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Kennedy, I don't know if you saw this, but it's big news because comedy legend Mel Brooks turns 100 this Sunday, the 28th.
That's our first hot topic brought to you by Walton Arts Center.
What a career he's given us.
The Brooklyn-born writer, director, actor, and producer helped shape television with your show of shows and Get Smart, then made movie history with the producers Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, just to name a few.
He's also one of the rare EGOT winners with an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony.
Best of all, the man who played the 2,000-year-old man is still making the rest of us laugh.
I know that for me, Mel Brooks is part of my childhood with movies like Robin Hood, Men in Tights, and Spaceballs.
They're making a spaceball sequel.
I've heard.
But also 100 years.
Yeah.
I mean, you must be doing something right.
Very impressive.
I mean, I hope I'm doing that at 100 years old.
Yeah, you're still making movies and involved in the creative process.
So, yeah, I love that.
Way to go.
Happy early birthday, Mel Brooks.
Another Nashville treasure may get a second spin.
The Tennessee
Foxtrot.
my heart's afraid to fly it's crashed before but then you take my hand my heart starts to soar once more my anxiety it's always the same anxiety it's you
That I blame.
It's very clear to me I've got to give in.
And remember, folks, be good to your parents.
They've been good to you.
on his 100th birthday today.
Splendid, then he died the day he planned to go and spend
it shouting...
The music of the stars.
was 1489.
The Black Plague ravaged the continent.
It was the hour of the infamous Otto de Fay, where, for public amusement, heretics and non-believers were tortured and burned in a carnival-like atmosphere.
And it was guided by the most fearful specter to ever sit in judgment over good and evil.
The Grand Inquisitor, Tokimata.
enters his holiness, Tocca Marta, the grand inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition.
Tocca Marta, do not implore him for compassion.
Tocca Marta, do not beg him for forgiveness.
Tocca Marta, do not ask him for mercy.
Let's face it, you can't Tocca Marta anything.
Confess their evil ways, and to accept and embrace the true church, convert now, or forever burn in hell.
For now begins the Inquisition.
The Inquisition.
Let's begin.
The Inquisition.
Look out, Sam.
We have a mission to convert the Jew.
It's better to lose your skull cap than your skull
What a show the acquisition.
Here we go.
We know your wish and that we go.
to Mel Brooks, 100 years young today.
Send in the nuns.
That was music from the producers.
This is from History of the World, part one.
The music of the stars.
1974, Frankie Lane.
The music of the
start.
I'm cryin' up for a man with guns to take the West in hand.
They needed a man who was brave and true with justice for all as his angels.
Then out of the sun rode a man with a gun and Barton was his name.
it's a brand new Western.
He wasn't too happy to find out that it was a spoof.
Spaceballs too, and Mel's working on it right now.
After 40 years, we asked, what do the fans want?
But instead, we're making this movie.
Mel Brooks, the 2,000-year-old man, is turning 100 and will celebrate his centennial birthday on Sunday.
The comedian and filmmaker says he was born to make people laugh, and earlier this year, Judd Apatow titled his documentary, Mel Brooks, the 99-year-old man.
Brooks was born Melvin Kaminski in Brooklyn, New York on June 28, 1926, after serving in the Army during World War II.
He later became a writer for Sid Caesar, met Carl Reiner on Show of Shows, and created the 2000-year-old Man's Sketches.
Brooks went on to make the producers blazing saddles in Young Frankenstein and High Anxiety, and in 291 he set his childhood in Williamsburg, Brooklyn inspired it all.
In April and May, Brooks honored Eddie Murphy and donated thousands of documents and photographs to the National Comedy Center in Jamestown, New York.
May the Schwartz!
But the last 2,000 years belongs to Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks, ladies and
gentlemen.
Ladies and gentlemen, this gentleman here is one of the phenomena of the world.
He looks no older than Mr. Sean, and yet he is 2,000 years old.
Is that true, sir?
Yes.
You want to see my driver's license?
No, no.
We haven't authenticated the mail...
clinic has checked you out and said that you are 2,000.
Sir, what has kept you alive for 2,000 years?
When I'll go on an airplane, if I'll go on an airplane, I'll never sit in the first two seats or the last two seats from an airplane.
That sitting in the first two or the last two seats has kept you alive.
I don't understand that.
Why?
Because if
the plane, unfortunately, should take a flop out from the sky, you're going
to go down with
it and break your foot.
