By Kathy O’Connell, host of Kids’ Corner, XPN

After my father retired from the NYC Police Department, he spent most of the rest of his life going to the movies. One day in 1968, he came home and said, “I’ve just seen the funniest movie I’ve ever seen in my life, and you have to see it.” He then proceeded to act out most of The Producers for me. He imitated Franz Liebkind’s German accent proving “I vass neffer a member of the Nazi party” by singing “I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy.” He told me about Max Bialystock’s trip to “little old lady land” to give those women “one last thrill on the way to the cemetery.” And he told me that the production number “Springtime for Hitler” was the single funniest moment he had ever seen in a movie. I couldn’t wait for it to come to our local theater. When it did, Barbara Maggio and I were the only two people in the Whitman Theatre (Huntington, Long Island). We laughed our butts off to the tale of Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom and their misbegotten plan that “a producer can make more money with a flop than with a hit.” But like the audience for the “worst play ever written,” nothing could have prepared us for the opening number of that play, “Springtime for Hitler.” Dancing stormtroopers, half-dressed cuties with pretzel bras, the line (dubbed by Mel Brooks) “don’t be shtupid, be a shmarty, come and join the Nazi party,” and my favorite part of all—-the dancers forming a June Taylor Dancer-type overhead view of a swastika. Brooks made the most heinous villain in modern history into a subject for ridicule, and he did it brilliantly. “The Producers” was not a hit when it was first released, even though Mel Brooks won an Oscar for “Best Original Screenplay” and Gene Wilder was nominated for “Best Supporting Actor.” It is a movie that achieved cult status over the years, and truly reached its peak of popularity when Brooks adapted his masterpiece into a Broadway musical. To this day, even though I own dvd’s of both the original and the movie musical, if “The Producers” is showing on television, I have to sit down and watch it, mouthing the lines along with Max, Leo, Ulla, Franz, Roger DeBris, and Carmen Ghia. One of my dogs is named Bialystock N. Bloom in honor of this movie. “Big Tom” O’Connell was right — “Springtime for Hitler” is the most memorable musical moment in the history of movies.