September 19, 2007
Hilly's Mountain of Cash
The Village Voice is reporting that Hilly Kristal was a millionaire. Not really surprising considering the owner of CBGB, who claimed to be broke, ran more than just a venue. Just look at all those kids wearing their Urban Outfitters t-shirts with the club's logo on it. Those cost money! So does everything branded with their logo at their own store.
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.Karen Kristal (real name Sara Rebecca) the president of Sareb Restaurant Corp, the company that ran CBGB & OMFUG, signed over the liquor license and her interest in the company (10 shares, or 100 percent of Sareb) to her ex-husband Hilly in January of 2005. Now, at age 82 and not in good health, she doesn't even remember signing the papers.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.
Additionally, she and her son tell the Voice that Hilly and Lisa repeatedly told them there were no assets, even though there was a $600,000 house in Asbury Park. Hilly Kristal's will left $100,000 in a trust for Dana and the rest of the tangible assets to Lisa, who was also named the executor (which means she gets the executor's cut, too).
Hilly and Karen were apparently still close, and she even worked the door at the club after they split. She says he promised her a payday, and now that he's gone -- it seems that payday will never come. For now, Karen lives in a rent-controlled Fifth Avenue apartment, which she pays for through her savings and Social Security.
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Shocking! (Not really...)
For a moment I thought the title said "Hilary's Mountain of Cash".
Hilly was a douche who ripped off just about every band that ever played there. Always shorting bands pay.
Now I know where all the money he claimed he didn't have when paying bands went to.
Looks like he even screwed Karen too.
What a nice guy.
CBGB's ... living on past glory for over 25 years...
Is that all? 3.7 mil?
Aww, remember all the protests when they shut it down and about how unfair it was to shutter a cultural institution just because it didn't have any money...
A lot of people must be feeling reeeeeeeally dumb for wasting their time right about now.
This only confirms my hatred for CBGB's and everything associated with it. He screwed over his son and wife?? WTF?
3 mill at 5% high yield savings = 150,000 dollars for life.
though this does not take inflation into account.
Why didn't the fool use this $3.7M to help save CBGB?
You people have no idea what you are talking about.
I worked at CBGB for over a decade.
Hilly never claimed he was broke.
The benefits were about raising awareness, not money.
The landlord was not asking for more money.
Hilly was willing to pay more.
The landlord just wanted Hilly out.
The rent dispute from 2005 was over a dirty tactic the landlord tried to use to evict us. We paid our rent on time, all the time. Without even so much as a phone call, the landlord hit us with an eviction notice claiming he had raised the rent 2 years earlier and we owed him the difference so he was throing us out... even though he was accepting our rent checks and never told us about the increase. Hilly could have paid it but was pissed the landlord tried something so underhanded and took him to court. We won in court. The landlord claimed it was a clerical error.
Here is a link to an article explaining it.
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/7543425/cbgb_wins_round_one
Even though we won in court, the landlord was under no obligation to renew our lease when it expired... so he didn't. He hated Hilly and wanted him out. That's all this was ever about. We had the money to stay. Hilly never claimed poverty.
The bickering of his crazy family over the estate is a separate and unfortunate issue.