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Welcome Back to Brooklyn Festival - 2000
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Back to Brooklyn 2000
Section guide

• 2000 Back to Brooklyn Home

The Streetplay Scoop
• Joe Viterelli: the basics
• Lenny Wilkens & stickball
• Orphans of the Steeplechase

Photos
• Celebrity Path
• The Games
• Festivities
• A Star Studded Evening

Related links
• 1999 Back to Brooklyn


Streetplay events: Section guide

• Streetplay Events home
• Bronx Street Festival '05
• Bronx Street Festival '04
• Back to School '04
• Back to School '03
• Williamsburg's 100th
• PS 56 After School
• Skully at the AMNH
• NY Historical Society
• Smithsonian Festival
• Back to Brooklyn '00
• Back to Brooklyn '99
• Back to Brooklyn '98

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Marbles, boxball, celebrities... and a festival of fun

Getting Down at Grand Army Plaza
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Getting Down at Grand Army Plaza
The 18th annual Welcome Back to Brooklyn Festival was held on Sunday, June 11, 2000. Due to the stifling heat, many people probably chose to stay inside, but it was loads of fun for those who braved the weather. Highlights included a wide range of international food, music and entertainment, cultural exhibits, and many exciting games. Streetplay showcased great games like skully, box baseball, boxball, and hopscotch, fondly recalled by many festival attendees. We also joined the about 600 other participants in helping break the world record for the most people playing marbles at the same time.

The husband and wife comedy team of Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara were officially crowned Brooklyn's Homecoming King and Queen. Known for their wryly affectionate bantering and repartee, both Stiller and Meara were born in Brooklyn. Stiller appeared in Seinfeld, as George's father, Frank Costanza, and currently stars in the sit-com The King of Queens. Meara, who has received five Emmy nominations for her television work, has appeared on various television programs including Archie Bunker's Place, All My Children, and Homicide. They are the parents of actor/director Ben Stiller and actress Amy Stiller.

Preceding the coronation, several notable Brooklyn-born celebrities were inducted into Celebrity Path, Brooklyn's Walk of fame. Included were actors John Turturro, Joe Viterelli, Bernie Kopell, Esai Morales, and Dane Clark (posthumously). This year's inductees also included the winningest coach in NBA history, basketball Lenny Wilkens, jazz great Betty Carter (posthumously), and exercise guru Lucille Roberts who also received KeySpan's Business Person of the Year Award.

Names of the inductees were inscribed in brass on leaf-shaped flagstones and placed in the Celebrity Path in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden's Japanese Garden. The path honors over 130 famous Brooklyn sons and daughters, including poet Walt Whitman, baseball immortal Jackie Robinson, singer Barbra Streisand, and actors Jimmy Smits and Mary Tyler Moore.

The Welcome Back to Brooklyn Homecoming Festival is presented by KeySpan and is produced by BRIC/Brooklyn Information & Culture, a leader in the development of arts and communications programs in Brooklyn, New York. For more information about BRIC, call 718-855-7882 or visit www.brooklynX.org.

Streetplay's coverage of Back to Brooklyn 1999.


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