HISTORY OF A SONG: SPRINGTIME FOR HITLER

One of my favorite directors all time is Mel Brooks. I have loved almost everything he did. He not only made great comedies, but some of the songs from his comedies I just can't get out of my head. One of those songs was "Springtime For Hitler".

Springtime For Hitler" is the title song of a play subtitled A Gay Romp With Eva And Adolf At Berchtesgaden. The play itself does not actually exist but appears in the 1968 comedy The Producers which was written and directed by Mel Brooks, who is by his own admission a great fan of bad taste.The leading characters of The Producers are accountant Leo Bloom who is played by Gene Wilder, and Max Bialystock who is played by Zero Mostel. The two decide to raise money for and put on a musical which will flop badly, as a tax dodge. To this extent they seek out the worst play ever written, hire the worst director, the worst actors in New York and open on Broadway. They raise two million dollars for the play, which costs a mere hundred thousand, and when it sinks they disappear to South America with the balance. At least that is the plan, but just as satire sometimes misses the mark, so do people read things into plays, songs, etc that isn't really there.

The musical is interpreted by the public as a broadside at the Third Reich, and is a massive success, leaving them with the problem of paying dividends to their expectant investors. Brooks turned the film into a smash Broadway hit, and it was remade on film in 2005. The talented Gary Beach played Hitler and got to sing "Springtime For Hitler" on Broadway and in the 2005 film remake...