Reno Evening Gazette Monday, Feb. 10, 1975
Earl Wilson
Mel Brooks regarded as a really great guy
NEW YORK -- The actors who have been in Mel Brooks' pictures like to sit around and exclaim what a guy Anne Bancroft has for a husband. When he finished "Young Frankenstein" he screened it for the secretaries but they weren't allowed to bring their bosses, the studio brass.
"The guy from the hamburger stand was invited, though," says actress Teri Garr, who plays the assistant to Dr. Frankstein, "and wasn't that smart? He would be a better judge of the picture than the brass."
Mel Brooks called Teri (daughter of the late Eddie Garr of vaudeville and "Tobacco Road" fame) his "long-waisted beauty" and arranged for her to have the biggest bosom in films through a specially built brassiere.
"It's like it was built by Doulgas Aircraft for Jane Russell," says Teri.
"Mel never loses his temper. Sometimes we all got the giggles and couldn't stop. After seven takes he said, 'All right shall we share it with the world?' One time we were doing a take and the phone kept ringing. He said, 'Somebody get that phone.' It rang again and he said, 'Everybody stay right there,' and he left and came back. The phone didn't ring anymore."
In his wish to be friendly, he endeavors to learn and remember names.
"He uses devices for remembering. Somebody he's never met before, he says, 'Sure, I remember meeting you on Rockaway Beach. Keep in touch. I don't see enough of you.' But his wit is fast. There was this line in the film, 'Will you help me with these bags?' 'Sure, you take the blonde and I'll take the one in the toiban.'"
Teri Garr played a "Choiman goil." As she entering a door with beautiful door handles, somebody says "What knockers!" She says, "Thank you, doctor."
Teru, at 23, has made 7 Elvis Presley films and worked 4 years with "Sonny and Cher." Her name used to be Terry Garr. She was from Lakewood, Ohio. She changed her first name to Teri. "I was getting too many letters," she said, "that started out 'Dear Mr. Garr.'"
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