Signal by Stephen K. Peeples -- Here's to You, Anne Bancroft

My family was saddened to learn of Anne Bancroft's death this week. We mourn her passing and our hearts go out to her family, especially her husband, Mel Brooks, and their son Max.

In 1994, as national PR guy for Rhino Records, it was my great fortune to hatch and execute the media campaign for a four-CD boxed set collecting Mel and Carl Reiner's classic "2000 Year Old Man" comedy albums.

We had so much fun that three years later, when Mel and Carl recorded "The 2000 Year Old Man in the Year 2000," their first new album since the '70s, they asked for me to be assigned to do PR for their project. By then I'd moved on to overseeing the company's first Web site, but it was an honor to be asked, and there was no way I was going to say no.

CYBERCHAT WITH BROOKS, BANCROFT & REINER -- Anne Bancroft (center) sat in on a real-time online chat with Mel Brooks (left) and Carl Reiner (right) in October 1997, as Brooks & Reiner answered questions submitted live by fans. Rhino staffers Lisa Liebman (right of Brooks) and Andrea Craig (left of Reiner) keyed in the comedy legends answers. The shady-looking guy at top, Stephen K. Peeples, produced the chat and wrote this tribute. (Photo: John Hagelston/Rhino)

Mel and Carl did a few days of media on behalf of the CD and its related book, published at the same time. This involved setting up interviews with all the major radio and TV entertainment and talk shows in Hollywood, booking a limo, and schlepping the stars from interview to interview.

Many of the interviewers knew Mel and Anne were married, for more than 30 years by 1997, and thought it remarkable for two reasons: they were so different, at least as far as the public could tell; and its longevity.

Most observers thought Anne and Mel were an odd couple, because her public image was one of refinement and culture; his was the opposite. They didn't really know how down-to-earth she really was, or how classy Mel could actually be.

Mel loved all this; when the press asked him about Anne, he responded much like he was still on his honeymoon. He'd tell the story of the first time he met her, when she was a big Broadway star and he hadn't yet made his first movie. How he had bribed her personal assistant to get her schedule for the next several days, so he could be there every time she showed up. She found him irresistible. Everyone loved this story: it was so romantic, yet quintessentially Mel and Anne.

On two occasions, Anne accompanied Mel and Carl on a couple of interviews, and we had a chance to meet her, and see how they were together. They were almost like a couple of kids.

Anne accompanied Mel and Carl to the Rhino HQ in West Los Angeles for an online chat with computers set up in a conference room at Rhino. It was Mel and Carl's first such cyber-interview and probably the third I'd produced, so it was still new and exciting.

Each guy had a designated keyboardist to type in his answers. Anne sat right between the two workstations, where she could see both screens, fascinated by the idea of an Internet interview session, and how the technology worked. She was as enthusiastic about it as Carl and Mel.

The other interview was at the Westwood One Radio Network studios in Culver City, where a decade earlier I had toiled as a program writer and producer. It was around dinnertime, and I walked into the old workspace with Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Anne Bancroft and my wife Nadine in tow. It was a moment.

Brooks and Reiner loved doing radio; they could bust into their 2000 YOM bits without being in costume. While I was in the studio with Mel and Carl during the interview, Nadine and Anne sat together on a bench in the control room, watching us through the glass wall. My wife is not a celebrity, yet it made no difference to Anne. They were having as much fun as the boys, and could laugh out loud because they weren't miked. I had to stifle myself in the studio while the mikes were live.

It was another moment, seeing my wife joking around with an American icon. But Anne wasn't being a Miracle Worker. She wasn't playing Mrs. Robinson. She was just being herself: genuine, warm and quick to laugh with her crazy husband and his best friend Carl.

Here's to you, Ms. Bancroft.