With Mel Brooks turning 100, I am thinking back to 1981 when I had the pleasure and privilege of interviewing the then 55 year old Mel for my radio show The Laugh Track, on WKCR-FM (Columbia U’s radio station). History of the World Part 1 had come out a few weeks prior and was not doing well at the box office. As a result, the PR people had Mel talking to anyone who would talk to him.
We were scheduled to talk at 4PM New York time, but at 2:00 my phone rang and the voice on the other end said “Howard, this is Mel Brooks.” I wasn’t set up, but I wasn’t going to ask him to call back either. I had him hold for a minute while I grabbed my cassette recorder and all the wires and cables and hooked up faster than I ever had.
Before the interview started, Mel said “This is going on the air tonight, right?” I told him that my process was to edit the interview and add in comedy routines and songs of his, so it would air the following week. He replied that did him no good. I talked him into agreeing to give me 10 minutes.
I was and remain a lifelong Mel Brooks fan; The Producers (original version) is my favorite movie of all time. I even tried (unsuccessfully) to get the rights to produce it as a Broadway show years before Mel’s huge smash hit. I had years of questions for him and he found them interesting enough that he gave me 45 precious minutes of his time. One of my favorite interviews of my life.
One tidbit from the interview: Mel told me that he named his movie “Blazing Saddles” because when you ride a blazing saddle, what you get is a flaming asshole.
Happy 100th Mel, and many more.