It's Good to Be the King

James Robert Parish

Description

This book traces the extraordinary life and career of Mel Brooks, who has ridden a wave of show business success perhaps unsurpassed by anyone of his generation. Offering many insights into the wacky world of Brooks and his many collaborators, as well as an intimate look into his successful marriage to the brilliant and beautiful actress Anne Bancroft, It's Good to Be the King might just be the most delightful, engaging, and entertaining biography you'll ever read.

Sujets

• Performing Arts
• Biography
• The Producers
• Broadway theatre
• Entertainment
• Autobiography
• Mel Brooks
• Anne Bancroft
• Les Producteurs

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 01 février 2008
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781620458877
• Langue: English

Extrait

IT S GOOD TO BE THE KING
IT S GOOD TO BE THE KING
The Seriously Funny Life of Mel Brooks
James Robert Parish
Copyright 2007 by James Robert Parish. All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey Published simultaneously in Canada
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, [phone], fax [phone], or on the web at www.copyright.com . Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, [phone], fax [phone], or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions .
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and the author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Parish, James Robert. It s good to be the king : the seriously funny life of Mel Brooks / James Robert Parish, p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-470-22526-4 1. Brooks, Mel. 2. Comedians-United States-Biography. 3. Motion picture actors and actresses-United States-Biography. 4. Motion picture producers and directors-United States-Biography. I. Title. PN2287.B695P37 2007 792.702 8092-dc22 [B]
2006016533
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Mel Brooks fans everywhere
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 Out of the Ashes of Despair
2 Born into the Spotlight
3 The King of the Street Corner
4 Hello and Good-bye to Brighton Beach
5 Swimming in the Borscht Belt
6 Off to War
7 Becoming Mel Brooks
8 Hail Caesar!
9 Smashing into the Ranks
10 Your Show of Shows
11 Living on the Edge
12 On the Torturous Road to Success
13 Broadway, Love, and Marriage
14 Farewell, Caesar
15 Unraveling
16 A Wacky Man for the Millenniums
17 A Season of Many Changes
18 A Remarkable New Love
19 Back to Broadway and Beyond
20 Becoming the Critic
21 Getting Smart
22 Flaunt It, Baby
23 Jumping in Front of the Cameras
24 Back in the Running-Again
25 A Monster Hit
26 On the Hollywood Treadmill
27 Stretching His Career Horizons
28 A Mighty Monarch at Last
29 Next Stop, Outer Space
30 Back to Work
31 Comedy-Tonight!
32 Carrying On
Mel Brooks s Film, Stage, and Television Credits
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
I wish to thank the following for their kind cooperation on this project: Academy of Dance on Film (Larry Billman), Patrick Agan, Bruce Bailey, Robert Bentley, Billy Rose Theater Collection of the New York Public Library at Lincoln Center, Ronald L. Bowers, Michael Buckley, Charles Callas, Catskills Association (Phil Brown), Cinefex magazine (Don Shay), John Cocchi, Stephen Cole, Bobby Cramer, Ernest Cunningham, Jacques D Amboise, Joe Dante, Bernard F. Dick, Douglas Fairbanks Center for Motion Picture Study, Dream City Photo Lab (Jack Allen), Michael B. Druxman, Eleanor Knowles Dugan, Echo Book Shop, Rob Edelman, David Ehrenstein, Emorac, Inc. (Eric Monder), Filming Today Press (G. D. Hamann), Dave Finkle, Professor James Fisher, Sharon R. Fox, Dick Gautier, Alex Gildzen, Bruce Gold, Shecky Greene, Pierre Guinle, Ray Hagen, Harry Haun, Travis Michael Holder, Lawrence Holofcener, Ron Husmann, Judy Israel, JC Archives, Will Jordan, Matthew Kennedy, Allegra Kent, John Kern, Jeff Kisseloff, Sam Kisseloff, Tom Kleinschmidt, Richard W. Krevolin, Audrey E. Kupferberg, Shawn Levy, Ben Livingston, Alvin H. Marill, Lee Mattson, Rick McKay, Marty Meyers, Dr. Gerry Molyneaux, Museum of Television Radio (Jane Klain), Charles Nelson, Stephen O Brien, the late Richard O Connor, Jay Ogletree, Kimberly O Quinn, Albert L. Ortega, Patrick Pacheco, Photofest (Doug McKeown and Howard Mandelbaum), Michael R. Pitts, Jared Poppel, Seth Poppel, Bill Reed, Barry Rivadue, Jonathan Rosenthal, Brenda Scott Royce, Barry Saltzman, Brad Schreiber, Margie Schultz, the late Arleen Schwartz, Jonathan Schwartz, Joan Seaton, Nat Segaloff, Ted Sennett, J. D. Shapiro, Stephen M. Silverman, Andre Soares, Spyder, David Stenn, Steve Taravella, Allan Taylor (editorial consultant, copy editor, and indexer), Vincent Terrace, University of Southern California Cinema-Television Library (Ned Comstock), Lou Valentino, Dick Van Patten, Laura Wagner, Tom Waldman, Steven Whitney, Don Wigal, Max Wilk, and those additional sources who requested to remain anonymous.
