Our countdown to America 250 is coming to an end as we celebrate the 250th birthday of the United States this weekend. What better way to conclude our exploration and celebration of Jewish American history than with history still in the making? This past weekend, legendary comedian and filmmaker Mel Brooks turned 100—and he has no plans to retire.
Melvin James Kaminsky was born on June 28, 1926, in Brooklyn. His father’s family was originally from Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland), while his mother’s family came from Kyiv, Ukraine. Both sides of his family were Jewish immigrants. Kaminsky had three older brothers and lost his father to tuberculosis when he was just two years old. At an early age, he learned to channel his anger and grief through humor. When he was nine, he saw the musical Anything Goes and decided he wanted a career in show business rather than working in the clothing industry like many members of his family.
Kaminsky got his start at age 14 entertaining guests at a local hotel, where he met fellow comedian Sid Caesar, who was 18 at the time. Around this same period, he learned to play the drums and earned money performing as a musician. At 16, he gave his first major comedy performance after the scheduled entertainer fell ill. He later adopted the stage name “Mel Brooks,” drawing inspiration from his mother’s maiden name, Brookman, to avoid confusion with another performer named Max Kaminsky. According to Brooks, the shorter name fit more neatly on his bass drum. He also played the piano.
Brooks served in the U.S. Army during World War II after being drafted in 1944. Because of his high aptitude test scores, he entered a specialized training program before serving at Fort Dix, New Jersey, and later overseas in France, Belgium, and Germany. As a combat engineer, he served during the Battle of the Bulge and took part in landmine removal operations. Toward the end of his military service, Brooks toured to entertain troops.
After the war, Brooks reunited with Sid Caesar and began writing for comedy programs such as The Admiral Broadway Revue and Your Show of Shows. When Caesar launched Caesar’s Hour in 1954, many of the same writers and performers, including Brooks, returned and remained with the show until 1957.
The following year, Brooks met his longtime collaborator Carl Reiner, father of filmmaker Rob Reiner. The two became famous for their improvised comedy routines, most notably “The 2,000-Year-Old Man,” in which Reiner interviews Brooks as a man who has lived since biblical times, answering questions that only someone who had witnessed history firsthand could answer. Their 1961 comedy album, 2,000 Years with Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks, sold more than one million copies.
Brooks’ breakthrough in spoof comedy came in the mid-1960s when he and Buck Henry created the James Bond-inspired television satire Get Smart. Starring Don Adams as Agent 86 Maxwell Smart, the series aired from 1965 to 1970 and won seven Emmy Awards.
At one press conference, when asked what he would do next, Brooks jokingly replied, “Springtime for Hitler.” It was a joke he had been developing for years, and it ultimately became the basis for his 1967 film The Producers. This darkly comic farce follows two theater producers who attempt to swindle investors by intentionally staging a terrible Broadway musical about Adolf Hitler. Starring Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder, the film earned Brooks the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, beating Stanely Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odessey.
In 1974, Brooks released two of his most celebrated films back-to-back. He joined writers including Richard Pryor to rework a western script titled Tex-X, which eventually became Blazing Saddles. More than simply a spoof of classic westerns, the film used comedy to satirize racism, corruption, and prejudice. The cast featured Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, Harvey Korman, Madeline Kahn, and Brooks himself.
Wilder agreed to appear in Blazing Saddles on one condition—that Brooks’ next film be based on a script Wilder had written, a parody of Universal’s classic Frankenstein films. The result was Young Frankenstein, released later that same year. In 1974, Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein became the second- and third highest-grossing films of the year, respectively.
Brooks continued making spoof films into the late 1970s and beyond with Silent Movie (1976), a tribute to silent films; High Anxiety (1977), which parodied the works of Alfred Hitchcock; and Spaceballs (1987), a send-up of the Star Wars franchise. He continued the tradition in the 1990s with Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993) and Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995).
In the 2000s, The Producers enjoyed new life as a Broadway musical, running from 2001 to 2007 and winning a record-setting 12 Tony Awards. Combined with his Oscar, Emmy Awards, and Grammy Award for The 2,000-Year-Old Man, Brooks joined the exclusive group of entertainers to achieve EGOT status by winning an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony.
At 100, Brooks continues his work today with History of the World, Part II, released in 2023 as a sequel to his 1981 comedy, and the upcoming Spaceballs 2. If there is one lesson to take from his remarkable career, it is that humor can be one of life’s greatest responses to sadness, anger, and adversity.
The Fellowship’s countdown to America 250 celebrates the shared values and friendship between the United States and Israel as demonstrated through these stories and partnerships. Show your support by requesting a FREE U.S./Israel flag pin today.
