[1]frankenlies.com
** #18: O’Reilly and the Levittown Issue: Answered **
Popular Fox News host Bill O’Reilly is proud of his upbringing in the well-known, post-World War II, working-class community of Levittown, Long Island, in New York. On page 74 of Lies (p. 78 in the paperback), Franken tries to tell his audience that O’Reilly is not from Levittown, but from the "affluent suburb" of Westbury, which, according to Franken, is "several miles apart" from Levittown. Yikes! Did someone momentarily lose sight of his "impossibly high standard"?
On the April 12, 2004, episode of The O’Reilly Factor, Bill exhibited the actual deed from his boyhood home for all his audience to see. Only the street location was covered. (His mother still lives there.) The words "Levittown, New York" were clearly displayed in reference to the home’s location.
Don’t believe it? Here:
[1]
It may help to know that, beginning in 1947, William Levitt built thousands of homes in Island Trees (renamed to Levittown). He then continued his development within the villages of Wantagh, Hicksville, and Westbury, and these newly developed subdivisions were often identified together with Levittown.2
For years, rock legend Billy Joel has spoken of his upbringing in Levittown, although he is technically from the nearby village of Hicksville.3,4 Will Franken brand Billy Joel a "liar" next? Ugh.
[Additional NOTE, added October 2005: According to this Newsday article, Franken's claim was debunked on his own radio show!
"[W]hen Franken interviewed Hofstra professor and Levittown expert Barbara Kelly on the air, he learned there was no lie to uncover.
"O'Reilly, Kelly declared, had grown up in Levittown, in an area that overlapped with the outskirts of Westbury."
Doh!]
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Notes:
1 The above image should be pretty clear, but readers may also wish to view the pdf file of the deed at billoreilly.com (Adobe Reader required).
2 Geoffrey Mohan, "Levittown at Fifty: Suburban Pioneers," Newsday, Fall 1997.
3 At his 1999 induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Billy Joel said, "I'm from Levittown, and this is not supposed to happen to people like me." Read it here.
4 Steve Wick, in "Growing Up On LI: Billy Joel, Hicksville" (Newsday, 1997/1998), cites Joel's Hicksville street by name.