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How One Friend - and a Single Ad - Saved Mel Brooks' Career
Sometimes, you can make more money from a hit than you can from a flop!
Steve Strauss
January 28, 2026
In partnership with
Have you seen the new Netflix documentary about Mel Brooks - “The 99 Year Old Man”? If not, check it out. It’s great!
In 1967, Mel Brooks was standing at the edge of a professional cliff.
He was forty years old and had spent years as a writer for others, but everything he owned and every ounce of his reputation was riding on his directorial debut, The Producers.
He had convinced Joseph E. Levine to fund a comedy about two swindlers producing a guaranteed flop called Springtime for Hitler.
It was a massive gamble. If it failed, Brooks was likely finished in Hollywood.
The Flop
The early word about the film was disastrous. The studio head hated it. After a screening, Levine reportedly told Brooks that the film was too vulgar and too offensive to ever show to a wide audience.
Levine decided to bury the project, giving it a limited release in a single theater in Philadelphia just to fulfill a contract, with the intention of letting it die a quiet, invisible death.
Mel Brooks was watching his life’s work being suffocated by corporate fear.
As you now know, The Producer’s was no flop. So what happened?
The breakthrough did not come from a marketing meeting or a revised script. It came from a fluke.
The Friend
In a Los Angeles screening room, the legendary Peter Sellers was supposed to watch a Fellini movie. At that time, Sellers was just about the biggest comedy star in the world, starring in the Pink Panther movies and all.
Well, the Fellini movie didn't show up and as a last minute substitute, the studio put on a print of The Producers.
Sellers sat there in stunned silence. When the lights came up, he knew he had seen a masterpiece of comedy.
He didn't just tell a few friends. He didn't just send a private note.
That night, he called the studio head and demanded a nationwide release. The next day, he took his own money and bought full page ads in two of the biggest newspapers in the world, praising the movie.
The Hit
That single act of public advocacy changed everything. The Producers went from a flop to a hit to an Oscar winner (Best Screenplay) and eventually to becomming one of the most successful franchises in entertainment history.
Mel Brooks did not find his breakthrough because the studio changed their mind. He found it because an outsider forced everyone to look again.
The Takeaway
Even a masterpiece can die in a dark room if people never hear about it. In the world of small business, we often wait for the "system" or the gatekeeper or whomever to recognize our value.
But the best entrepreneurs? They don’t wait for permission. They write, produce, and direct their own hit.
Steal This Strategy
🛠️ Tool — Why Peter Sellers placed that Ad
📖 Watch — Mel Brooks on Comedy and Love.
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About Steve
Steve Strauss is the best-selling author of The Small Business Bible (and 17 other books), Inc.’s small business columnist, a lawyer (non-practicing), and an entrepreneur. He sold his last venture, TheSelfEmployed.com to Mark Cuban & Zen Business. Need a ghostwriter or a newsletter for your business? Contact Steve!
“Be bold! For boldness has genius, magic, and power in it.”
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