Billy Crystal Presents Gifts to Long Beach

Long Beach native Billy Crystal presented the City of Long Beach with two checks totaling $1 million at a ceremony held at the beach Saturday.   

“This was the perfect place to grow up for me, and it helped me form in so many ways, so to be able to come back and help an ‘old friend’ means you never really left,” Crystal told Patch.

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Earlier this year at Fight Night in Phoenix, Muhammad Ali’s fundraiser for Parkinson’s disease, the legendary boxer, Crystal, along with help from friends Steve Martin, Robert Di Nero, and Robin Williams, ultimately raised $888,000 for the city's relief fund, to assist the city rebuild after Hurricane Sandy.

Crystal said that as nice as $888,000 is, $1 million sounds a lot better. So he and his wife, Janice, presented a personal check for $112,000, to round off the donation to $1 million, to Councilmen John McLaughlin and Len Torres, who were joined by City Manager Jack Schnirman and the rest of the City Council.

“All of us here today can honestly say that we have faced the wrath of Mother Nature and we have emerged stronger as a community,” said City Council President Scott Mandel. He gave Crystal a piece of artwork, made from wood from the former boardwalk, by local artist Ed Kennedy.

At the start of the ceremony, Crystal told Patch that he was reluctant about the idea of a ceremony. He said that he didn't need a "thank you," and just seeing the city come back together was enough. Crystal ultimately surrendered when he saw the tribute planned in his honor.

City officials presented Crystal with a rendering of a “circular bump out,” covered by a gazebo, that will extend out from the end of the boardwalk at Neptune Boulevard beach, when it is rebuilt later this year. The area will be named “Billy’s Way.” Crystal said he was truly touched, since that was the beach where he grew up.

“It is very exciting to come onto the beach I grew up on," he said. "The city renaming a section of the boardwalk where my mom and grandmas used to sit, and where we learned how to swim in the water at Neptune Beach, it is very emotional.” 

Crystal and the Ali family will work with the city to determine the exact use of the funds, Crystal and Schnirman said, but the city will primarily put it toward youth, day care, and recreation programs, as well as facilities in need of repair.

This donation means a lot to Long Beach kids like 12-year-old Carson Nellins of East Beech Street. “I lost the pool at the recreation center and I really want it back up and running,” said Nellins. “Right now we swim at the high school, but it would be really nice to have our own area again.”

At Ali’s fundraiser, Crystal met Nancy Lieberman, Hall of Fame basketball star and two-time Olympian, who grew up in Far Rockaway and always felt a connection to Long Beach. She asked Crystal to let her charity, the Nancy Lieberman Foundation, build two basketball courts for Long Beach. Lieberman attended Saturday’s ceremony and discussed the work of her foundation.

“We build Dream Courts all over the country so kids have a place to play,”  Lieberman said.  

“Billy grew up playing sports, I grew up playing sports,” she continued. “Sports defy gender, age, color, creed, religion. It is about blind faith, competition and love; there is no judgment and that is why we do this.”

Many people were moved by Crystal’s donation of his money and his time.

“This is so uplifting for the city, we really needed this because it has been a very rough eight months," said Liz Murdy, president of Lido Beach Civic Association. “What Billy did is showing people that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.”

Stay tuned for an upcoming commercial, starring Crystal and all of the locals, which was shot at the ceremony location, Long Beach Boulevard beach, promoting the return of the city. 

“A million dollars for the city’s relief fund will go a long way to helping us continue to get back up on our feet," Schnirman said. "The commercial that Billy filmed will be a huge part in making our summer season a success.” 

Said Crystal: "I moved to California in 1976, but I always felt that I had a round trip ticket. You never forget where you came from."

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