ENTERTAINMENT
IN THE
‘IHTF
Nationally known for serving 4-H Prize Blue Ribbon
Steak and Chops. Finest Seafood and Liquors.
Private Dining Rooms for Banquets and Parties
Serving daily from 11:30 — Sunday from 2 p.m
MICHAEL ELKIN
Fiziwg- nirg- gNeffztafivq.- ::,TZTARTAwc7-- A
Special to The Jewish News
,
WE SERVE THE BEST! YOU PAY LESS!
IMPORTANT! OUR FOOD IS FRESH & HOMEMADE!
FAMILY RESTAURANT
22740 WOODWARD Just South of 9 Mile
Ferndale • OPEN 7 DAYS • 544-7933
[YOUR CHOICE OF GREEK OR TOSSED SALAD
AT NO EXTRA CHARGE WITH REG. OR 8-COURSE MEALS!
•BREAKFAST, LUNCH at DINNER •
OPEN MENU WITH REGULAR AND 8-COURSE DINNERS
•FRESH BROILED FISH • CHICKEN • TURKEY • VEAL • BAR-B-Q RIBS • BABY BEEF LIVER • FROG LEGS
•N.Y. SIRLOIN • CHOPPED SIRLOIN • JUMBO SHRIMP • ROAST SIRLOIN OF BEEF • ETC. • ETC. • ETC. • ETC.
I
SOMETHING FOR
EVERYBODY!
REG. MEAL INCLUDES; CHOICE OF SALAD (Reg.
or Greek). POTATO OR VEGETABLE OR
SPAGHETTI. GREEK BREAD AND STICKS
CHILDRENS MENU
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TOP QUALITY FOOD
AT LOW PRICES SINCE 1954!
8-COURSE MEAL INCLUDES: JUICE OR SOUP, CHOICE OF
SALAD, POTATO, VEGETABLE, GREEK BREAD & STICKS,
COFFEE OR TEA, CHOICE OF DESSERT (Strawberry
Cheesecake, Butter Pecan or Vanilla Ice Cream, Rice
Pudding or Jello ►
"And for all you folks who voted to have the
annual dinner here instead of The Westin,
I'd like to do a medley ofmy greatest hits. . "
When you want your next
social event to really be an occasion,
start at the place that can do more
for you: The Westin Hotel in the
heart of Detroit's renaissance. It's
not just the world's tallest; it's world-
class. Choose from a variety of
rooms, each more perfect than the
next. Call on our staff of chefs who
appreciate your tastes, and want
your menu to be uniquely fitting to
your affair. And get the counsel and
the help of our group of catering
professionals who put their experi-
ence at your service.
So next time, give us a chance
to show you how we can get. you out
of the ordinary and into the extra-
ordinary—at The Westirl. Then ask
yourself: can we do everything to
make your next event a complete
success?
Of course
we can.
Lr& -gt THE WESTIN HOTEL
1 T Renaissance Center Detroit
Catering Department 568-8400
56 Friday, September 5, 1986
Billy Crystal's Career
Is Now In High Gear
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
er> <
B
illy Crystal looks —
well, pretty good, to
tell the truth.
There he is up on the big
screen, looking cool, sporting
a dark beard in Running
Scared, a new film in which
he co-stars with Gregory
Hines as a detective.
Running scared? Not Crys-
tal. His career as a comedian
is in full swing, abetted by
some very funny shtick he did
as a regular on Saturday
Night Live a couple of seasons
past. He is much in demand as
a television talk-show celb, a
regular on the David Letter-
man hot seat. Then there was
that album a couple of years
back and a fun video. . . .
Yes, Billy Crystal looks —
fantastic.
Yes, he tells interviewers
nationwide, things are going
just . . . super.
Not to mention mahvelous.
It's not that he grits his
teeth every time he hears
what is now referred to as "the
m word"; it's just that, well,
you can't blame the guy if he'd
rather segue to his next suc-
cess without the character of
Fernando ("You look mahvel-
ous, darling, absolutely
mahvelous"), which he
popularized on SNL, popping
out of every closet.
But things are now going
marvelous for the 39-year old
Billy Crystal, who portrayed
the gay Jodie on television's
Soap but whose subsequent
summertime variety show
took a ratings bath.
Crystal is associated now
not just with comic relief — he
worked on HBO's benefit
Comic Relief this past March
— but with inspired imperso-
nations, such as Sammy Davis
Jr. and the octogenarian
Julius, a Jewish character
who, the comic says, was in-
spired by his own zayda.
"When I was younger, I used
to spend a lot of time with
him," says Crystal. "He had
such a wonderful sense of
humor." It was a sense of
humor honed on the Yiddish
vaudeville circuit.
One senses the same quality
of fun in the grandson, who
admits "I used to perform at
the family Passover get-
togethers. We used to have 35
or 40 people. I'll tell you,'" he
tells you, "those were bigger
crowds than I had the first two
years of my career."
Now, Crystal fills rooms —
and, he hopes, movie houses —
with audiences chockablock
with customers chuckling at
his anecdotes.
Crystal handles himself
well. Letterman show appear-
ances have generated thun-
derous ovations — even if Let-
terman himself looks some-
what puzzled over Crystal's
tales of Bar and Bat Mitzvahs
gone awry and Jewish family
get-togethers where everyone
Billy Crystal
competes with one another for
attention.
Crystal's humor -- and
modus operandi — comes
across crystal Blear, however:
Use your family as inspiration
— and as audience. Crystal
and his two brothers "used to
enjoy performing for
everyone" in the family, he re-
calls.
Performances were saved
for the living room, "the per-
formance room," as he now
calls it. "There was a lot of
love in that room," he says.
There was a lot of love gen-
erated in the Crystal house-
hold any time a jazz musician
tapped into the family sound
system. Little Billy got to
meet some of the more revered
figures in Dixieland and jazz,
thanks to his parents' and un-
cle's involvement in the music
business. His parents owned
the Comniodore Music Shop;
Uncle Milt Gabler was the
mahaf behind the Commodore
jazz la41.
•••••••
One of Crystal's impersona-
tions, or "portraits" as he pre-
fers to call them, centers on
"Face," a black musician
"based on a composite of char-
acters, including Willie 'The
Lion' Smith, the only black
musician I knew who could
speak Yiddish fluently."
Crystal is fluent in another
language — a peoplespeak,
capturing the idiosyncracies of
the English language and add-
ing some english of his own.
An admiration of Ernie
Kovacs and courses in English
and film-making at New York
University, where he
graduated in 1970, helped give
him insight, he has said, into
human nature.
That insight may also have
helped him through a short ---
tenure early in his career as a
substitute teacher — no sub-
stitute for what he really
wanted, however — to per-
form.
Now, his best audiences and
critics may be his own family;
his wife the former Janice
Goldfinger; and daughters,
Jenny, 13, and Lindsay, 8.
"Now they perform in the fam-
ily living room," he says of the
girls. "Sometimes I watch
them and think I'm watching
myself."