I’d show up at a restaurant she was at or a nightclub or I’d even wangle my way into a big party if she was going to be there.
For some reason, they trusted me and actually told me her whereabouts. I found out who her friends were, and I called them. A date I’ll never forget.Įvery night that week, I checked on where she would be. “That’s the best taxi whistle I’ve ever heard,” she said. She was really impressed with my whistle. When we hit the street, I whistled for a taxi. That was the beginning of a string of lies that I never stopped telling, just to be wherever she was. I said, “Bernie Seligman? I have to see him too! I promised to get back to him two weeks ago.” I have to see my agent, Bernie Seligman, at the William Morris office.” She said, “I’m sorry, I have an appointment. I asked her, “What are you doing after this? Let’s go out for coffee.” We started talking, and we never stopped. It’s great.”Īfter Buddy got the key for their song, he said, “Let’s go back to my place.” She said, “Wrong! I’ve got your 2000 Year Old Man record with Carl Reiner.
I said, “I’m Mel Brooks! Nobody you’ve ever heard of!” She laughed and shouted back, “Who the hell are you?” When the song was over, I leapt to my feet, applauded madly, and shouted, “Anne Bancroft! I love you!” She was wearing a stunning white dress, and she was singing in a sultry voice a Gertrude Niesen favorite, “I Wanna Get Married.” She was just incredibly beautiful. After a few minutes, the guest star, Anne Bancroft, takes the stage. We’re rehearsing for a performance she is going to do at the Actors Studio later this week, and I have to find the right key for ‘Just You Wait (Henry Higgins).’ After I get the key, we’ll go back to work at my place.” I have to go to a Perry Como show rehearsal at the Ziegfeld Theatre because I’m going to be playing the piano for Anne Bancroft. One day, in the middle of writing, Charles, whom we all called Buddy, said, “Mel. They had just had a huge hit with Bye Bye Birdie, and I was brought on to write the book for their new musical project. It’s 1961, and I’m working with Charles Strouse and Lee Adams on a Broadway show called All American. Brooks was instantly smitten - so much so that it also unleashed a creative fire within. In this excerpt from his career-spanning and revelatory memoir, All About Me!, out November 30, Brooks discusses his great romance with Anne Bancroft, whom he met while taking a break from the production of a Broadway musical to attend the rehearsal of a Perry Como show. Offscreen, Brooks was one-half of an iconic Hollywood power couple.
He helped shape and define several decades of film in the 20th century, with Brooks writing and directing (and often casting himself in) classics such as Young Frankenstein, The Producers, Spaceballs, and History of the World, Part I. Starting out as a teenage busboy and performer in the Catskills, the Brooklyn native went on to create an unmatched brand of comedy that blended cutting social commentary, satire, broad and bawdy humor, and Borscht Belt shtick. Photo: New York Daily News Archive/NY Daily News via Getty Imagesįew entertainers in history have influenced comedy as much as Mel Brooks has over the course of his 80-year (and running) career. Mel Brooks and his future wife, Anne Bancroft, after learning she had won an Academy Award in 1963.