Happy 100th Birthday, Mel Brooks

We want to show the world the Hitler you knew, the Hitler you loved – the Hitler with a song in his heart!

– Max Bialystock, The Producers

Sure, I knew Jesus. He came in the store all the time. Never bought anything.

– The 2000-year-old Man

I’m going to bother you a bit with the reminiscences of an old man, albeit one much younger than Mel. There may be some things from his early career that you don’t know, or have forgotten. In the 1960s, although Mel was already known for his records with Carl Reiner, and mainstream appearances on big-time venues like The Tonight Show, it was not at all surprising to see him drop in on local talk shows, or syndicated shows. On those less formal shows, he was a loose cannon like Robin Williams, totally impossible for the host to control. They just had to go with his improvisations, and try to build on his ideas if they were witty enough (Steve Allen was good at this). Mel would break into absurd song parodies, obscure showbiz stories, bizarre impersonations (Jimmy Cagney’s Aunt Hilda), and even a spot-on Frank Sinatra where he crooned America the Beautiful as a saloon song. (Although it was rarely demonstrated, Mel was a remarkably good singer, and an accomplished drummer.)

By the time the audience caught up with one of his odd concepts, he would be off to another, impersonating Humphrey Bogart’s sister, or singing a risque version of a Lestoil commercial.

As I mentioned, he was Robin Williams before Robin was.

He moved from Brooklyn to Hollywood around 1960, but for people from the Outer Boroughs, Mel was our guy, and his success was our success.

And, as Sid Caesar, Peter Sellers and Steve Allen readily conceded, Mel was the funniest mofo on the planet.