# All About Me! by Mel Brooks - Blinkist

What’s in it for me? Get an inside look at Mel Brooks’s journey to becoming the beloved entertainment figure he is today.

It’s 1981.

You take a seat inside the theater and see the words HISTORY OF THE WORLD, PART I appear on the bright screen in front of you.

Then, as Mel Brooks’s name fills the frame, you lean back and dig into your popcorn, knowing that the movie will be worth every penny.

And you’re absolutely right.

The entire time, you’re on the floor howling in laughter.

The script is hilarious, and Mel playing five of the main characters takes it to a whole other level.

That is just how good Mel Brooks is.

In this Blink to Mel Brooks’s All About Me!

we’ll dive into the life of an iconic comedian and discover how he paved his own path to becoming the celebrated writer, actor, director, and producer we know today.

Big dreams start in New York – and in Mel Brooks's case, big dreamers are born there too.

Brooklyn, the military, and comedy

Born in 1926 and raised on the fifth floor of a tenement in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Mel had a tough time fitting in with the other kids on his street.

For starters, he was a whole lot smaller than his peers, which made it challenging to form friendships.

Luckily for Mel, he had a secret weapon up his sleeve: comedy.

He realized it was the one thing that kept him in the company of the big kids.

So whenever he saw the opportunity to get a laugh, he went for it – no matter the cost.

As Mel continued to refine his comedic chops, he also developed a love for show business.

He spent every chance he had visiting nearby theaters.

Every time he stepped foot inside, he found himself awestruck by the magic unfolding on the big screen.

However, it wasn’t until his Uncle Lee took him to a Broadway musical that Mel really began dreaming of getting into the entertainment industry.

When he saw Cole Porter’s Anything Goes, he knew right then and there that show business was his calling.

He was going to make his mark on the industry – and nothing could stand in his way.

The Butler Lodge in the Borscht Belt was Mel’s first stop on the road to fame and fortune as a comic.

There, he was hired as a pool tummler to entertain the guests … and entertain them he did.

He quickly became a star performer; the audience couldn't get enough of him.

As he continued to perfect his skills in the Borscht Belt, no one doubted that Mel was well on his way to stardom.

But unfortunately, the world stage would have to wait.

In 1944, Mel joined the Army to fight against Nazi Germany.

His comedic genius wasn’t needed on the battlefield – but thankfully, when VE Day came, he was given the chance to join the Special Services and perform as a comic in front of his fellow servicemen.

He was able to practice his craft again until he was discharged in 1946.

Finally, he was ready to take the world by storm.

Sid Caesar and becoming a comedy writer

Making it in show business doesn't just take talent – it pays to know someone in the industry, too.

And for Mel Brooks, his golden ticket happened to be fellow comedian Sid Caesar.

The duo’s fateful meeting was thanks to director Don Appell, who previously helped Mel get into Butler Lodge.

Don invited him to watch one of Sid’s shows, and the moment Mel met the legendary comedian backstage, there was instant chemistry.

They had the same take on humor and hit it off so well that Sid even asked Mel to join him backstage at his next gig.

This was where Mel's comedic talent was truly put to the test.

That particular gig had Sid doing five shows a day.

To help Sid avoid getting tired of performing the same jokes over and over, Mel gave him some new material to try on stage.

It’s safe to say that Sid loved Mel’s ideas – when he starred in the TV show Admiral Broadway Revue, he recruited Mel to be his personal writer.

The show was not only met with resounding success; it also became the jumping-off point of the duo’s almost decade-long TV show partnership.

When Admiral Broadway Revue was canceled, Sid and Mel’s next project was Your Show of Shows.

This time around, instead of just being Sid’s personal writer, Mel became a formal part of the writing team.

This opened the door for his comedy writing skills to shine.

Paired with Sid’s skillful delivery, Your Show of Shows quickly became a smash hit.

Its success secured Mel's spot in the 1950s-era pantheon of comedy greats.

Producers from across the country started offering him writing jobs, and he was even introduced to the movie scene.

However, like all good things, Sid and Mel’s TV show stint eventually came to an end.

And although Mel made a good impression on the industry, he was left with no steady source of income.

With all the glitz and glamor that come with a career in the entertainment industry, it's easy to think it's the best job in the world.

Friends helping friends

Unfortunately, making a living in the arts is not all champagne and caviar.

It's a tough business, where the money doesn't always necessarily come pouring in.

