Anne Bancroft: FAnne Stories
Your help is needed for this page. How and when did you become a FAnne? Did you ever get a chance to meet or to work with Anne? Do you have any stories, odd coincidences, or crazy dreams about her, to share? If you have any stories at all about Anne, please write to me at sysop @ fannetastic.com and share them with the only people on the planet who will appreciate them... fellow FAnnes!
(To help separate dreams from reality, the dreams are highlighted.)
From Mar Vista Mom:
Once when my son Charlie was a baby, Anne Bancroft made googly eyes, coo'ed, and generally behaved in a very grandmotherly way toward him as we passed each other in a hallway. She told my son he "was such a handsome young man, yes he was!" in a cute, baby-talk voice. It was quite adorable.
Yet another recent dream: One of those dreams that feels completely real to all of your senses. I visited the tiny stage where (in the dream) The Miracle Worker first premiered. It was almost like a strip mall shop, so tiny, just a little stage and maybe 5 rows of 10 seats for the audience. The stage walls and stage itself were black. They said they'd kept it exactly as it had been in the late 50s, they had not touched it since AB performed there, they kept it as a museum or a shrine. I kept walking around the stage, looking at the walls and ceiling, thinking of how her voice reverberated there, imagining the scenes from TMW. They had a few props from the play against the back of the stage wall. It felt so amazing to be there. (Note: it was sort of amusing to wake up and read about the efforts to save Provincetown Playhouse, where Anne performed early in her career!)
From fanne Hedy B.:
I have loved Anne ever since I read about her in Patty Duke's book, Call Me Anna. From Patty's description in that book I thought she seemed like such a warm, generous person. That was the first thing that impressed me about her. Then I saw The Graduate and I realized how amazingly talented she was.
I think all this had such an effect on me because I was in high school at the time. I did not have very many friends and my best friend had just moved to Germany. I was a bit lonely and depressed, but renting Anne's movies on the weekends gave me something to look forward to. Its strange because that somehow seemed to give me the emotional boost I needed and I actually started making friends at school.
My senior year of high school, my drama teacher found out how much I admired Anne and suggested that I write to her. So I did.
The day after my high school graduation I recieved a stunning photo of her in the mail. In the corner of the photo she had signed it: "To Hedy, With deep appreciation for your kind words. Anne Bancroft". I think I was on an emotional high for months after that.
I always wished that I could have met her. But while it saddens me that I will never have that opportunity, I am just so glad that she existed.
Anne's letter to Candice Azzara while finishing up work on Fatso:
Dear Candy:
My dearest actress, I think of you every day with such joy. You are one of the high spots of "Fatso".
I thank you for all your remembrances, and if you're ever on the lot please give me a call - I'm in the cutting room, ext. 1146.
I've put together the first four scenes and I love them. We usually show some of the cut footage on Friday afternoons and since you've not entered the film yet you might like to see some of the work that has been done, but I would also understand if you didn't want to see it.
I loved your commitment to the role of Lydia along with your ability to concentrate. No one in the world could have played that part and met my vision of it as well as you. You are truly blessed.
Love. Anne Bancroft
Candice says: "Anne Bancroft really blessed me with a great starring role in her movie Fatso. It was a spiritual experience for me. She was so generous and dedicated to the truth."
From
Nathan Lane of "The Producers," talking about Anne & Mel
(June 2006):
He’s still in great pain. And she was — they both were —
but she was in particular the cheerleader for this show. I mean, she’s
the one who really told him, “Go upstairs and start writing the songs.”
And she was there through the whole process: for the first reading, for
the rehearsals. My favorite thing she ever said about him was when Charlie
Rose was interviewing her. Everyone would sort of ask that question about
“What do you attribute the longevity of this relationship?” And she
said, “Look, we’re like any other couple. We have our ups and downs.”
But she said, “Every time I hear the key in the door, I know the party’s
about to start.”
From
Gary Beach, who played Roger DeBris in "The Producers":
One of Beach's fondest memories of The Producers was
getting to know the late Mrs. Mel Brooks. "I really felt like I had
made it when Anne Bancroft knew my name. 'Gary.' Oh, my God, that's Anne
Bancroft saying my name! She had a total idea of who she was and an
awareness of her effect on other people — which is a nice thing to have.
