Spoiler
Posting Freak
Posts: 1899
Registered: 4-23-2005
Member Is Offline
Mood: All that scene philosophy never meant a goddamned thing to me
|
|
Hilly Kristal was worth 3.7 million when he died
Here's a shocker: Hilly Kristal turns out to have been a millionaire. Just weeks after the legendary former CBGB owner passed away, his heirs—who
thought Kristal was broke—are finding out that the old punk impresario was worth a surprising $3.7 million.
And that kind of money, naturally, is not going to be divvied up without a mosh pit of family infighting.
Kristal's son, Dana, isn't happy at the way his sister Lisa Kristal Burgman, for example, encouraged his mother, Karen Kristal, to sign away any
rights to the corporation that ran CBGB almost three years ago—when Karen, 82, was already showing signs of senility and may not have realized what
she was giving away.
Through the late 1970s to the early 1990s, Karen was a fixture at the door of CBGB and behind its bar. In that time, she developed a reputation, among
patrons, bouncers, bartenders, and musicians alike, as a bit of a humorless hard-ass. Skinheads obeyed her command. The Ramones hid their joints when
they saw her coming.
"I was more scared of Karen than I was of the skinheads," said George Tabb, a founding member of the False Prophets, former CBGB employee, and
longtime Kristal family friend, as well as a reporter who covered the scene at the club for Maximum Rock'n'Roll. "They all had this respect for her.
She put on the matinees—it was her idea, and that basically started the whole hardcore movement in New York."
But there was a reason that Karen Kristal was so tough: Her name was on CBGB's liquor license, and she wholly owned the club's parent company. It had
been that way since 1973, when Hilly's on the Bowery became CBGB.
In fact, the corporation that did business as CBGB & OMFUG was named after her. The "Sareb" in Sareb Restaurant Corp. is an amalgam of Sara Rebecca,
her given name. She began going by "Karen" after she married Hilly because she thought an alliterative name would help her acting career, and she kept
the name after their divorce in the late '60s to have the same last name as her children.
Karen remained the president of Sareb Restaurant Corp. until January of 2005, when she signed over the liquor license and her entire interest in the
company—10 shares, or 100 percent of Sareb—to Hilly. She received no compensation, according to a letter furnished by Dana Kristal. State Liquor
Authority records confirm the transaction.
When presented with the letter last week, Karen stared at it for a moment with confusion and said, "Did I sign this? That's my signature?"
At 82, Karen Kristal still has bright eyes and the vocal projection of a trained actress, but she slipped in her apartment over the Labor Day weekend
and broke her elbow. She appears to be slipping in other ways, too: She asks questions over and over and exhibits other signs of a mind affected by
age. Dana says that his mother's brain scans show marks that are indicative of mini-strokes and that she has water on the brain. He also says that his
sister Lisa, who was a fixture at Hilly's side, pressured Karen to sign away her rights to the club when she didn't have the presence of mind to
understand the consequences of her actions.
"You did sign it, Ma," Dana tells her with exasperation. "Don't you remember Lisa kept calling the house, leaving messages saying, 'You gotta sign it,
you gotta sign it'? "
Signing away the rights to the Sareb Restaurant Corp. didn't seem like a big deal when it was thought that Hilly had nothing. Dana and Karen Kristal
both say that Hilly and Lisa repeatedly told them there were no assets to speak of. Dana was shocked to learn that, according to 2006 New Jersey
property records, Hilly owned a house in Asbury Park that was purchased for $600,000.
And the ex–club owner turns out to have been worth $3.7 million, according to his last will and testament. Karen Kristal wasn't named in the will.
Dana was left $100,000 in a trust. Lisa was named co-executor of the will and left all of Hilly's tangible property.
"Well, I didn't think my own family would double-cross me for money," says Karen. "I was fair with them, so I'd always thought they'd be fair with
me."
