Mel Brooks on the Making of ‘Young Frankenstein’
More than 40 years after “Young Frankenstein” premiered, director Mel Brooks is out with a book about the making of his monster hit.
"They meet every Friday for lunch at the same spot in Beverly Hills: the former studio head, the producer and the greatest living figure in American comedy. “We are the regulars,” says producer Michael Gruskoff, who is joined each week by Alan Ladd Jr. and the legendary Mel Brooks in what is a palm-tree-shrouded update of the Algonquin Round Table. Other charter members include directors Richard Donner (), the late Paul Mazursky ( ) and producer Jay Kanter, once an agent to Marlon Brando, Marilyn Monroe and Grace Kelly. "We occasionally invite a few special guests to round out the group such as Bette Midler, Norman Lear and Bernardo Bertolucci, who call when they're in town. Mel gets final cut on who joins us because he picks up
