The Limo Limbo : Once the Chariots of the Rich, Sleek Autos Let Middle Class Put on the Ritz

These are banner days for limousines--the chariots of the rich and famous and anyone else who can scrape together 40 bucks.

It seems that you can’t even visit the neighborhood shopping center anymore without one of those eye-popping, block-long limos sweeping through the parking lot, dropping off all imaginable types of people at the dress-for-less stores.

In Orange County, where there are now more limousines than ambulances, the limo clientele encompasses high school sweethearts, housewives out for a night on the town, your basic “party animals” and average, everyday Joes who may even live on your very own street.

The limos will be out in force tonight. New Year’s Eve is one of the busiest dates on the limousine calendar, a time when even the humblest of folks let down their hair, put on the ritz and leave the driving to someone else--a decision that seldom has more appeal than it does tonight.

County companies transport their share of celebrities and dignitaries to events such as the Emmys and Grammys and private parties. Drivers for A Gold Key Limousine of Costa Mesa have delivered such notables as actors Anthony Quinn and Harry Hamlin and pro football great O. J. Simpson. Cameo Limousine of Anaheim has carted around the likes of TV personality Dick Clark, comedian Steve Allen and Los Angeles Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully.

But these days, you are just as likely to find the neighbor’s kid concealed behind a limousine’s tinted glass as you are the wealthy or well-known.

“Seven years ago when a person saw a limousine on the highway, he thought there must be a movie star in that car,” says Harbour Limousine Service owner Dennis Mahle, who operates six cars. “Today, that is totally different. Not just the rich and famous use limousines. It’s definitely middle class.”

In some cases, the clientele has changed in other ways.

“This one night a driver picks up these people at a shopping mall. This girl was carrying $15,000 in cash on her, just tons of it,” recalls Angela Addison, manager of A Gold Key Limousine.

“They are driving around, and she is spending here and spending there. So she wants to pull into this Circle K convenience store to buy a hairbrush. The driver sees this guy who has been following her. The girl comes walking out of the store. The guy jumps on her and says she stole the money last night. He called the police . . . and they took her away.”

It’s not just the clientele that has changed.

“I’m tired of seeing the drivers out there dressed in sweaters and blue jeans and jackets and sneakers,” grouses Jim Michalsky, who drives for his family’s JSM Carriage Co. of Anaheim. “There are a number of drivers out there who say: ‘Hey dude, let’s party.’

“You shouldn’t be out there doing that. You’re not there to party with them,” says Michalsky, who holds to a more traditional view. “You’re there to take them where they want to go.”

At a concert one night, Michalsky recalls, he spotted the epitome of the New Wave limo driver:

“He had on engineer’s boots, regular work coveralls, orange T-shirt with a Harley Davidson logo on it and a baseball cap. He drove by, and I darn near passed out.”

Limousine fleets multiplied overnight in anticipation of monster profits during the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, and business has not been the same since. Before the Olympics, scores of would-be operators bought limos. However, the public didn’t respond as expected.

In the aftermath, however, the glut of limo owners sought a wider market, and competition among providers resulted in appeals to people who never before considered such extravagances. According to operators, demand has reached an all-time high.

Estimates range from 200 to 300 limousine companies serving Orange County, a great many of them unlicensed, one-car operations. Others have 15 cars or more on call.

Much of the limousine business can be accounted for by corporations, hotels and others who want to transport and impress clients or take guests to and from John Wayne and Los Angeles International airports.

Moreover, with the advent of the cellular phone, limousines have become portable offices for a lot of corporations, according to Dick Januzzi, director of sales and marketing for Ultra Limousines Corp. of La Palma, which bills itself as the world’s largest manufacturer of extra-long limousines.

“A limo is no longer a luxury,” says Januzzi, whose business is up 50% this year over last.

Private individuals increasingly are using the big cars to celebrate anniversaries, weddings, birthdays or simply to have a safe place to relax and imbibe while on the road. Limousines were booked a month in advance for the most recent surge of school-age business--homecoming celebrations.

The sales pitches that jump off the Yellow Pages are indicative of the new appeal.

For example, one slogan attempts to bridge the sophisticate-hip gap: “Comment allez-vous, dude?”

Another boasts “12-passenger super ultra-stretch limousines . . . two bars, two TVs, two moon roofs and sofa-bed in each limo.”

Yet another implores: “Don’t wait for an occasion, make one!” while a competitor promises to “make your dreams a reality.”

For a paltry $40, a well-mannered, tuxedo-outfitted servant, male or female as you wish, will pick you up at your front door and drive you and your date anywhere within an hour’s travel, calmly braving raging traffic, carefully cornering the limousine so not even the slightest splash will spill from your complimentary champagne onto the lushly appointed velour passenger compartment.

Of course, for a few bucks more, some limo companies will expand on the evening’s fare with a packaged deal. Just ask Margaret and Richard St. Julien of Orange.

“It was so romantic, it was one of the most wonderful things I’ve ever done in my life,” she says.

On the St. Juliens’ fifth wedding anniversary, Jerome, the chauffeur from Cameo Limousine of Anaheim, picked them up at their home and served hors d’oeuvres and champagne for their ride to John Wayne Airport. Moments later he escorted them onto the tarmac and into a helicopter.

