Interviewer: OK, so you said a very nice thing in terms of Mel directing. You’ve been in several of the movies and you said, I’m gonna ask you to repeat it, that as an actor, I’m sorry, just spit it back to me as an actor, he just trusted you.
Carol Arthur: Yes, he made me feel like I was supposed to be there. And I, I adore Mel Brooks. So much so that our third son is his godson. That’s how much we love him. He’s made a lot of people laugh like my husband has. And we just are very, very fond of him. He means a lot to us.
Interviewer: And if you could just see it from working from he just trusted you as an actor to do what you thought best.
Carol Arthur: Well, he hired me to do what was. We’ll be talking about his exact Blazing Saddles. That was an amazing place to be in the middle of that. I think that’s one of the funniest pictures I’ve ever seen, let alone been in. And if somebody finds out that you’re in Blazing Saddles, you’re in it. Well, that’s my favorite movie in the whole world. So it’s it’s it’s an honor to be in it.
Interviewer: Can we kill it. We’re talking about the can you tell us a story which is basically that you’d been telling me earlier that when he was done with the film, he had a screening for the executives and it didn’t go very well. But then he got the janitors, the janitors and the secretaries, and.
Carol Arthur: He was telling my husband, Dom and myself that he was having the executives that they really were offended at some of the things that were in that movie and they were not giving him what he wanted, and he decided to have all the secretaries of all the people who worked at that studio to come and see a screening. And they laughed and they laughed and they laughed and he said, I’ve got it. That was that was the way to do it. These were the people who who were going to buy tickets to movie theaters.
Interviewer: Also, that this is tell us a great story that you told me earlier about he called you up one weekend and you and Dom and said, my mother’s visiting.
Carol Arthur: Oh, he has. We live in Pacific Palisades and he lives in Santa Monica. And he said, my mother is visiting. And he said that we could take her out for a ride. He said to the driver in the car. Come on over. Come on over. So Dom and I got ready and we went over to your house and we were so happy to meet his mother. We heard so much about her. It was so happy to meet her. And Mel opened the passenger side of the car and put her in the car. And he had he said, to Dom you drive and Carey. You can get in the back and you take my mother for a ride. We were all over Santa Monica with Mel’s mother. We had a great time, but we never forgot.
Interviewer: You also said a very, very cute thing, that it would you should say that you socialized with him, you know, you saw him on weekends and all that, but you said it dinners and stuff, you know, Mel wouldn’t leave the dinner until he got the funniest line in the room.
Carol Arthur: Oh, he had yes. He had to.
Interviewer: Tell us that.
Carol Arthur: He had to get that laugh. Yes. Yes.
Interviewer: Phrase it as a complete statement where you say, you know, we would have dinners and he’d be the last to go until he had the funniest line.
Carol Arthur: Oh, he he had he had to get that laugh. One of the funniest times he will when he was he was doing a joke where he was singing and he did a little dance and everything, and he started to kick a cabinet. And it was a rented house that we were in. We were living in somebody else’s place. There were a couple of couples together and he just kept kicking that cabinet and people were going nuts since this is not our house. And he kept kicking it and kicking it. And all of a sudden somebody started to laugh and somebody else started to laugh and everybody was laughing and he was still kicking that cabinet and he finally heard the laughter he was okay to stop. But he heard the laugh.
Interviewer: You called him the bravest person in the world. Why?
Carol Arthur: Because.
Interviewer: You should say I think he’s the bravest person.
Carol Arthur: He’s the bravest person in this world because he he just face the world. And he said, this is what I want to do. And he came from a very meager beginning and he decided what he was going to do. And he did it in face of everybody telling him, no, no, no. He did it in with all odds against him. He just he just did it. And he said, well, you watch it now in movie business and people who still telling, no, you can’t do this, no, you can’t do this. But he did. He did it. And I just that’s why I think he’s so brave. Because people have done that.Besides talent, you have to be very, very brave.
Interviewer: They told us the cute story you said. Tell us when silent movie finally was shown on an airplane.
Carol Arthur: That was when people would have the movie shown in the plane and they realized that that was they weren’t going to hear it was a silent movie or they heard his music and they were paying. They didn’t wanted their money back. And it was a silent movie didn’t they understand. I went. I haven’t talked with Mel about the best picture. This year was a silent movie. I couldn’t believe that it won Best Picture of the year. It did. But he started it.
Interviewer: He had, really. Did you ever consider you did four movies, your husband did at least four. Did you consider yourselves part of a stock company of actors that he.
Carol Arthur: No, it’s always a surprise to be hired to do one of his films, and I was amazed and grateful to be in any of his films. It was. Was it just a life changing experience.
Interviewer: The you had mentioned earlier that Richard Pryor wrote on Blazing Saddles but.
Carol Arthur: And never got to do it. Yeah. Yeah.
Interviewer: The studio didn’t want him?
Carol Arthur: Well, we didn’t know that we thought there was something wrong. He was sick or something. I never got the true story about that. But you probably know more about that than I do. But but it it turned out to be Blazing Saddles, which I don’t think there’s a funny picture.
Interviewer: You know, not only did Mel use Dom, but and used him to and Fatso, which is her directing writing debut.
Carol Arthur: That was that was a wonderful experience. Yeah. Yeah. And Mel encouraged Anne to do that, she wrote she wrote that script and it was. That was a wonderful film forfor Dom, and Mel was a cheerleader, for her doing it.
Interviewer: Did she always? That was it. She never thought of anyone else but him for the role.
