from AB’s appearance on Charlie Rose (April 25, 2000). “I’ve used up all money . . .” and “He was at the typewriter . . .” are from “Where Did He Go Right?”

  Greg Beal’s authoritative backstory of Blazing Saddles, “Backward in the Saddle Again,” appeared in the April–May 2017 issue of Written By. “One of my best friends . . .” is from “Mel Brooks Didn’t Try to Pants the President” by Erik Adams, film.avclub.com (Jan. 18, 2017). “When Mel tells the story . . . ,” “about a month of steady work,” and “I hated the character . . .” are Norman Steinberg (NS) from “Backward in the Saddle Again.” “I didn’t have time . . .” and “So much of the role . . .” are from the Film Comment interview. Paul Mooney is quoted from Black Is the New White (Simon Spotlight Entertainment, 2009). “Paranoid ‘strawberries’ bit . . . ,” “Big upgrade there,” and “and we had a couple of days . . .” are Andrew Bergman from “Backward in the Saddle Again.”

  “Hasn’t been very easy . . .” (AB) and the performance anecdotes are from “Brooks, Reiner Revive 2,000-Year-Old Man, Now 2,013” by Judith Kinard, New York Times (Aug. 27, 1973). “Hollywood is really two Newarks” was attributed to MB by Abel Green, the editor of Variety, in his review of Oscar Levant’s The Unimportance of Being Oscar in New York Times (July 14, 1968). “So I figured this was the place to be” is from “The Entertainers: Max and Mel Brooks.” The Brookses are reported to have “joined the migration” in “His Own WB Job Lost, Himself in NY for Now, Mike Mindlin Cites Exec Drift to Hollywood” by Richard Albarino, Variety (July 10, 1974).

  “What, are you crazy? . . . ,” “so she could see how much . . . ,” and “harmonize the way Dietrich would . . .” are from William V. Madison’s Madeline Kahn: Being the Music, A Life (University Press of Mississippi, 2015). “My audition for Mel . . .” is from “Woses Are Wed, Madeline’s a Wow!: Madeline Kahn” by Robert Berkvist, New York Times (March 24, 1974). Harvey Korman’s first meeting with MB is reported from Jennifer Howard’s 2004 interview with Korman in the Television Academy Foundation oral history archives. “I don’t look for actors . . .” is from A Conversation with Robert Clary. “I asked [Warner Bros.] on bended knee . . .” is from “Backward in the Saddle Again.” “It’s a thorn in my heart” is Richard Pryor from “Cabaret Comedy Champ Hits New Career High as Film Funnies Hero” by Martin Weston, Ebony (September 1976). Pryor is also quoted from his memoir Pryor Convictions: And Other Life Sentences (William Heinemann, 1995). “Handsome as all get out . . .” is from “Where Did He Go Right?” The tale of Gig Young’s breakdown is from “Mel Brooks Reveals Stories Behind ‘Blazing Saddles’” by Virginia Rohan, USA Today Network (Aug. 23, 2016). “Blazing Saddles is Dixieland jazz . . .” is from “Mel Gets the Last Laugh” by Lisa Bornstein, Rocky Mountain News (Jan. 3, 2004).

  CHAPTER 11: 1974: TOPS IN TAPS

  Unless otherwise noted, all Gene Wilder and MB quotes in this chapter are from “Writing and Acting in Young Frankenstein: A Talk with Gene Wilder” and “Writing and Directing Young Frankenstein: A Talk with Mel Brooks,” both in the same issue of Scenario magazine (vol. 4, no. 1, 1998). “I assumed he liked the pages . . .” is from Kiss Me like a Stranger. “Gene and Mel were brilliant together” is Alan Ladd, Jr., from Mel Brook’s Young Frankenstein: A Mel Brooks Book: The Story of the Making of the Film (Hachette UK, 2016). Gene Wilder’s Young Frankenstein contract is among his papers in Special Collections at the University of Iowa Libraries.