“I was petrified,” Margaret St. Julien recalls. “I wasn’t going to get in the helicopter. But I had a couple glasses of champagne. Within 25 minutes, we were circling the Transamerica Building in L.A.”

The pilot made a couple of passes of the building’s top-floor restaurant, The Towers.

“You could see the people looking at you, eye-to-eye contact practically. They thought I was a movie star,” she says. “We landed at the top. By the time we got down, everything was ready for us.”

After dinner, the St. Juliens were met by Jerome, who by then had driven the limousine up from John Wayne.

“We went in the limousine to several clubs, Chasen’s . . . the Bonaventure. We tried to hit every place in town.”

As the evening waned, Jerome steered the St. Juliens back to the Transamerica Building, which by then was closed. Building security personnel escorted them to the roof, where they met the helicopter for the return flight.

“We took off again from the top of the building and took a tour of all of L.A. and Orange County. When we landed (at John Wayne), the chauffeur was there.

“It was one of the most exciting evenings we ever had.”

So what’s the tab for such a catered night on the town? Including limousine, hors d’oeuvres, champagne, round-trip flight and meal, a night like that can be had for about $1,700 and some change, according to Bill Johnson, the Cameo’s president.

Clearly not all limousine services have switched to the high school party crowd.

But a good portion of Ed Genis’ business is school kids’ proms and graduations. He has also rented his limousine for five weddings. That’s not altogether unusual for a run-of-the mill limousine. But Genis’ car is anything but run of the mill.

“It’s a one-of-a-kind,” says Genis, owner of EJG Motor Escort Service, “Home of the Livin End party hearse.”

“It’s a completely-rebuilt-from-the-ground-up 1969 Cadillac Fleetwood, lacquer-black hearse, completely reconditioned inside in plush red velvet!” he says with just a trace of pride.

Rather than coffins, the Livin End now holds a TV, stereo, full-length mirror on the ceiling and, unlike many limousines, a bench seat that runs the length of the passenger compartment. Opposite the seat is a bar shaped like a coffin.

“It astounds people going down the street. What a lot of clients do is they wait until they get on the freeway and turn the (interior) lights on, and you can see they are having a party. People wonder what’s going on.”

Genis, whose regular job is--perhaps not surprisingly--a motorcycle escort for funerals, charges $45 an hour.

Prom season is the Livin End’s busiest, although it’s also booked five or six months in advance for Halloween.

“It’s what people want nowadays,” says Genis, who runs the business out of his Buena Park home. “Around graduation time, sometimes the parents will give them so many hours. They cruise all day and graduation night and party until the next morning.

“Some parents would rather spend $800 or $900 than have their kids go to parties and get drunk and get in trouble.”

Many limousines have become parties on wheels.

“We’re keeping the county safe. We really are,” says Cameo’s Johnson, who reasons that renting a limousine is “cheaper and less confining” than being arrested for drunk driving.

If limousine companies were prohibited from providing complimentary liquor to their passengers, it would cut their business as much as half, according to some operators.

Licensed limousine operators may legally serve alcoholic beverages to their passengers, as long as it is free. Chauffeurs, of course, are prohibited from drinking and driving.

The Public Utilities Commission requires a minimum of $750,000 liability insurance per limousine. Other state regulations require operators to “show some financial responsibility, a little money in the bank to operate for a while,” says John Morgan of the PUC’s compliance and enforcement branch.

“But once they get into the limo business they don’t seem to be solvent for long,” according to Morgan. “I’m always running into businesses whose number is out of service.”

There are a lot of unlicensed, perhaps uninsured fly-by-night companies providing limousine service, operators and regulators agree.

“It’s a hard business to be successful at because the overhead is high, insurance is very expensive,” says Angela Addison, of A Gold Key Limousine.

Irv Goldberg, an executive with an electronic surveillance systems firm in Garden Grove, was one of those who hoped in 1984 to give the limousine business a try as an investment, while at the same time providing himself a limo for occasional personal use.

But Goldberg and his partner in the venture were soured when insurance rates soared to $9,000 a year and there was talk about regulators banishing alcoholic beverages from limousines.

Rather than sell their limousine, however, Goldberg and friend sold shares in it to a couple of friends. Now all four are part-owners in a “co-op limo,” strictly for personal use.

“It sure beats getting in traffic,” he says.

Goldberg has used the car for Monday night football parties for the sales and service staff of his office. Typically, six people ride around Corona del Mar and Newport Beach watching the football game on the limo’s two TVs and enjoying “a little libation.” During the game’s next quarter, those six return to Goldberg’s home, and another group fills the car for the cruise. And so on.

When Goldberg gave the guests their choice of having the next party at a restaurant or using the limo, everyone chose the car, he says.

The appeal of a limousine is apparent just by watching the transformation that comes over passengers once they step inside the crushed-velour playpens.

“People do change as soon as they walk through the door of the limousine,” chauffeur Melanie Engle insists. “The attitude . . . changes climbing through that door, putting on something they are not. The woman’s legs are crossed a certain way. There’s a little more romance in the air.

“And it’s always good for them.”

But as passengers become more accustomed to their surroundings, another change often takes place.

“At the beginning they want you to be very proper, and by the end of the evening, they want you to be a good ol’ boy,” Engle says. At the onset, “it’s soft music. But by the end of the night, it’s 102.7 (on the FM radio dial). Hard rock!”