The movie Blazing Saddles was released on February 7, 1974, forty years ago today. It was full of offensive humor that would never make it into a movie today, but also lauded as one of the funniest films of all time. In honor of Blazing Saddles’s 40th anniversary, let’s have some movie trivia!
3. First time farts. According to the movie’s DVD commentary, Blazing Saddles marks the first time a fart recording had been used in cinema. Mel Brooks came up with the idea after noticing that cowboys in westerns were always consuming lots of black coffee and baked beans. A deadly combination around the campfire if there ever was one.
Those fart noises were made by using a little soap and the old stand-by of putting one’s hand under their armpit.
13. Gene Wilder agreed to do the film as a trade-off. In the commentary for Space Balls, Brooks says that Wilder only agreed to do the film if Brooks would consider his idea for a movie. That movie happened to be Young Frankenstein.
20. Guests rode in horseback to the movie’s premiere. The film had its premiere at the now defunct Pickwick Drive-In Theater in Burbank, California where guests rode in on horseback for the event.
Read the rest of the twenty tidbits in a list at Uproxx. Bonus: the post has a silent-but-deadly video clip of Joseph Pujol, the original Le Pétomane.