Legend!

Briefly met him and Anne while working at the Barnes & Noble in Santa Monica a few weeks after 9/11.

Manager calls me up on the 3rd floor telling me some guests are interested in some books we have about the Taliban, middle east, etc…

I say cool, and wait near the 3rd floor escalator to show em what we’ve got…

Then I see them going from the 2nd floor escalator and walking to the 3rd floor escalator.

Is that…. Is that? Is that Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft? They arrive to the third floor and I’m standing there, and before I can get a word out, Mel sees me. “Are you Tom? Your manager said you’d be the guy to help us out up here!”

And Anne is there smiling and it hit me, yup, I’m about to show Mel and Anne our “terrorism” stuff!

I show em this, I show em that. They have good questions, and thankfully, I’d been schooled about all the new material we had flooding in about Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, the Taliban, etc, etc…

Anne seemed to be the most interested. I walked them through this whole big-ass displsy we had, and I crouched down to show them other stuff we had, including the “for idiots” and “for dummies” series, and Anne crouched right down there with me, and I’m doing the “for dummies” schtick, and she just looks right at me and says, “for dummies? Well that sounds just like me!”

Mel laughs, and I look at him and her with probably goofy eyes, and sheepishly laugh, and say, “i would never suggest you or anyone are dummies…”

Anne just gave me a little nudge and a wink, and they walked away with a couple books. Mel shook my hand and they both said thank you, smiled and I turned into mush.

Mrs Robinson just nudged me, and I don’t know what perfume she had, but she smelled great. And that smile. Holy cow.

I was on cloud nine, and my manager came upstairs later to say what a great job i did, and she apologized for not saying it was Mel and Anne coming up, but she didnt wanna maybe make me nervous.

Manager even went further to say that when Mel and Anne checked out, they mentioned what a good staff we had and how helpful the young man on the 3rd floor was…

Happy Birthday Mel! You’ve lived a life and have given all of us so many wonderful memories through your work, humor and incredible life. You’re the best, love you, and here’s to more!


PS…. This dude was married to Anne Bancroft for a long time! If nothing else, that should give every short, goofy, funny dude a little hope that some bombshell hot chick is into short, goofy, funny dudes! Goddamn she smelled amazing.. RIP Anne
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