Mel Brooks developing "The Producers" and "Young Frankenstein" for the musical theater, saying of an early meeting with her: "From that day, until her death…we were glued together." Regarding religion, Brooks stated, "I'm rather secular. I'm basically Jewish. But I think I'm Jewish not because of the Jewish religion at all. I think it's the relationship with the people and the pride I have. The tribe surviving so many misfortunes, and being so brave and contributing so much knowledge to the world and showing courage." Brooks' great-nephew from his brother Lenny, Todd Kaminsky, is a New York state senator for state senate
Ella Sings Broadway which by and large had been written before the outbreak of the Second World War, and which had been aped in its popularity with youth by Rock and Roll by the time of the Vietnam War. With many George and Ira Gershwin, Porter and Berlin standards having been written in the 1920s and 1930s, whilst Sinatra and Fitzgerald were growing up. On " Ella Sings Broadway ", Ella connects with the Broadway songs of the previous decade and a half, vastly different in musical terms to the Great American Songbook standards from 40 years previously. The twelve songs are from