"A Conversation With Mel Brooks"

A wonderful piece from Tablet magazine.

Nicely played, Ivor Davis.

And a good lesson in here from a smart Yid on the making of Blazing Saddles: 

Brooks:

“Then he grabbed me by the ear and threw me in the manager’s office—and handed me a legal pad. ‘The farting scene has got to go. You can’t punch a horse. You can’t hit an old lady. And you can’t use the N-word.’ Then he gave me a list of 26 other scenes that he said must go. Out. Out. Out."

"I knew if I cut those we’d have a 15-minute film. I wrote it all down and then after he walked out I crumpled up the pages and tossed them in the waste paper bin."

“John Calley, another studio executive who was running the movie division, turned to me and said, ‘I like your filing system."

"Then he saved my life." 

"He said, ‘The audience rocked from the opening scene. We must give it a try in New York and Chicago.’ So I kept everything in—and the film went on to make gobs of money.”