Eastwood Puts on Benefit for Quake Victims

MONTEREY, Calif. —  A benefit event put on by Clint Eastwood raised more than $300,000 Sunday night for earthquake victims in the poor unincorporated Monterey County community of Pajaro.

More than 1,000 people bought tickets at $60 each for a show at the Monterey Conference Center that was emceed by Eastwood and included a giant cocktail party and a spaghetti dinner.

Contributions, including $75,000 from major league baseball, pushed the net for the Pajaro Relief Fund to more than $300,000.

Paul Anka, Chevy Chase, Norm Crosby, Doris Day and Joan Fontaine were among the celebrities that either performed or made appearances.

Eastwood put the event together at the request of two Monterey County supervisors who grew up in Pajaro, where 33 homes were destroyed in the Oct. 17 earthquake.

“The supervisors, Marc Del Piero and Sam Karas, came to me and said could we put something together for local earthquake relief,” Eastwood said. “Most of it had been overshadowed by the damage in San Francisco, which was immense, of course. They said could we put on a little event, maybe make $100,000. Right now, we’ve made $305,000.”

Meanwhile, in Stateline, Nev., two benefit performances by comedian Bill Cosby have raised $100,000 for earthquake relief.

Cosby presented a check for that amount to the American Red Cross after two sellout performances this weekend at Harrah’s Tahoe casino.