Kahn Madeline - Madeline Kahn: being the music, a life

Madeline Kahn is remembered for her roles in Blazing Saddles, Paper Moon, and Young Frankenstein, and in his groundbreaking and definitive new biography, William V. Madison captures the complex and rich life of an artist striving for more in the glamorous, hard-knocks world of show business. Madison proves a gifted and sensitive biographer, and Madeline Kahn: Being the Music is an addictive read. A riveting and unforgettable portrait.

CHRISTINA HAAG
actress and New York Times bestselling author of Come to the Edge: A Love Story

Despite the great brio of her iconic comic roles, there was always something poignant and enigmatic about Madeline Kahn. In his wonderfully researched and sensitive biography, William V. Madison examines the threads that made her so fascinating and gives her a well-deserved place in the history of great comic actresses.

CHARLES BUSCH
actor and playwright, The Tale of the Allergists Wife and The Divine Sister

With the devotion of an ardent fan and the astute thoroughness of a scholar, William V. Madison charts the star-crossed life and career of one of the greatest comedic actresses of the twentieth century. This is a marvelous book that I will love reading again and again.

WENDY LAWLESS
New York Times bestselling author of Chanel Bonfire

A lot of us have been waiting a long, long time to find out the real story of this precious, unique talent who left us far too soon. William Madisons biography of Madeline Kahn comes as a kind of gift. With great sensitivity, he captures the poignancy and the humor that went hand-in-hand in creating one of the great comic personas of the late twentieth century.

ERIC MYERS
author of Uncle Mame: The Life of Patrick Dennis

Madeline Kahn balked at attempts to biographize her in her lifetime, so she might not even read William V. Madisons haunting new book were she alive today. But for everyone else who followed her career, and for everyone who found her an enigmatic delight on stages and screens, the book is a resonant must-read, evoking its subject and the golden age of theater and film in which she lived. Madison manages to combine scholarship, a critical eye, and just enough gossip to make this a book worthy of its subjectappropriately entertaining and profoundly incisive at the same time.

TOM SHALES
Pulitzer Prizewinning television critic

A fine biography, worthy of Madelines unique talent and contribution.

ROBERT KLEIN
New Faces of 1968, The Sisters Rosensweig, and Mixed Nuts

Madeline Kahn is the best comic or best dramatic actress, the best singerserious or comicand the best Ive worked with, or known in my life.

GENE WILDER
Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Smarter Brother

Madeline was bright, committed, thoughtful, and one of the most remarkable actresses I have ever worked with. Her work was character driven, not just for laughs, which made her unique on stage and on film. William V. Madisons biography captures Madelines complexity and finely documents her career and personal life.

JANE ALEXANDER
actress, author, former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, and wildlife conservationist

Bids to become the surprise biography of the year. A great untold story intriguingly revealed. Superbly researched, digs deep into the life and times of its subject and captures her essence. Madison also expertly weaves in one sensitive analysis after another of what has happened to acting and actors; to American film, theater, television, and comedy the last half-century plusand why.

DAN RATHER
journalist and author

MADELINE KAHN

BEING THE MUSIC A LIFE

WILLIAM V. MADISON

www.upress.state.ms.us

Designed by Peter D. Halverson

The University Press of Mississippi is a member of the Association of
American University Presses.

Copyright 2015 by William V. Madison
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America

First printing 2015
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Madison, William V.
Madeline Kahn : being the music, a life / William V. Madison.
pages cm. (Hollywood legends series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-61703-761-0 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-61703-762-7
(ebook) 1. Kahn, Madeline. 2. ActorsUnited StatesBiography. I. Title.
PN2287.K15M34 2015
791.43028092dc23
[B]

2014042232

British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available

MADELINE KAHN

ARE YOU LEAVING BECAUSE IM UGLY? AS AN ADULT, MADELINE KAHN couldnt remember whether she had measles or chicken pox or mumps the night her father walked out. All she knew was that her daddy was leaving, that she was ugly, and that these things must be linked. That her parents breakup might have nothing to do with herand quite a lot to do with her motherdidnt occur to a little girl not yet three years old. She never fully came to terms with what happened that night, and she shared the story with very few friends.

Little Madeline would grow up to be one of the top comic actresses of her generation, so much a fixture in American popular culture that its hard for some to grasp that shes gone. A decade after her death, one of her colleagues asked whether Id spoken to her recently, and asked that I give Madi her love. Though Madelines professional career spanned thirty-five years on film, stage, and television, her enduring reputation rests almost exclusively on a few movies, particularly Whats Up, Doc?, Paper Moon, Blazing Saddles, and Young Frankenstein, all released between 1972 and 1974. They earned her two consecutive Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actress and, especially among college boys, a pin-up status she loathed. She was nothing like the bawdy characters she played in Mel Brookss movies, she complained, and she worried that fans who approached her would be disappointed to discover the reserved, refined, and intensely private woman she really was.

More than funny, she was (most of the time) a highly disciplined professional. She earned a degree in speech therapy from Hofstra University and sought work as a teacher, but as she took on ever-greater responsibility for her erratic, extravagant mother, she recognized the importance of money. She quickly learned that show business paid better than the New York City schools could. A fiercely independent career woman, she nevertheless relied on two men, Peter Bogdanovich and Mel Brooks, for the roles that defined her, and without them she floundered. Gifted with shrewd intelligence and profound intuition, she seemed unsure of her talents. She was nobodys foolexcept when it came to her mother, who manipulated her in every area of her life. Madeline was a popular star who fretted that shed never work again, and she nearly ended her career herself with her disastrous experience in On the Twentieth Century on Broadway in 1978. In the 1980s, as Bernadette Peters and Bette Midler eclipsed her on Broadway and in Hollywood, Madeline asked her brother to let her live on his farm in Virginia, so certain was she that her career was finished. Then, only a few years later, she staged an inspiring comeback and maintained a steady momentum that continued until her death.