Comedy legend Mel Brooks was born on June 28, 1926.
But in honor of his 95th trip around the sun, here are our top 95.
1.Because his real name is Melvin Kaminsky.
2.Because he grew up in a Brooklyn tenement.
Of course he did.
3.Because the name of his native borough is not where he got the idea for the professional name Brooks.
His mother’s maiden name was Brookman.
4.Because his cab driver uncle took him to his first Broadway show Cole Porter’sAnything Goes,with Ethel Merman.
11.Because he learned how to play the drums at 14 from neighbor Buddy Rich.
I’ve never done this before!
13.Because in his high school yearbook, he said his ambition was to become president of the United States.
14.Because he’s a Kangaroo (he attended the Virginia Military Institute that’s their mascot).
15.Because he served during WWII as part of the Army’s 1104th Engineer Combat Group.
16.One of his jobs was defusing landmines.
18.He was at the invasion of Normandy …
19…. and saw action during the Battle of the Bulge.
21.Because Caesar finally relented and hired him for $50 a week.
27.Caesar’s show was such a pressure cooker that Brooks began going to psychoanalysis.
It was a choice of that or suicide, he said.
30.Because he datedEartha Kitt.
31.Because he had the good sense tomarry Anne Bancroftin 1964 …
