What Billy Crystal Made Out of 700 Sundays
Nov. 1, 2005 — -- By his count, Billy Crystal estimates he spent just 700 Sundays with his father, Jack Crystal, before he died of a heart attack when Billy was 15. Now he says performing his one-man show, "700 Sundays," makes him feel closer to his family.
"700 Sundays is not a lot of time for a kid to have with his dad, but it was enough time to get gifts, gifts that I keep unwrapping and sharing with my kids," Crystal said.
Jack Crystal worked two jobs to feed his family, leaving only Sundays to spend with his wife and three sons. He died at the age of 54.
"I just couldn't come out of my roof after the funeral," Crystal, 58, said. "I didn't want to see anybody, talk to anybody. We had an argument the night he died and I sort of took the burden that it was my fault, which it wasn't."
Crystal incorporates more of the happier family moments of his childhood into "700 Sundays," infusing his signature humor with real-life events such as the time his Aunt Sheila went to her daughter's lesbian wedding.
"They talked about when she was a little girl, my cousin Julie, about the day you're married, we're going to dance the first dance together to 'Sunrise, Sunset,'" Crystal said. "And he (my uncle) hates the fact that she's not what he wanted her to be. But she's happy. And he gets up and he dances with her at the end of the piece, and it's really touching."
Crystal's aunt danced with her daughter's partner in what she called the "lesbyterian wedding."
"700 Sundays" opened on Broadway in December 2004 and grossed $14 million during its six-month run. Crystal is now performing the show on the road, in Toronto and Boston. Next, it moves to Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Crystal has turned the play into a book by the same name, which is available in stores now.
Popular Reads
ABC News Live