Carol Arthur: She I think she had Dom in mind to do that. Yeah. And she knew Dom very well. And she they used to play a game where they would say, who’s got the best? And they would fight back and forth. And that was they did that in the movie. There’s a scene in the movie where they play that game.
Interviewer: They both come from approximately the same neighborhood.
Carol Arthur: She came from the Bronx. He came from Brooklyn. It’s not the same neighborhood, but they talk the same language. But he made her laugh and she made him laugh.
Interviewer: It’s a it’s a really nice movie. He gives a really beautiful performance.
Carol Arthur: It’s a wonderful movie, too. Wonderful when she wrote it. She wrote that script. Yeah.
Interviewer: The relationship between Dom and Mel is just she just Mel just loves him. I mean, it’s incredible.
Carol Arthur: When he was going to do the movie that he did in Yugoslavia, which was the torture,.
Interviewer: The 12th chairs. So actually start out again and say when he was gone.
Carol Arthur: When he was going to cast the twelve chairs, he had another actor in mind. And Anne mentioned to to Mel that Dom would be great in that part. And he talked to Dom. And he said, you know. If whoever he was considering use a famous English fan,.
Interviewer: It was Peter Sellers.
Carol Arthur: Peter Sellers. He said if Peter Sellers, gets the parties into the picture and you did what he said. But if you do it, we’ll be friends for life. And that’s what happened. And Dom did it.
Interviewer: Tell us one more time, because now you have Peter’s name and everything. Tell us the whole story again, because now you’ve got the name of the movie and.
Carol Arthur: The Twelve Chairs. Mel was going to use the Peter Sellers for the movie and Anne suggested to Mel, why don’t you think about Dom DeLouise for it? And. He thought about it and he talked to Dom and he said, you know, Dom, he said, you are the right man for this part. And he said, if you will, if Peter Sellers does it, he said, Will will you do the movie. And then I’ll never see him again. He said. But if you do it, we’ll be friends for life. And that’s what happened.
Interviewer: That’s great. And do you remember Mel on the set as opposed to you’ve done so much work yourself working? How does he work with actors as opposed to what’s different about Mel as a director?
Carol Arthur: I think if he thought of something that would work, he would do it right then and there, you know, maybe some people objected to that. But I think he he knew what was funny and he was going to make it funnier then than maybe what was maybe he had planned and he saw something else could happen and he made it happen.
Interviewer: What? Why did this relationship between Dom and Mel works with this? Why did this work so well? What what’s.
Carol Arthur: I think they’re two talented men and they appreciated each other’s talent. And Mel was in all times, I think, very brave about everything that he went in Evey’s. And when you think of that, when he did the show, it shows in the early days. He just made those things happen on your show of shows. That was one of my favorite shows in the world, Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca. He wrote he wrote for them.
Interviewer: Exactly. It’s just, you know, it’s not that many directors who use an actor that as often as you know, as Mel used Don, you know, it’s a real it’s really significant. You know, that he felt that way about him to use.
Carol Arthur: Well I think Mel could appreciate Dom’s talent and Dom could make him laugh and he could make Anne laugh and Anne could make Mel laugh. So it was it was a great thing. There was a lot of good comedy happening.
Interviewer: And how how different was Mel offscreen than on?
Carol Arthur: He was.
Interviewer: Or offset.
Carol Arthur: I think Mel it’s someone who who is. It isn’t meaningless ever with him. He says that he means it and he’s going to talk to you and convince you that you have to do something. He’s he’s right there on the case. He doesn’t get up.
Interviewer: Was there ever a part that he wanted, Dom, to do that Dom was like no or busy that Mel had to talk him into.
Carol Arthur: No, I think everything he proposed to Dom was able to work out, and they did. And we’ve seen the finished the films.
Interviewer: Were you were you you were married to Dom when he did the Twelve Chairs.
Carol Arthur: Not only that, but I had just had a baby. He was in Yugoslavia. So so there was a time when Dom said wanted to come over and I said but. But. But. And his dear sister and Anne said, I’ll take care of the baby. You come to Brooklyn first and I will take care of the baby. And then you can go over and visit Dom. And I did. I went to Yugoslavia and I met him in the of all things, though. Don’t don’t leave Yugoslavia, though, don’t you? The first thing, though, Domwanted to do is go to Italy, go to Italy and visit the relatives. And we did. I don’t know if Mel ever found out.
Interviewer: And Mel has described the conditions that set the conditions were pretty. At that time, Yugoslavia was pretty basic.
Carol Arthur: Who was the head of the U.
Interviewer: Tito.
Carol Arthur: Tito, he said Tito was out to lunch. He couldn’t get anything that they wanted. And that was that was it. It was a hard time for Mel, but he would get married, kick a tree.
Interviewer: Yeah, it was. It seemed like very difficult conditions to to be making the movie.
Carol Arthur: But that’s where he wanted to do it. And he insisted on that. He got it to happen.
Interviewer: Yeah. So that was really the first time he worked with Dom.
Carol Arthur: That was the first one. Yes, yes.
Interviewer: Yeah, it’s an incredible streak. And he actually put some of your kids in movies, too, right?
Carol Arthur: Yes. And his wife.
Interviewer: Right. Right. Anything else you’d like you could think of?
Carol Arthur: I just want to say that he’s he’s, I think the bravest man and. Not just the funniest men, but the one of the smartest men. I mean, he he’s well read. He reads everything. And he made a great family himself. And now Max is making a family, and that’s wonderful.
Interviewer: Terrific. Thank you so much. That was great.
Carol Arthur: Thank you.
Interviewer: Thank you.