A lot of people who are in that position either don't know or don't care.
She was totally aware. That was sort of wonderful!"
From Leonard Maltin: Anne Bancroft helped present our Career Achievement award to Arthur Penn, who directed her so memorably in The Miracle Worker, on stage and screen, as well as the Broadway production of Two for the Seesaw. As she headed toward the podium, her husband, Mel Brooks, shouted, “Mention me!”
From Patty McCormick's Pieces of an American Quilt: Anne Bancroft had quilted before. During the making of the movie 84 Charing Cross Road someone from the crew had taught her hand quilting, so she was not new to the techniques I was teaching. She caught on quickly. Her character was making the House block, so I concentrated on appliqué stitching with her.
Early in the filming schedule she came to me and asked if I had any fabric in a particular shade of rusty orange. She was wearing a long silk coat and had torn the corner of the front hem. She wanted to use her new appliqué skills and stitch a patch over the tear before it tore any more.... Anne rummaged through the box and found just the perfect scrap, which she expertly appliquéd over the tear. Admiring her work, we both commented on how it sort of looked like an orange tree. Next thing I knew she had gone back to the scrap box and found just the perfect scrap of green. Now there was green under the tree. Then there were clouds in the sky; then a moon; then a little house next to the tree, a chimney with smoke, and windows and a door. Next came a walkway. Then Josh from the art department had to design a car to put in the driveway and I'm stopping at the fabric store to find the perfect silver for the bumper.
Click on the thumbnail for a close-up
This project took us through several long days of work, and sewing together made us friends. We would talk about our families (we're both the eldest of three girls and both our husbands have an affinity for wine collecting) and our plans for the holidays. Last time I saw the coat, she was planning the New York skyline to go along the back hem and considering a beach scene for the other front. By the end of the movie she told me she had bought a second coat with the intention of sewing houses on it.
During one of our afternoon sewing sessions, I asked about the quilt she made before. She told me she had never finished it, and that it was in a plastic bag on a closet shelf. She had developed tennis elbow while working on the quilt and thought the quilting had been the cause of her pain, so she put it away. She agreed to bring it to the studio so I could see it. It was wonderful, and almost finished! It was approximately twin-size, a white-on-white quilt. The quilting design was her front yard. It had palm trees and artichoke plants and lots of bushes and flowers, and the quilting template was still in the bottom of the bag. I watched her quilt in a hoop and couldn't figure out how she could possibly develop tennis elbow, when she admitted she was also playing a lot of tennis at that time. I offered to help. It seemed so appropriate for her to finish her project, while we were working on the movie....
I am a big proponent of giving unfinished projects life rather than letting them die in a plastic bag on a closet shelf. The first thing that needed to be done was to remark the part of the quilt that wasn't quilted. Having the original template made it easy and I quickly did this over a weekend. Then Anne quilted it. Remember, this is white-on-white and you cannot believe how dirty studios are, so she did a lot of the quilting in her trailer between scenes. When that was done, I sewed the binding on for her. She did a great job and proudly keeps the quilt (once destined for obscurity on the closet shelf) on her guest bed.
A dream: It seems that I was in California for a short time. Anne had invited me to stay at her house overnight, and it was the first time I had ever visited it. I went snooping through her dressing room, makeup and closet and was shocked to see that she really didn't have many clothes. Then she asked me to help her set the table for an important dinner Mel was having for some studio execs. She said I could sit in on the dinner as long as I didn't act bored or restless. I don't recall specifics, but I wasn't bored at all, and I remember eating lots of brightly colored vegetables. Later, snooping a bit more, I went down yet another hallway and found a massive closet filled to overflowing with her clothes, and I remember thinking, "Ah, this is more like it." -- LF
From Nadine: My grandfather (78) has loved Ms. Bancroft for years and was heartbroken when she passed on. She was his favorite actress and he had a huge crush on her. Well, on to the story... my father's cousin, Colleen, was in a hotel in LA a couple of years back with her very young son, Riley. A woman said, "Oh, look at the beautiful baby! I want to pinch his cheeks!" When she looked up it was Anne Bancroft and Mel Brooks!
Thank you for your beautiful tribute for such a talented actress.