But if the plane, as you say, flops out of the sky, everybody in all the seats will break their feet.
I mean, at least.
Yeah, let me amend that.
Any seat is no good.
In other
words, you're afraid to fly in an airplane.
And no seat.
Yeah, I see.
But why?
Because if the good Lord meant men to fly, he would have given him tickets, right?
Sir, I've always been interested in the origin of words.
For instance, a simple word like cheese.
Where did that come
from?
Cheese is a lovely story, how we get the word cheese in our vernacular.
In the year 28, there was an old farmer, and he...
A gentleman came to his land and said, I'm so thirsty, may I have a little dipper milk?
And he said, certainly, go over to the barrel.
He not knowing that the barrel of milk had soured, see?
So this poor beggar man came to the barrel and opened up from the top and looked in and looked down and then, cheese!
high anxiety it's you that I fear my heart's afraid to fly it's crashed before but then you take my hand my heart starts to soar once more high anxiety
It's always the same.
Ooh, Xayate, it's you that I blame.
It's very clear to me I've got to give in.
Where are you from?
Cincinnati.
Great town.
Love that big red machine.
He's up on the linguine.
Hello, young lovers, whoever you are.
What do I spy?
A little grain of rice?
Newly married?
This morning, folks, and they said it wouldn't last.
But then you take my hand.
My heart starts to soar.
It's always the same.
It's very clear to me.
I've got to give in.
And remember, folks, be good to your parents.
They've been good to you.
You win.
I
pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands.
One nation under God, indivisible.
with liberty and justice for all.
I pledge allegiance to
the
flag.
What do those words mean to you?
To me they say, thank you, America, for your strength.
Your courage and for our freedom, which has been a beacon to the world for 200 years.
Of the
United States of America.
Whose bright stars are 50 states, each bearing its own stamp of individuality.
People, 200 million strong.
People, who have come to her from all corners of the earth.
And
to the Republic for which it stands.
A land of laws, an ingenious system of checks and balances that allows no man to become a tyrant and lets no group prevail if their power is not tempered with a real concern for the government.
A land where the right of dissent and a free speech is jealously guarded, where the ballot box is the sword and the people its wielding.
Like nation under God.
A land where freedom of worship is a cornerstone of her being, a land graced with temples and churches, synagogues and altars that rise in profusion to embrace all the religions of the world,
a
land forged by the hot steel of raw courage, and formed forever by the awful crucible of civil
war.
Her man, in pursuit of an honest life, will not be denied his chance.
Where her citizens move freely within her vast borders without, entrance or fear, a land brimming with opportunities, her freedom of choice is the guideline for all.
And justice.
The courts of our land are open to all.
Its wheels of justice grind for it.
All causes, all people.
They look to every avenue for justice, every concern of the law, and they temper their reasoning with mercy.
For all.
This next song is quite personal to me.
And I think it is to you.
I'd like to take just a minute or two to tell you why it's a personal song to me.
It should be to you.
It's a song about this great, big, wonderful, imperfect country.
We live in it.
I say imperfect because if it were perfect, it wouldn't be any fun trying to fix it.
Trying to make it work better.
Trying to make sure that everybody gets a fair shake.
and then some.
My country is personal to me because my father who wasn't born here, rest his soul, he made sure that I was born here.
And he used to tell me when I was a kid that America was a land of dreams and a dream land.
Well, I don't know if our country fulfilled all of his dreams while he was alive, but tonight with all of us together for this hour, it sure fulfills my dreams.
Until all of you in the country, and all of you watching tonight, here's a song about a place we call home.
Probably the greatest nation ever to be put on the surface.
What is...
A certain word, democracy.
What is...
The
grocer and the butcher and the people that I meet.
The children in the playground.
The faces.
the little town or village
where my
About me, the big things and the small.
The little corner new stand, or the house a mile tall.
The wedding and the church yard.
pavement of the city or a garden all in blue the church the school the clubhouse the million lights I see
use a new song.
I think 22 years ago.
Sounds better now.
music of the stars.
Until next Sunday then, God bless us all, everyone.
Keep your dreams alive and reach for the stars and stripes.
The music of the stars were on the air every Sunday.
Lord willing.
From seven o'clock central till high noon.
Right here on the Civic Media Radio Network.
I'm Lou Vergani.
Keep your dreams alive.
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