With special thanks to my editor, Eric Nelson, and my agent, Stuart Bernstein.
Introduction
Yeah. I m buoyant. I m happy so I can respond to people in a very funny way. I prefer to be funny. Not hysterical. Hysterical only when there s a lot of people involved and then it is my bound duty to have them falling all over the floor laughing. Then I m very funny. But comedy is a big risk. One clink. One sour note. And you re going to look bad. Comics are very brave people.
-Mel Brooks, 1978
Growing up in small-town America, I was thrilled when my family purchased its first television set. It was the late 1940s, and TV was still a fledgling commercial enterprise in the United States. I recall vividly one of the first programs I saw on the tiny 10-inch screen of our just-installed living room set. It was The Admiral Broadway Revue . For a youngster already fascinated with the magical world of entertainment (especially films), the variety and quality of live fare offered on this weekly TV program, and especially its successor, Your Show of Shows , was manna indeed.
Jumping ahead to the winter of 1962 in Philadelphia, it had become customary for me to put aside my college homework on Saturday afternoons to catch a matinee of the latest new play trying out in town. On this particular day I saw All American , a Broadway-bound musical starring Ray Bolger (the Scarecrow of MGM s The Wizard of Oz ) and directed by the famous Joshua Logan. Whatever the show s flaws in its embryonic form, the lavish production-with its vivid costumes, slick turntable sets, and catchy score-left a strong impression on me for years to come.
A few years later, I was living and working in Manhattan and made a point of attending a new movie that had recently opened at a local art house theater. It featured Christopher Hewett, whom I had met during recent summers working as propmaster at the Cape Playhouse in Dennis, Massachusetts. I was curious to see him perform on the big screen. I watched the offbeat movie The Producers with fascination, and afterward enthusiastically told friends about this outrageous comedy written by Mel Brooks, which costarred Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder. I soon purchased the sound track to The Producers , which contained not only the film s background music but dialogue interludes, as well as the highly controversial musical number Springtime for Hitler (which, according to the album s liner notes, had been written by Brooks himself).
Months later, when Brooks received an Academy Award in the Best Original Screenplay category for The Producers script, I read several of the extensive articles published about this new Oscar recipient. Suddenly, I realized that Mel Brooks had been a key contributor to many wonderful projects. For TV, he had been a gag supplier for The Admiral Broadway Revue and a comedy writer for Your Show of Shows (and, later, Caesar s Hour ). For the stage, he had authored the book of the musical All American. (In addition, this same man had been featured on the legendary 2000 Year Old Man recordings in the early 1960s and, thereafter, had cocreated a major TV hit with the satirical TV series Get Smart , 1965-1970.)
Thus, without knowing it, I had become hooked on Mel Brooks s talent and zany persona-and remain so to this day.

Writing this book led me to examine the complex, lengthy, and creatively productive life of Mel Brooks-one filled with so many chaotic career and personal ups and downs. Here was a Jewish boy from a poor Brooklyn family who was tremendously driven to find his rightful place in life. Early on, he decided his means of achieving fame and creative/ financial success would be-had to be!-in the world of entertainment and, largely, in the field of comedy.
Because Mel was short of stature he always felt compelled to make loud noises one wacky way or another so that he would be a focus of attention-whether in his career or in his private life. Boisterous, zealous, sometimes downright vulgar, and often overly opinionated, he would repeatedly prove over the decades to be a man of many dimensions and seeming contradictions. (How can a man greatly admire Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy and still delight in making a campfire farting scene the highlight of one of his classic movies, 1974 s Blazing Saddles ?)
As Mel Brooks has demonstrated over the ye