  “The sound editors . . .” is from “You’ve Got Mel” by Steve Daly, Entertainment Weekly (March 2000). “At first, I took him seriously . . .” is from “The Story Behind the Filming of Young Frankenstein” by Gerald Hirschfeld, American Cinematographer (July 1974). The anecdote about John Morris and Young Frankenstein’s musical score is from MB’s interview in Film Score Monthly. “A litany of anger” is from “An Interview with Comedy Legend Mel Brooks” by Corey Stuice, The Telegraph (Alton, IL) (Jan. 6, 2013). “The only one who laughed . . .” is from the Playboy interview. The anecdote about the early dailies of Young Frankenstein is from David E. Williams’s interview with Gerald Hirschfeld in American Cinematographer (April 2007). “Could be Krakatoa . . .” is from “Quiet on the Set.” The “Walk this way!” anecdote is from Marty Feldman: The Biography of a Comedy Legend by Robert Ross (Titan Books, 2011) and eyE Marty: The Newly Discovered Autobiography of a Comic Genius by Feldman (Hachette, 2015). MB’s explanation of “Walk this way!” is from Kiss Me like a Stranger. “Mel never loses his temper” is Teri Garr from Earl Wilson’s Feb. 13, 1975, column in the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner.

  “Every frame” is from “Quiet on the Set.” “Mel, as you know, does . . .” is AB from Norma Lee Browning’s column in the Chicago Tribune (Nov. 25, 1974). “Use of rape as a source of humor” is from “Pictures: Gal Pickets Hit Mel Brooks’ Rape for Laffs Scene,” Variety (Jan. 15, 1975). “We dealt with bigotry . . .” is from “Blazing Brooks,” Time (Jan. 13, 1975). “Womb envy” and “the monster is what people . . .” is from “Comedy: The New King” by Hollis Alpert, Saturday Review (Nov. 2, 1974). “I think in ten years . . .” is from the Film Comment interview. “The funniest man in the world” is Harry Stein from “Springtime for Mel Brooks,” New Times (Jan. 22, 1974). Newsweek noted MB’s constant balancing act in “The Mad Mad Mel Brooks.”

  CHAPTER 12: 1975: CLUB BROOKS

  “I was king of movies . . .” is from “Loud and Lively at 90” by Josh Rottenberg, Los Angeles Times (Oct. 13, 2016). “To have those two movies . . .” is Michael Gruskoff from Mel Brooks: Make a Noise. The Brookses on the tennis court are from items and features in the Los Angeles Times, including Joyce Haber’s July 9, 1974, column and Paul Rosenfield’s “The Rites of Hollywood: Only on Sunday” (Sept. 26, 1982), which includes the sidebar “[Gene] Wilder Rates the Players.” “We’d rush to the ocean . . .” is from “Mel Brooks: What I Know N
ow” by Mel Brooks, AARP The Magazine (August–September 2015). “I miss the one millimeter . . .” is from “Funny Is Money” by Herbert Gold, New York Times (March 30, 1975). Burt Prelutsky’s “Creating a Monster” appeared in the Los Angeles Times (March 2, 1975). “Mel Brooks is good . . .” is S. J. Perelman from David W. McCullough’s People, Books & Book People (Harmony, 1981), which was noted in the book review by Herbert Mitgang in the New York Times (Aug. 15, 1981). “Hollywood writers take themselves . . .” is Buck Henry from Seesaw. Mordecai Richler is quoted from “On Being Funny,” New York Times (June 1, 1975).

  “There are very few big women . . .” is AB from “Annie” by Tom Burke, TV Guide (Nov. 23, 1974). “Ergo . . . satire pays the rent” is from “Mel Brooks Looks Back on Sid Caesar, Blazing Saddles and More” by Alan Sepinwall, uproxx.com (Dec. 10, 2012). “He was a jerk” is from Angela Bishop’s video interview with Teri Garr for Network Ten’s Studio 10, YouTube (May 24, 2017). “I can’t find other people . . .” is from “Brooks Puts a Spin on ‘Vertigo.’” “It was amazing to see Mel . . .” is Marty Feldman from eyE Marty. “Self-starters who don’t have . . .” is from “Seven Revelations About Mel Brooks” by Charles M. Young, Rolling Stone (Feb. 9, 1978). “Why should Canby . . .” is from “Mel Brooks: ‘How Do You Like Me So Far?’” by Jane Shapiro, The Village Voice (July 19, 1976).