Dick Van Dyke turns 100: Old friend Mel Brooks pays tribute

Here & Now Anytime

NPR

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4.1 • 953 Ratings

🗓️ 24 December 2025

⏱️ 33 minutes

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Summary

Dick Van Dyke just turned 100 years old. Fellow comedian and long-time friend Mel Brooks reflects on their relationship and what it feels like to head toward the century mark.

Then, Grammy-winning songwriter John Prine died of COVID-19 complications in April 2020. More than two years later, musicians gathered to pay tribute. Now, a new documentary film, "You Got Gold: A Celebration of John Prine," captures those concerts. We speak with Fiona Whelan Prine, Prine's widow, and producer of the concerts and the film.

And, the Capitol Movie Theatre in Arlington, Massachusetts, has also turned 100. Here & Now's Thomas Danielian heads to the theater to see how they're doing on their big birthday.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for here and now anytime comes from MathWorks, creator of MATLAB and Simulink software for technical computing and model-based design.
0:09.2	MathWorks, accelerating the pace of discovery in engineering and science. Learn more at MathWorks.com.
0:17.5	WBUR Podcasts, Boston.
0:23.3	I'm Leary and scared, but I'm also not too worried, because I'm light on my feet,
0:31.3	and if I see trouble, I can dodge away.
0:34.2	I hope.
0:35.8	I think so.
0:37.3	Mel Brooks is about to turn 100 years old.
0:41.3	His friend Dick Van Dyke already has.
0:44.3	What it's like to look back on a century in showbiz.
1:00.5	It's Wednesday, December 24th, and this is here and now anytime.
1:03.3	From NPR and WBUR, I'm Chris Bentley.
1:08.0	Merry Christmas Eve to you.
1:13.6	This time of year, the past has a way of flooding back into view.
1:21.0	Happy golden days of yore and all that. That's not always easy to handle, because it inevitably comes with a reminder of what's been lost in the years since those days. Well, today we've got three conversations about entertainers and artists speaking across the decades.
1:33.6	In a few minutes, we'll hear about a new concert documentary celebrating the legacy of songwriter John Prime.
1:39.9	I think I was first really drawn to John with his kindness and his gentleness.
1:46.3	Those were two of the things that I noticed very quickly about him.
1:50.6	In other words, he didn't have a lot of sort of defenses up to the world.
1:54.6	You know, he was just a kind, generous, open human being.
1:58.9	And after that, we'll take a trip to an independent movie theater that's marking 100
2:04.1	years in business. But first, another 100th birthday we marked this month. Legendary actor and
	...

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