With Sid Caesar’s TV career beginning to flop, Mel was faced with the difficult task of finding where his next meal would come from.

And then along came Carl Reiner, Sid’s co-actor in Your Show of Shows, who Mel saw as a role model.

Together, the two of them recorded an ad-libbed comedy sketch called The 2000 Year Old Man.

Mel portrayed an all-knowing 2000-year-old man, while Carl played the part of an interviewer, asking him comical questions that he never answered the same way twice.

The skit immediately caught on, and the pair found themselves guesting on several TV variety shows.

Mel's financial situation improved somewhat, thanks to the sketches and TV appearances.

The William Morris agency also sent him several TV specials to write, just so he could afford a roof over his head.

Despite these opportunities, Mel was still largely without a steady job.

And through those rough patches, he found comfort with his pals at the “Chinese Gourmet Society.

” This was what he called his friend group who would meet every Tuesday night in Chinatown to bond over Chinese food.

The good food and friends helped Mel stay afloat, but there was one other person who pushed him to continue his career in show business – renowned actress Anne Bancroft, his future wife.

The first time Mel laid his eyes on Anne, he fell for her right away.

Wanting to take her on the stylish dates she deserved, he accepted any job opportunity, from voiceovers for animations to starring in beer commercials.

Anne stuck with him through it all, believing that he would eventually make it big.

And she proved to be right.

How Get Smart relaunched Mel Brooks’s career

When life seems to be going down the wrong path, sometimes a lucky break is all you need to turn things around.

That lucky break for Mel Brooks came in the form of a call from Danny Melnick of the production company Talent Associates.

Secret agent–themed shows were a hit that year, and the company approached Mel about penning one for them.

Determined to find a way to marry Anne, Mel decided to take the job and got the brilliant Buck Henry to cowrite the show with him.

To kick off their scriptwriting, Mel came up with the idea of Get Smart.

But in true Mel Brooks fashion, the show he envisioned wasn’t the typical secret agent drama people saw in films and on TV back then.

He wanted it to feature a spy who was heroic but also stupidly innocent.

Thus, Secret Agent 86 Maxwell Smart came to be.

Mel and Buck worked on the pilot script for almost four months.

Then, they produced it with Don Adams in the lead role, Barbara Feldon as his partner, and Ed Platt as chief of the spy agency CONTROL.

The plan was for ABC to pick up the show – but when the network watched the pilot episode, they straight up rejected it.

That proved to be a blessing in disguise because shortly afterward, NBC head Grant Tinker asked Mel if he had any funny shows up his sleeve.

Mel immediately sent Get Smart’s pilot episode to NBC, and they proved to be a much more supportive bunch.

The network bought the show, and production was soon underway.

Unfortunately, the first season’s ratings didn’t go as high as expected, so NBC decided to replace Get Smart with one of the new pilots they were currently testing.

But as luck would have it, none of the new shows did well either.

Get Smart was renewed for a second season.

Surprisingly, it was then that the show's popularity skyrocketed, giving Mel the consistent income he needed to marry Anne.

Life has a funny way of taking you down roads you never expected to travel.

A directorial debut

Sometimes, it works out for the best – but even though a certain path may give you the world, the pull to pursue what you really wanted in the first place will always be there.

That was exactly what Mel Brooks felt when he finished working on Get Smart.

He had always wanted to write a Broadway play, but he found himself writing TV shows instead.

So when Get Smart was finally out of his hands, he began working on Springtime for Hitler – a Broadway play about two producers putting on the worst Broadway play ever to scam people out of their money.

Mel drafted an outline of the play and sent it to multiple Broadway producers, including Kermit Bloomgarden, who’d produced Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman.

Kermit showed interest in the idea, but with how the scenes were structured, he suggested Mel turn it into a movie instead.

So that was exactly what he did.

As soon as Mel finished writing the script, he approached Academy Award–winner Sidney Glazier to produce his film.

Sidney estimated it would cost about a million dollars to make – and since he loved the story, he decided to pledge half that amount himself.

The other half of the production cost would come from Embassy Pictures – but only under the condition that Mel changed the title.

So to close the deal, he renamed the film from Springtime for Hitler to The Producers.

Once that was said and done, Mel promptly volunteered to be the director.

After all, he’d written the script and already knew how he wanted the scenes to go.

The Embassy Pictures studio head agreed.

And so started the eight-week-long movie production of The Producers, starring Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder.

