Still blazing after all these years: Mel Brooks at 100

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The director of The Producers hits his century as a uniquely beloved entertainer who embodies his conviction that ‘comedy is the opposite of death’ Mel Brooks’ story is that of the US and Jews and American Jewish comedy. He was born on the kitchen table of a tenement in Brooklyn a century ago in the same month Marilyn Monroe made her own entrance on the opposite coast. The son of European immigrants, Brooks was brought up by his mother after his father died when Melvin was just two years old. He was a small, sickly child and the youngest of four brothers, perhaps an explanation for an almost pathological desire for attention. In the words of his colleague Larry Gelbart : “Mel thought when he got slapped in the ass by the doctor who delivered him that was applause, and he has not stopped performing since.” In his youth, Brooks’ preferred method of making a noise was playing the drums and he was actually taught the instrument by Buddy Rich. Neither could possibly have known at the time t...
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‘It felt like a Greek tragedy’: the shocking truth behind wrestling drama The Iron Claw

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A new film tells the story of the Von Erich family, who gained fame in the 80s in a series of highs and devastating lows, with only one of six brothers surviving

One drowned when he was a boy. Another was found dead in a hotel room. A third committed suicide. A fourth died from an overdose. A fifth shot himself in the head. Of six brothers, only one survived to confront the family “curse”.

The Von Erichs were stars of professional wrestling in the early 1980s, entering the lore of Dallas, Texas, alongside the assassination of John F Kennedy, the Dallas Cowboys football team and fictional oil baron JR Ewing. Their story is told in a new film, The Iron Claw, starring Zac Efron and written and directed by Sean Durkin, who describes it as part family drama, part gothic horror and part sports movie.

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