From
Stephen
K. Peebles, former
PR person at Rhino Records:
In 1994, as national PR guy
for Rhino Records, it was my great fortune to hatch and execute the media
campaign for a four-CD boxed set collecting Mel and Carl Reiner's classic
"2000 Year Old Man" comedy albums.
We had so much fun that three years later, when Mel and Carl recorded "The 2000 Year Old Man in the Year 2000," their first new album since the '70s, they asked for me to be assigned to do PR for their project. By then I'd moved on to overseeing the company's first Web site, but it was an honor to be asked, and there was no way I was going to say no.
Mel and Carl did a few days of media on behalf of the CD and its related book, published at the same time. This involved setting up interviews with all the major radio and TV entertainment and talk shows in Hollywood, booking a limo, and schlepping the stars from interview to interview.
Many of the interviewers knew Mel and Anne were married, for more than 30 years by 1997, and thought it remarkable for two reasons: they were so different, at least as far as the public could tell; and its longevity.
Most observers thought Anne and Mel were an odd couple, because her public image was one of refinement and culture; his was the opposite. They didn't really know how down-to-earth she really was, or how classy Mel could actually be.
Mel loved all this; when the press asked him about Anne, he responded much like he was still on his honeymoon. He'd tell the story of the first time he met her, when she was a big Broadway star and he hadn't yet made his first movie. How he had bribed her personal assistant to get her schedule for the next several days, so he could be there every time she showed up. She found him irresistible. Everyone loved this story: it was so romantic, yet quintessentially Mel and Anne.
On two occasions, Anne accompanied Mel and Carl on a couple of interviews, and we had a chance to meet her, and see how they were together. They were almost like a couple of kids.
Anne accompanied Mel and Carl to the Rhino HQ in West Los Angeles for an online chat with computers set up in a conference room at Rhino. It was Mel and Carl's first such cyber-interview and probably the third I'd produced, so it was still new and exciting.
Each guy had a designated keyboardist to type in his answers. Anne sat right between the two workstations, where she could see both screens, fascinated by the idea of an Internet interview session, and how the technology worked. She was as enthusiastic about it as Carl and Mel.
courtesy John Hagelston/Rhino
The other interview was at the Westwood One Radio Network studios in Culver City, where a decade earlier I had toiled as a program writer and producer. It was around dinnertime, and I walked into the old workspace with Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Anne Bancroft and my wife Nadine in tow. It was a moment.
Brooks and Reiner loved doing radio; they could bust into their 2000 YOM bits without being in costume. While I was in the studio with Mel and Carl during the interview, Nadine and Anne sat together on a bench in the control room, watching us through the glass wall. My wife is not a celebrity, yet it made no difference to Anne. They were having as much fun as the boys, and could laugh out loud because they weren't miked. I had to stifle myself in the studio while the mikes were live.
It was another moment, seeing my wife joking around with an American icon. But Anne wasn't being a Miracle Worker. She wasn't playing Mrs. Robinson. She was just being herself: genuine, warm and quick to laugh with her crazy husband and his best friend Carl.
Here's to you, Ms. Bancroft.
From David March, projectionist at the Mary Pickford Theater in D.C.: Hollywood lost one of its great leading ladies when Anne Bancroft passed away on June 6. “If any of you are grieving,” husband Mel Brooks joked at her memorial service, “keep it to yourself!” Let’s respect Mel’s wishes and pay tribute to wife Anne’s distinguished career with this pleasant remake of Ernst Lubitsch’s 1942 comedy. Question: why To Be or Not To Be, which critics find far inferior to the original and is certainly not considered to be one of the actress’ more memorable films? Answer: when I worked as a projectionist in West Los Angeles during the 1990’s, it was not uncommon for me to observe Anne Bancroft and Mel Brooks (often accompanied by Carl and Estelle Reiner) on a weekend date at the movies, sharing popcorn, laughing, and seemingly reveling in each other’s company. Indeed, “despite the fact that it was described as a match of opposites, her marriage to Mel Brooks, who she wed in 1964, was regarded as one of the most enduring between Hollywood celebrities” (IMDB obituary), a fact obvious to me up in the projection booth many years ago. Thus, I don’t think Mrs. Brooks will mind if I choose to remember her singing and dancing and joking and falling in love onscreen with her husband of 41 years… And besides, shouldn’t singing “Sweet Georgia Brown” in Polish be regarded as one of her greatest cinematic feats?
