Mel Brooks has generously contributed his extensive career archive, consisting of over 150,000 documents and 5,000 photographs, to the National Comedy Center located in Jamestown, N.Y. This nonprofit organization is also responsible for preserving the papers of Brooks’ longtime collaborator, Carl Reiner.
The collection encompasses Brooks’ initial notes on comedy dating back to his World War II service, continuing through his time with Sid Caesar on NBC’s “Your Show of Shows,” and covering his emergence as a comedy auteur in the 1960s and ’70s, with films like “The Producers,” “Young Frankenstein,” “Blazing Saddles,” “Silent Movie,” “History of the World, Part I,” and “Spaceballs.”
“I’ve always been proud to say that I make people laugh for a living. So, knowing that my work will have a home at comedy’s national archive and continue making people laugh leaves me with a deep sense of pride,” Brooks stated when announcing the donation. “I’m honored that my contributions will be preserved for future generations at the National Comedy Center – especially because it’s a place that was meaningful to my best friend Carl Reiner, who believed in the importance of preserving comedy’s history.”
Brooks and Reiner, who passed away in 2020 at 98, collaborated on “Your Show of Shows.” They were also renowned for the recurring sketch “The 2000-Year-Old Man,” where Brooks portrayed an ancient man interviewed by Reiner as a modern TV newsman. As Brooks approaches his centennial year in 2026, with his birthday on June 28, he remains a legendary figure for multiple generations of comedians, actors, and directors.
“Mel Brooks is simply a giant of comedy, and his influence on my life and career is immeasurable. I have had the good fortune of knowing so many hilarious, funny people, and Mel is the king. Now his extraordinary body of work will take its place alongside Carl Reiner’s in the National Comedy Center’s archives,” Billy Crystal remarked. “They were my heroes, and became my friends and mentors and the hilarious uncles every comedian wishes they had. Now together again and always, their legacies will live longer than 2,000 years.”
Acquiring Brooks’ archive is a significant achievement for the National Comedy Center, a nonprofit cultural institution that began in 2018 in Jamestown, Western New York, the hometown of Lucille Ball. The center is home to unique historical items and comedy memorabilia, such as George Carlin’s handwritten notes, Joan Rivers’ extensive joke catalog, Lenny Bruce’s manuscripts and trial papers, and production records from Desilu Studios by Ball and Desi Arnaz. It also houses original materials from “Saturday Night Live,” “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour,” “In Living Color,” and “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.” Reiner’s archive was added to the center in 2021.
“Mel Brooks’ archive represents an unparalleled primary-source record of how a singular artist reshaped narrative, satire and cinematic form – all through the lens of comedy,” said Journey Gunderson, executive director of the National Comedy Center. “Preserving this material is not simply an act of stewardship – it is the safeguarding of a vital cultural legacy that will inform scholarship, creative inquiry and historical understanding for generations.”
