Mel Brooks Donates His Archives to the National Comedy Center
The New York Times • • entertainment
Key Points:
- Mel Brooks, approaching his 100th birthday, is donating his extensive personal archives to the National Comedy Center in Jamestown, New York, preserving his influential career in comedy.
- The collection includes nearly 15,000 documents and 5,000 photos, featuring early scripts from "Your Show of Shows," "Spaceballs" (originally "Planet Moron"), and materials from his directed films like "The Producers," "Blazing Saddles," and "Young Frankenstein."
- The archive also contains personal photos, including one with Gene Wilder, Brooks’s frequent collaborator, highlighting their enduring partnership in comedy.
- Brooks expressed honor in preserving his work at the National Comedy Center, a place meaningful to his late friend and collaborator Carl Reiner, whose archives were also donated there.
- This donation ensures that Brooks’s contributions to comedy will be accessible and celebrated by future generations.