8 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • JUNE 2018
COVER STORY
BILLY CRYSTAL:
By RUTH BASHINSKY
Despite four decades in showbiz,
Billy Crystal, one of America’s
favorite comedians, still looks
“Mahvelous,” as he famously said
in his 1985 Saturday Night Live
impersonation of Latin actordirector
Fernando Lamas.
Crystal, a Long Island native, is best
known for playing zany yet lovable
characters such as Psychiatrist Ben
Sobel in Analyze This, Harry Burns
in When Harry Met Sally and
Mitch Robbins in City Slickers.
He is so adored that he was asked
to host the Academy Awards nine
times. But he is more than just
funny. He is smart, accomplished
and at 70, doesn’t show any signs of
slowing down.
Earlier this year, he completed
a 30-city North American
stand-up tour and in 2016
he wrapped a 13-day
tour in six cities
in Australia
and New
Billy Crystal
is still
making fans
laugh four
decades
after his
comedy
debut.
Zealand. The Tony® and Emmy®
Award-winning comedian, actor,
producer, writer and director spoke
to the Press from his West Coast
home, sharing a glimpse of his
world as a young boy growing up in
Long Beach, his unconditional love
for the City by the Sea, his late father
and their family’s connection to the
New York jazz scene, his career,
and his plans for Father’s Day that
are sure to include another passion:
baseball.
When did you move to Long
Beach? I was born in Manhattan at
Doctors Hospital, which was across
the street from Gracie Mansion.
We lived in the Bronx and moved
out to Long Beach in 1951. It was
an idyllic place to grow up, a small
great community: 8,000 people in
the winter and six million people
in the summer. It just had this
beautiful simplicity about it. It
was in the ’50s and it was kind of
perfect living around the corner
from my elementary school and my
synagogue.
What was it like sitting at the seder
table with your grandmother and
Louis Armstrong or going to
the movies with Billie Holiday?
I was so fortunate to be raised in
this incredibly vibrant cultural,
culturally interesting family and
the extended family we had. A lot
of that was in Long Beach and I
am grateful for that. My father’s
friends were black jazz musicians
— a lot of them. And they were
guests and also jammed at my
bar mitzvah and my brothers’
bar mitzvahs. Zutty Singelton, a
great jazz drummer, named me
“Face” because I could imitate
him. That is also the name of
my production company. I
even played some jazz riffs on
the clarinet with them. In the
family with Eastern European,
a lot of Russians, and
immigrants, the household
was joyous with an emphasis
on music and comedy. It
was a place to perform and
the beginning of where I am
today.
How were your father
and your Uncle Milt great
visionaries? My dad and
my family were Civil Rights
pioneers and my dad produced
jazz concerts with African
The 1991 comedy City Slickers
was among Billy Crystal’s most
memorable performances.
American artists in the late ’40s,
when that wasn’t happening a lot.
He was known to a lot of musicians
as the Branch Rickey of jazz. Branch
Rickey was the man who helped
Jackie Robinson break the color
barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers
and was revered for that, so that was
the legacy. There was a little record
store my grandfather owned on
42nd Street. My Uncle Milt Gabler
became a great jazz record producer
and produced the legendary song,
“Strange Fruit,” recorded by Billie
Holiday in 1939, which is a song
about the lynching of black people.
Time magazine called it the record
of the century. The fact that our
family was responsible for the bold
move of getting that record out to
the world was an amazing legacy.
The sudden loss of your father
when you were only 15 must have
been quite traumatic for you
and your family. Did you ever
get closure? After losing our dad
so early our mother was the great
hero in my life. Her dream with
my dad was to make sure we were
college graduates and she made that
happen. Tragedy is a test for some
people. That is what my solo play
700 Sundays was about for me. At
the age of 15, I was like: “Alright,