Rubber Legs Leon and Mel Brooks' 100th

On the comedy beat from Broadway to vaudeville to movies, thinking of two terrific writer-director-performers. One is star of stage, screen, Ziegfeld Follies etc. Leon Errol, born in Sydney, Australia on July 3, 1881. The other is Mel Brooks, because we somehow missed his 100th birthday last Sunday!



While Leon Errol is arguably best known for his later work - his appearance in W.C. Fields' Never Give A Sucker An Even Break, the Joe Palooka series and the eight Mexican Spitfire features co-starring Lupe Velez, he had a lengthy and illustrious career before 1930 and even appeared in silent films. The thorough Forgotten Australian Actors website elaborates in detail on his show business career.



Mr. Errol began directing, writing and performing on stage, touring in burlesque and vaudeville at the turn of the 20th century. He toured Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain and Ireland, worked extensively with Florence Ziegfeld and co-starred in sketches with the legendary Bert Williams in the Ziegfeld Follies.



The early talkie feature films Leon appeared in included a starring role in Only Saps Work (1930 Paramount) and Her Majesty Love, a vehicle for Broadway megastar Marilyn Miller. He's also in the enjoyably eccentric Alice In Wonderland made by Paramount Pictures in 1933.

We are quite fond of the 2-reelers Leon starred in during the first year of Jules White's Columbia Shorts Department in 1934-1935. ONE TOO MANY is quite the curio, directed by Our Gang series creator Robert McGowan on a break from the Hal Roach Studio and written by the insanely prolific Harry McCoy.



Also love the two color Vitaphone musical shorts from 1934.



The wonderfully cheesy time-traveling Vitaphone musical GOOD MORNING EVE (1934), one of the last gasps of pre-Code, in glorious Technicolor, is a personal favorite Leon Errol flick.



In 1934, he began starring for RKO Radio Pictures in a series directed and written by the legendary gagmeister Al Boasberg.





Our favorite of all the Leon Errol RKO short subjects is THE JITTERS, an astounding version of his rubber-leg routine.


Leon starred in 2-reel comedies for RKO through the 1940's, long after Mack Sennett and Educational Pictures closed and Hal Roach Studios ceased making short subjects. He often played a lecherous philanderer who unsuccessfully attempts to conceal booze, broads and gambling from his wife.





Once in a blue moon, one of the eight Mexican Spitfire features Leon co-starred in with the very funny Lupe Velez will turn up on Turner Classic Movies. As of July 2026, clips from this series are practically nonexistent online. Too bad Lupe wasn't around 30 years later to bring her unabashedly over-the-top sensibility to Blazing Saddles - which brings us to Mel Brooks.



We're thrilled and delighted that comedian-writer-director-producer Mel Brooks made it to his 100th birthday last Sunday! Here's Mel celebrating birthday #100 with comedian, producer of Everyone Loves Raymond, documentary filmmaker/host and gastronome Phil Rosenthal.







In closing, here's one of our favorite Mel contributions to a movie. . .