Even though she and Hilly were divorced before CBGB opened, Karen says she worked at the club for years with little or no compensation. She said she
never bore a grudge against her ex, even if his philandering precipitated their breakup. "He was so handsome," Karen says of the man she met in an
opera class. "And all the women threw themselves at him. Eventually he gave in to it, and I couldn't take it anymore. . . I was heartbroken, because I
was faithful. When he died, I cried. How many women would do that for a man who was unfaithful?"
She said Hilly always told her that a payday would come—but now Hilly's dead and she never got her due. She lives alone in a rent-controlled Fifth
Avenue apartment, getting by on her savings and Social Security. Dana Kristal says his mother needs a full-time aide.
"She needs a nurse now," Dana says. "She needs a shunt. She needs a brain operation. You need a nurse after that."
Dana has conferred with lawyers and is weighing his legal options. The will cannot be finalized until he signs off on it. He says the real issue is
his mother—that she gets the recognition for her role in CBGB, as well as compensation enough to live her last years in health and dignity.
"She was waiting to get paid, and they were waiting for her to get confused," says Dana. "Even if she does get paid, she's gonna get paid when she's
really not all there. That makes me sad. She should have gotten that money 20 years ago, when she would have enjoyed it."
 |
|
|
DaveMoral
Posting Freak
Posts: 4334
Registered: 1-24-2006
Location: Ardmore PA
Member Is Offline
|
|
What a mess...
|
|
|
Discipline
* DRUNKEN MONKEY *
Posts: 11900
Registered: 9-8-2004
Location: Over here
Member Is Offline
Mood: The Alley Dukes
|
|
If that story is true, then that's a pretty fucked up way for the daughter to treat the mother.
I always figured Hilly was broke, otherwise he would have spent the money to save CBGB's. Guess I was wrong.
‘Do you know what a love letter is? It’s a bullet from a fucking gun. Straight through your heart.’
|
|
|
DeathByForce
Senior Member
Posts: 827
Registered: 3-24-2005
Location: City of Champions
Member Is Offline
Mood: H2O
|
|
I don't think that would've been enough money to save it.
\"rap isn\'t music\" - mozart
|
|
|
clevohardcore
* Kick\'n ass on the wild side *
Posts: 12937
Registered: 9-19-2004
Member Is Offline
Mood: Sick Of It All, Youth Of Today
|
|
Not a very "PUNK ROCK" story at all.
Reads more like a shady business transaction from one time business partners.
Each aspect of the soul has it's own part to play, but the ideal is harmonious agreement with reason and control.
|
|
|
Spoiler
Posting Freak
Posts: 1899
Registered: 4-23-2005
Member Is Offline
Mood: All that scene philosophy never meant a goddamned thing to me
|
|
here's the link to the story
The Village Voice
|
|
|
joemaconmovies
Posting Freak
Posts: 1827
Registered: 6-22-2005
Location: Western Mass
Member Is Offline
Mood: pissed off
|
|
it's all a shame to read.
|
|
|
newbreedbrian
Posting Freak
Posts: 2616
Registered: 9-2-2004
Location: Hell
Member Is Offline
Mood: doc watson
|
|
that was unexpected.
The very existence of flamethrowers proves that sometime, somewhere, someone said to themselves, ?You know, I want to set those people over there on
fire, but I?m just not close enough to get the job done.? George Carlin
|
|
|
XHonusWagnerX
Moderator
Posts: 12509
Registered: 7-14-2005
Location: pawtucket
Member Is Offline
Mood: hadDCore
|
|
what kind of dick lets people have benefits for his club when hes got all that money?
| Quote: | Originally posted by REV.PAULIE
HONUS-as much as i can't stand a great deal of what you really like (for my own reasons that i would never hold,nor impose,against you),YOU FUCKING
RULE!
YOU,HONUS,IS WHAT MAKES THE "EDGE" COOL.
YOUR FRIEND,
PAULIE |
check out my post contributions at www.VinylNoize.com
|
|
|
|
![[*]](images/thorp/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
