Research Catalog

[Interview with Mel Brooks : raw footage]

Title: [Interview with Mel Brooks : raw footage] [videorecording] / [directed by Michael Kantor]
Publication: New York, 2003.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Filter by

1 Item

Item details
Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request Appointment Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Performing Arts Research Collections to submit a request in person.	VHS	Restricted use	NCOX 2183	Performing Arts Research Collections - TOFT

Details

Additional Authors

Description

1 videocassette (VHS) (47 min.) : sd., col. SP; 1/2 in.

Summary

Raw interview footage used for the documentary Broadway, the American musical. Director, writer, comedian, actor and producer Mel Brooks discusses theatrical producers; mounting his Broadway show The producers, based on his 1968 film of the same name; its number Springtime for Hitler; his satisfaction in writing for the musical theater; his generally unfavorable view of directors, and his admiration for Susan Stroman who directed The producers; his hiring of Richard Frankel, Tom Vertel, Rocco Landesman, Robert Silliman, Jim Stern and Doug Meyer as producers of The producers; choosing the St. James Theatre; hiring Scott Zeiger to produce the road company production; the similarities between the practices of his producer Frankel and the show's main character Max Bialystock, a down-on-his-luck producer who romances older women in order to raise money from them; the two "cardinal rules" of being a Broadway producer; the elements necessary for a successful musical comedy; the plot devices of the show, whose story concerns two theatrical producers who scheme to get rich by overselling shares in a Broadway flop. He also discusses the basis of Max Bialystock in an actual producer for whom he once worked; his identification with Leo Bloom, the show's other main character, who is smitten with the theater and its promise of making one's dreams come true; his love of the theater and desire to be a part of it regardless of the pay involved; being taken to see his first Broadway show, Cole Porter's Anything goes, in 1935 by his Uncle Joe, and the profound effect it had; the difference between a musical and a musical comedy, and the difficulty of doing the latter well; his feeling about being involved with this show, which is running in various venues across the country; the effect of seeing a play in comparison with a musical; his job writing for Sid Caesar for the 1949 television series The Admiral Broadway revue, which became Your show of shows; his experience at age 15 acting in a play called Uncle Harry, during which he came to realize that he was a comedian; doing amateur shows at the Catskill Mountain resort Grossinger's; why he loves working in the theater; his writing of comedy sketches for theatrical revues during the1950s; and lastly, what he believes the Broadway musical represents about America.

Alternative Title

Broadway, the American musical
Broadway: the American musical : Mel Brooks interview

Subjects

Genre/Form

Documentaries and factual works.
Musicals.
Unedited footage.

Note

This interview is one of a group of interviews with 90 individuals used in making the documentary Broadway, the American musical. The completed production is available on NCOX 2058.
Credits for completed production from pbs.org: A film by Michael Kantor ; produced by Jeff Dupre, Michael Kantor and Sally Rosenthal ; written by Marc Fields, Michael Kantor, Laurence Maslon, and JoAnne Young ; directed by Michael Kantor.
Time code on frame.
Contains various takes, at occasional brief intervals, audio continues without sound.
Interview is preceded by ca. 2 minutes of exterior footage of Universal Studios in Los Angeles, Calif.

Credits (note)

Cameraman: Ulli Bonnekamp.

Performer (note)

Interviewer: Michael Kantor. Interviewee: Mel Brooks.

Event (note)

Videotaped at Universal Studios in Los Angeles, Calif. on November 7, 2003.

Biography (note)

Broadway, the American musical, which aired on PBS in October 2004, is a documentary chronicling the entire history of a unique American art form, the Broadway musical. Each of its six episodes covers a different era in American theater history, and features the Broadway shows and songs which defined the period. The series draws on feature films, television broadcasts, archival news footage, original cast recordings, still photos, diaries, journals, first-person accounts, and on-camera interviews with many of the principals involved in the development of the genre.

Linking Entry (note)

Forms part of the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive, Billy Rose Theatre Division.

Call Number

NCOX 2183

OCLC

156999630

Title

[Interview with Mel Brooks : raw footage] [videorecording] / [directed by Michael Kantor]

Imprint

New York, 2003.

Credits

Cameraman: Ulli Bonnekamp.

Performer

Interviewer: Michael Kantor. Interviewee: Mel Brooks.

Event

Videotaped at Universal Studios in Los Angeles, Calif. on November 7, 2003.

Biography

Broadway, the American musical, which aired on PBS in October 2004, is a documentary chronicling the entire history of a unique American art form, the Broadway musical. Each of its six episodes covers a different era in American theater history, and features the Broadway shows and songs which defined the period. The series draws on feature films, television broadcasts, archival news footage, original cast recordings, still photos, diaries, journals, first-person accounts, and on-camera interviews with many of the principals involved in the development of the genre.

Local Note

Gift of Broadway Film Project, Inc. and Thirteen/WNET, 2005.

Linking Entry

Forms part of the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive, Billy Rose Theatre Division.

Connect to:

Request Access to Theatre on Film and Tape Archive Special Collections material

Added Author

Brooks, Mel, 1926- interviewee.

Kantor, Michael, 1961- interviewer.

Kantor, Michael, 1961- director.

Bonnekamp, Ulli, cameraman.

Broadway Film Project, Inc, donor.

Thirteen/WNET, donor.

Research Call Number

NCOX 2183

View in Legacy Catalog