When the film finally opened in March 1968, it was a complete success, thanks in part to Peter Sellers who saw a prerelease screening and promoted it on Verity.

The Producers took the big screen by storm and landed Mel an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

All it takes is one good thing to happen to set off a domino effect of positive events.

A string of successful comedy movies

One success leads to another, and before you know it, you're on a roll.

Mel directed The Twelve Chairs next.

And then came Blazing Saddles.

Unlike The Producers, Blazing Saddles wasn’t his original idea – Andrew Bergman had written the screenplay.

But David Begelman of the Creative Management Associates wanted Mel to refine it.

David believed it would be a commercial hit under Mel’s skillful direction, so with Andrew and a slew of other writers, Mel began tearing apart the screenplay and building it back up.

As it turned out, David was right.

Blazing Saddles was so successful that it ran until early September instead of the anticipated June or July.

Right on the heels of Blazing Saddles was Young Frankenstein, another movie that wasn’t Mel’s original idea.

The plot was actually the brainchild of none other than The Producers star Gene Wilder.

It was an inspiring and touching story, but because Mel and Gene wanted to make the movie in black and white, they had trouble finding the right producers – until Twentieth Century Fox picked up the script and green-lighted the production.

Young Frankenstein ended up being a huge hit, both domestically and internationally.

But Mel Brooks wasn’t done just yet.

He went on to make a string of hit comedy movies, including Silent Movie; High Anxiety; History of the World, Part I; To Be or Not to Be; Spaceballs; and Life Stinks.

Your greatest strength can be your great weakness.

Mel Brooks and Brooksfilms

It has the power to propel you to new heights – but also to bring you to your knees.

That’s what comedy was to Mel Brooks.

It made him an award-winning director, but it also limited his filmmaking capabilities.

In fact, he had such a well-established track record as a comic director that whenever his name appeared in the theaters, audiences always expected a comedy.

This stood in his way of making moving and emotional films.

Thus, Brooksfilms was born.

It became Mel’s avenue for producing more serious movies with no trace of comedy.

The company’s debut feature was Fatso, Anne Bancroft’s first shot as a writer and director.

It was about a woman determined to help her overweight brother lose weight.

Brooksfilms then took on The Elephant Man, the true tale of Joseph Merrick, who was born with a deformed face and body.

The movie was so beautifully made that it snatched the award for Best Film at the British Academy Film Awards, or BAFTA.

Apart from biographies, Brooksfilms entered the sci-fi scene, too.

Their first foray was The Fly, a remake of the 1958 film of the same name.

The movie became a box-office hit, earning five times as much as its budget.

Anne then suggested they adapt the book 84, Charing Cross Road into a film.

She went on to portray the main character – and ended up winning the award for Best Leading Actress at the BAFTA.

From there, Brooksfilms continued to create a series of unique movies.

Mel couldn’t have been prouder.

When Mel Brooks developed The Producers, he initially wanted it to become a Broadway play – but it turned into a movie that launched his directorial career instead.

The Producers goes to Broadway

Little did Mel know that The Producers would eventually make it to Broadway.

It was all because of David Geffen, producer of the Broadway musical Dreamgirls.

He had high hopes for The Producers, and with his enthusiasm for the play, Mel finally agreed to take the movie to Broadway.

Unsurprisingly, the entire ordeal was just as challenging as he’d thought it would be.

On top of converting his screenplay into a libretto for the show, he had to write all the songs, too.

But no task was too big for Mel Brooks, and he faced every challenge head-on.

So even when their original director died of leukemia and David Geffen backed out as their producer, they pushed through.

And in February 2001, The Producers made its first out-of-town debut.

The crew used the debut to help them polish the show to perfection – and they did such a great job that it became nothing short of a huge success.

The Producers took home a whopping 12 Tony Awards, a record that has yet to be broken.

Thanks to the show, Mel also became the eighth EGOT – a recipient of the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Awards.

Several years later, he then added the Kennedy Center Honors, the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award, and the National Medal of Arts to his long list of achievements.

These awards are a testament to the comedic genius that is Mel Brooks.

Final  summary

Mel Brooks is proof that you can achieve anything you set your mind to.

With enough willpower and effort, he transformed himself from a scrawny kid on the streets of Brooklyn into an influential actor, writer, director, and producer for TV, Hollywood, and Broadway.

While he did have bumps along the way, his passion for show business and love for comedy radiated in every production – inspiring many new comedians and entertainers to continue pursuing their dreams.