A
dream: Anne was interviewed in People magazine about a movie she
had directed. It seemed that the purpose of the article was to point out
everything she had done wrong -- very negative piece. Also, while filming The
Graduate, Anne & Dustin were sitting in the sports car. She was
wearing a maroon outfit and a fedora. Suddenly, the action was interrupted
when a baseball sailed in all the way from Yankee Stadium and hit some of the crew. No
one was seriously injured, and Anne just laughed it off.
-- LF
From Jody H.: One night several months ago I was working on my family tree and just for kicks I looked up the Italiano family on the 1930 census. I found them and get this – there was a Kaminsky family living in the same building! Ironic, huh? It listed Millie, Michael and Joanne – obviously Anne wasn’t born yet.
One classic
exchange from Oscar history came in the 1992 ceremony, when Anne and
Dustin Hoffman co-presented the Screenplay awards, via satellite from
somewhere. Ad libbing, the 55-year-old Hoffman asked, "Are you trying
to seduce me?" Ad libbing right back, the 61-year-old Bancroft
quipped, "Not anymore."
source
Olney in Maryland: My mother and I were staying at the St. Regis Grand in Rome (part of a swank tour) in May 2002. We were tired from all the site seeing, and not hungry enough for one more 4 course dinner, so we decided to have a light evening meal at the lobby bar. In walked an "older" woman in the most BEAUTIFUL black cocktail suit I had ever seen! All I could do was stare! She was 100 percent elegant, really breath-taking. It was the actress, Anne Bancroft, in town making a movie. She was with a half dozen people who were supposed to entertain her, but she seemed as tired as we felt.
From Jodi's dream: I became friends with Meg Ryan and we had to attend the funeral of a small Jewish child who had died from some terrible illness. Anne Bancroft was there and we got a terrible case of the giggles. I know... at a funeral... of a child for pete's sake. I didn't say we didn't feel bad.
"He did a lot of stuff growing up that was funny," Mel Brooks once recalled of his son (comedy writer Max Brooks), "but he didn't intend it to be funny. When he was 15, we were having a dinner party [with several other Jews], and he came down in a Nazi storm-trooper uniform [for his junior prom]. Everyone else wore a tuxedo, and he wore an SS uniform... We were shocked. Everyone at the dinner party thought, God, the kid's crazy. But my wife [Anne Bancroft] was good. She said, 'You know, Max... We'll have to take the shoulders in a little bit.'"
source
From an interview with Dustin Hoffman: Not too many months later, Dustin and his bride, Anne, sat tensely at the Oscar ceremonies, immediately behind Anne Bancroft, another “Graduate” nominee, and her husband Mel Brooks.
“Nobody knew who Mel was, except for a few of us, though I think Mel wanted to be known,” Dustin says, grinning. “Every time some foreigner got up to accept an award and struggled to say something polite in English, Mel would turn around in his seat and say to everyone sitting behind him, ‘That guy’s a whacko!’ Then Annie would poke him and push him down in his seat and try to shush him. It was a bona-fide scene from 'Virginia Woolf.'"
From an interview with Dom DeLuise: There were five writers on "Blazing Saddles", but Mel is nuts. He just puts on a suit and a tie and acts like a normal person so people think he's okay. He's definitely out in left field and his mind -- you know, he's crazy! But he's got the ambition of a boy, and that's what's so wonderful about him. He wants to get it right.
I've seen him sing Bing Crosby songs all night long. He will sing Bing Crosby in 1932, Bing Crosby in 1945 and Bing Crosby in 1965. I'm telling you, the man loves to sing.
He does John Garfield always with the same words. You know him twenty years and it is hysterical each time. Anne Bancroft just loves him and laughs her head off! They're the best together.
From Barbara S., July 2000: I've seen many celebrities at my favorite restaurant in Bronxville, New York. The restaurant is Pane e Vino Ristorante and I've seen Mel Brooks & Anne Bancroft there many times (about once a month). When I finally got up the nerve to say hi they were amazingly friendly. I have had the pleasure of chatting with them several times. They are a wonderful, warm and charming couple (and of course always funny). Anyone in the Bronxville area (25 min. north of mid-Manhattan in Westchester County) might want to stop in this wonderful Italian restaurant.
Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft once owned movie theatres on the west coast. "I bought it from Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft. They opened it up in 1979 as a Mexican movie theatre. They owned movie theatres up and down California. It was great. It was wonderful. If you would have seen it, it was just fantastic. The line used to be down the corner just to get into the parking lot."
A
dream: I am set to join the touring company for the stage version of
"The Turning Point," although I am not a ballet dancer. I first
attend a performance to see how the show is done. Anne has directed the show in
addition to performing her role as Emma. Afterwards, at the cast party,
Anne tells me she hopes I'm prepared to work: she rehearses the cast for 14
hours, then they break for 4 hours, then they rehearse for 12 hours, then
break for 2, then rehearse for 9 hours, followed by a one hour break. The
breaks have to include sleeping. Next, I'm traveling to the first rehearsal in a car
with 2 other new cast members. We're in the back seat and Shirley MacLaine is
driving. Anne's mother is in the front passenger seat. We newbies are in
charge of Anne's and Shirley's stuff, which is piled high in our laps and at
our feet. I keep reaching up front to turn down the radio, because I'm certain
that Anne's mother is not interested in listening to loud rock music, and
I want to be respectful. Then I wake up.
-- LF
Joy Behar spoke on "The View" about sharing dinner with Anne and Mel. She said it was one of her dreams to visit with them. Joy asked Anne where she preferred to live (as in NYC vs. LA, since they had homes in both cities), and Anne replied, "Anywhere Mel Brooks is."
April 2003, San Francisco: Apparently recommended by fellow jazz fans, Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft were at the last day of music at Pearl's on Easter Sunday. They arrived at around 4:30, stayed a couple of hours, left (perhaps to get a snack), then returned and were still there at midnight. Fellow jazz fans were aware that they were there but didn't bother them.
"It was such a shame -- when I was nominated for my first Oscar for The Miracle Worker, I was in a play, Mother Courage, here in the city and I couldn't go out to Hollywood. So they asked me who I would like to receive my Academy Award if I won. I said I'd like one of the greats like Joan Crawford or Bette Davis, somebody like that. But I didn't know that Bette Davis and Joan Crawford were having a feud. Obviously lots of people did, but I didn't. So the fact that Bette Davis was also nominated meant she couldn't pick up my Oscar, so they got Joan Crawford to pick it up. And I won and Joan Crawford walked out on stage and picked up the Oscar and there was Bette Davis so angry at Joan Crawford and me!"
Later when Bancroft met Davis, it was not the thrill she had thought it would be. Instead she got the silent treatment.
"When I met her, she
at first thought I was someone else -- I forget who she thought I was --
and when I told her, 'I'm sorry Ms. Davis but I'm not her, I'm Anne
Bancroft,' she looked at me and walked away."
source
From an interview with stage manager Renee Lutz: I did "Occupant" with Anne Bancroft. That was great fun. And she, of course, is married to Mel Brooks. Mel came every night, and kissed everyone. He's a very normal person. The highlight of that -- every show I do, I hold a potluck dinner at my house, and Mel Brooks came and ate my lasagna and he liked it! He was telling jokes and stories, and I just sat at the table thinking, Mel Brooks is eating my lasagna. It was wonderful.
In 1987, Anne
was booked to appear on the British chat show, "Wogan." In the
green room 5 minutes before airtime, host Terry Wogan informed her that
the show was live. According to Wogan, she turned a deathly shade of pale
and said she never did live television. In order to calm her down, Wogan
suggested that she count 1, 2, 3... before walking on. When she was called
onto the set, she could quite noticeably be seen counting whilst walking
to her seat. She remained very uncomfortable and all her answers were
monosyllabic. Wogan still says she was his most difficult guest.
More
source
From a Dustin Hoffman interview: He recalled the couple's close relationship while he and Bancroft were filming The Graduate: "Mel called her every day. She kept telling me 'Mel called again today. He wants to know if I've kissed you yet. He's so jealous.' And on Fridays, she'd be saying, 'Could you hurry up, could you get it right? I need to get on a plane. I want to see Mel.' They were like kids. It is one of the greatest marriages -- nothing showy, nothing fake but you knew they were real lovebirds."
"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the number of moments that take our breath away."
