For 7 weeks in 1974, Stage 5 at 20th Century Fox hosted the production of the most beloved comedy in a generation. Terri Garr was the unknown daughter of a costume designer when she got her part. She was paid only $1000/week but she loved every minute of the work and it launched her career.

Gene Hackman was tennis partner to Gene Wilder and when he heard how much fun they were having on Stage 5 he talked his way into the role of the blind hermit in the farm house. Cloris Leachman showed up unable to do an authentic German accent and that made her character all the more unique and memorable. Peter Boyle came to the set even on days when he had no work scheduled.

Mel Brooks and Wilder believed the core of the story was really about parenthood and they found unlimited humor in Wilder’s struggle to parent an awkward monster “child.” The original film came from a parent and child relationship — that between Carl Laemmle and Carl Laemmle Jr.

Carl Sr. was the father of Universal Studios. He is remembered as bold and paternalistic with those outside his real family calling him “Uncle Carl.” When control of Universal passed to Carl Jr, the son pursued edgier horror films. The studio had a major hit with “Dracula” and their follow up was “Frankenstein” in 1931. The film was heavily censored in many states with Kansas demanding the most cuts — 32 scenes (!), nearly half of the 71 minute film. The death of the little girl was cut so frequently that it took decades to find a remaining print of the film that still had the scene and it was not restored until the 1980s with the help of print kept by the British National Film Archive. The film was banned outright in Northern Ireland, Sweden, Quebec, Italy and Czechoslovakia.

Bela Lugosi had hoped to play Dr Frankenstein but was offered the monster role which he turned down. The first director had conceived the role as a mere killing machine and Lugosi told Universal, “I was a star in my country. I will not be a scarecrow here!” That director was replaced but since Lugosi had already passed the part went to Boris Karloff. The concept got revised to have the monster be more tragic and sympathetic and that quality was enhanced much further in “Young Frankenstein.”

A young member of the union crew remembers “Young Frankenstein” as the first film he worked on . He kept hearing “most sets aren’t like this, they aren’t this much fun.” He wandered over to a neighboring stage where they were shooting “Towering Inferno” and found that indeed no one was laughing at the end of takes. On that stage when Irwin Allen called “Cut!” he followed it up by asking “Is anyone hurt?”

Back on Stage 5, on the last day of shooting, Gene Wilder asked if they could improvise more scenes and keep going. Mel Brooks said ‘Unfortunately, that’s a wrap.”