University Press returns with another short and captivating biography of one of history's most compelling figures, Mel Brooks. Mel Brooks is the most successful comedian-actor-director of the 20th and 21st centuries. He created iconic film comedy classics like Blazing Saddles (1974), Young Frankenstein (1974), Spaceballs (1987), and Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993), and he now joins an elite pantheon of EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award) winners - the veritable "grand slam" of show business. Melvin Kaminsky was born to Jewish immigrant parents in Brooklyn, New York on June 28, 1926. He had three older brothers, lost his 34-year-old father to kidney disease at the age of two, grew up in tenement housing, was small and sickly and bullied by his classmates, saw his first Broadway show at the age of nine, announced his decision to pursue a career in show business, became a teenage comedian, legally changed his name to Mel Brooks, graduated from high school, got drafted into the United States Army during World War II, defused land mines as the Allies advanced into Germany, returned to civilian life, started comedy writing, became a Hollywood director, and the rest is history. This short book tells the intensely human story of a man who is changing the world in a way that no one else can.
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