The Riverside theater in Milwaukee showed Blazing Saddles to a sold out crowd last night, and after the show, Mr. Brooks (who turns 90 later this month) came out on stage to talk about making the movie, his career, and life.
Quite the event, to be amongst 2,400 other fans of his, cheering and singing along to the show. It brought home to me just how much is lost when watching such great flicks in isolation.
But even more amazing was Mr. Brooks, who despite his age and the presence of a nice cushy easy chair onstage, was constantly on his feet, telling his tales, cracking jokes, and just being amazing. He shared tidbits about how he approached John Wayne to play the part of the Waco Kid, but was turned down. (Wayne had loved “The Producers” and thought the script was funny as hell, but that Wayne’s fans would never accept him in such a ribald, profane part.)
He confirmed that the line “excuse me Ma’am but you’re sucking on my arm” was indeed delivered but cut from the movie as being a gag too far. And also confirmed that he was willing to drop the whole project when Richard Pryor could not be cast as Sheriff Bart due his legal problems at the time. But he was talked out of that by Mr. Pryor himself.
He told how he assured Madeline Kahn that it wasn’t ‘that kind of casting interview’ when he asked her to show him her legs. And then asked himself afterward "Why couldn’t it have been that kind of interview? :smack:
He said he got the best advice ever about making movies from Slim Pickens, who told him to take every opportunity that came along to just sit down.
He talked about his borscht belt days, his work with Sid Caesar, his days growing up in NYC.
An amazing evening, thanks to the Mrs. who thought it’d be a great way to celebrate our 35th anniversary. And it was.
To quote Lili Von Schtupp: “What a nice guy!”
