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9 unusual facts about Mel Brooks


Chic Johnson

The picture, a movie within a movie within a play within a movie, foreshadowed a style of comedy that would later find its way into the films of Mel Brooks, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and TV’s Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Creative accounting

According to critic David Ehrenstein, the term "Creative Accounting" was first used in 1968 in the film The Producers by Mel Brooks.

James Dreyfus

In November 2004, Dreyfus played Carmen Ghia in the London premiere of Mel Brooks' musical The Producers, at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.

Jews in Space

History of the World, Part I, a 1981 comedy film by Mel Brooks, which includes a short segment entitled "Jews in Space".

John Jacob Astor VI

Astor's name is shown on one of the page buttons on an apartment building in Mel Brooks' 2005 movie musical The Producers.

John Myhers

He played Robert Livingston in 1776 (he also played the role in the Broadway musical version), and also appeared in Mel Brooks' History of the World, Part I as the leader of the Roman Senate.

Rock Ridge

The standard takes its name from the fictional town Rock Ridge in Mel Brooks' film Blazing Saddles.

Suprasternal notch

This neologism was repeated by Count Dracula in Mel Brooks' 1995 satire Dracula: Dead and Loving It, played by Leslie Nielson.

Tad Danielewski

In 1983, he provided the Polish translation of "Sweet Georgia Brown" for Mel Brooks's To Be or Not to Be.


Carry On Cowboy

The IMDb movie database notes the marked similarity between this movie and the later Mel Brooks Western spoof Blazing Saddles (1974).

Chloe Dallimore

Chloe Dallimore is an Australian actor best known for her performance as Ulla in Mel Brooks' musical The Producers starring Bert Newton.

Clifford Grodd

He led the way in establishing Paul Stuart's own brands and the store attracted the loyalty of individuals including Fred Astaire, Mel Brooks, Cary Grant, Paul Newman and Frank Sinatra.

Collective memory

Numerous TV shows and films such as The Simpsons, Family Guy, Scary Movie, the Shrek films, and the films of Mel Brooks, have referenced, parodied, imitated and recreated these famous scenes, often to the point of overkill.

Dramatic Chipmunk

The audio used in Dramatic Chipmunk is taken from the score of the 1974 Mel Brooks film Young Frankenstein, which was composed by two-time Oscar nominee (and longtime Brooks collaborator) John Morris, and orchestrated by Morris and EGOT recipient Jonathan Tunick.

Eppu Normaali

The band took its name from a character in the Mel Brooks movie Young Frankenstein, and the subtitler translated the name of the character Abby Normal (abnormal) into the Finnish equivalent Eppu Normaali (epänormaali, roughly 'abnormal'; a Finnish equivalent of the original play with words).

I Loved an Armchair

It was written by Lakis Mihailides and was based on the 1969 Russian film Twelve Chairs, which was also made into the 1970 American film The Twelve Chairs directed by Mel Brooks.

Magnormos

Until 2007, Magnormos predominantly presented readings of musicals, and these included Stephen Sondheim's Saturday Night, Mel Brooks' Archy & Mehitabel, Craig Christie's Water Into Wine and Peter Pinne's A Bunch of Ratbags.

My Favorite Year

Mel Brooks, executive producer of the film, was a writer for the Sid Caesar variety program Your Show of Shows, early in his career.

Ocean Beach, New York

The community was once popular with celebrities such as Fanny Brice, Carl Reiner, and Mel Brooks.

Shtick Shift

To contrast the older approach with the newer approach, Weinstein gives examples of the comedy of previous generations of comedians such as Gertrude Berg, Woody Allen, Sid Caesar, and Mel Brooks.

Slapstick

Slapstick continues to maintain a presence in modern comedy that draws upon its lineage, running in film from Buster Keaton and Louis de Funès to Mel Brooks to the Jackass movies to the Farrelly Brothers, and in live performance from Weber and Fields to Jackie Gleason to Rowan Atkinson.

The Face Is Familiar

Only four episodes are known to exist - the pilot, the premiere with Lockhart and Crane, the June 24 episode with Florence Henderson and Ray Milland, and the July 22 episode with Pearl Bailey and Mel Brooks.

The Silence of the Hams

As a curiosity, there is a Mel Brooks cameo in this film, who made a number of well regarded parodies (Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Spaceballs).

The Twelve Chairs

Mel Brooks later made a film, more closely based on the novel, titled The Twelve Chairs (1970), but with a sanitized "happier" ending; the story also served as the basis for the film The Thirteen Chairs (1969) starring Sharon Tate.


see also

Your Show of Shows

Your Show of Shows also inspired the 1982 movie My Favorite Year, produced by Mel Brooks, and the play Laughter on the 23rd Floor written by Neil Simon.