A Shopping Day Glendale Won’t Soon Forget

With a Michael Jordan baseball cap turned backward on his head, 16-year-old Mark Petty looked the part of the typical teen-age mall rat. Robert Wardropper, 56, was dressed in the red suit and white whiskers of Santa Claus. As for 78-year-old Becky Conkle, her perm was perfect.

“I come in every Friday to have my hair done,” she explained. “So I figured, what the heck.”

Never mind that she voted for the runner-up. Conkle decided to wait two hours and brave the multitudes at the Glendale Galleria for a glimpse of President-elect Bill Clinton, who arrived at about 1:40 p.m. Friday to a loud ovation and chants of “We want Bill! We want Bill!” Petty, Wardropper and Conkle agreed it was worth it.

Less than two months before his inauguration, Clinton performed like the schmoozer-in-chief, tossing a football in the Champs sporting goods store, then pressing the flesh with hundreds of people who crowded close for a quick touch and, in some cases, a brief conversation.

Mall operators said they believe all-day attendance surpassed 150,000--the usual turnout for the Friday after Thanksgiving, traditionally the busiest shopping day of the year. Five people fainted, one person was taken to Glendale Memorial Hospital with heart pains and another person was injured in an assault that occurred inside the mall but away from Clinton, a Fire Department spokesman said.

The Galleria was in gridlock as throngs packed the floor and the upstairs causeway. Whenever Clinton waved, a hundred arms waved back.

At Hudson River Inlay, a wood collectibles store, Clinton was presented with a $450 inlaid picture of an eagle and reciprocated by buying $143.56 worth of items, said Godwin De Silva, the store’s assistant manager. His purchases included ironwood figurines of a cat and a mallard carved by the Seri Indian tribe, two lacquered boxes made of orange peel and a sachet box made of paduouk, a reddish African wood.

Clinton paid for the items with a credit card, and De Silva said he followed the store’s policy in obtaining electronic verification of the President-elect’s credit line.

“I did it out of habit,” De Silva said. “How do I know if he’s really the President; anyone can walk in here,” he joked. “Of course, it was approved.”

Although the visit to the suburban mall could be viewed merely as a political spectacle, cynicism was hard to come by. After all, people pointed out, he’s already won the election.

“I want to see how he acts with the people,” said Alan Valentine, 27. “I don’t remember George Bush doing anything like this.”

“He’s coming here as opposed to Beverly Hills, where the fancy shops are,” added Tracy Cluss of Culver City.

Not everyone was excited. “Why today?” grumbled one restaurant manager. “People are running around like they just saw a rock star. They’re not buying a thing. Why didn’t he come tomorrow? Doesn’t he have work to do?”

For a politician, this is work. But Clinton seemed to enjoy it, soaking in the adulation during a visit that lasted about two hours and created headaches for Secret Service agents assigned to protect him.

Time and again, Clinton would venture toward the crowd. “I’m excited! Jubilated!” Betty Joseph, a 69-year-old retired nurse, declared after shaking Clinton’s hand. “He’s so handsome.”

Joseph said she had arrived at 8:30 a.m., uncertain when Clinton would get there. “I almost got crushed and it was worth it.”

After shaking Clinton’s hand, Nancy Hutchins, 36, continued to cheer Clinton along his route. “Tell Bill I love him,” she said. “I’m so excited. I’m patriotic for the first time in my life.”

Petty, the 16-year-old student, said he asked Clinton “what he thought about the Rodney King situation.”

The President-elect, Petty said, told him: “It was pathetic the way L.A. handled it.”

Petty said he also asked Clinton: “What are you going to do about the schools?” Clinton, according to Petty, expressed “hope we can change them.”

After stopping in front of J. C. Penney for a brief interview with reporters, Clinton stepped into the Nunn Bush shoe store run by Larry Narlock. The 46-year-old Moorpark resident, a Vietnam veteran, said he urged the President-elect to address the problem of homelessness and veterans.

“I told him I’d like to see that under his Administration the word ‘homeless’ would be changed back to an adjective from a noun,” Narlock recalled.

“He didn’t really say a lot, but he listened and seemed to take interest in what I had to say. I didn’t get the feeling I was being shined on.”

The visit Friday took on the carnival atmosphere of a campaign stop.

One family drove all the way from Oxnard, not just to see Clinton but to meet him. Ten-year-old Anthony Camper, dressed in red, white and blue, carried the saxophone he plays for the school band. His 7-year-old brother, Joshua, toted a hand-drawn campaign sign that said, “Not Bush or Perot--Clinton.”

The chaperon of the group, Mitzi Ivey, 24, had her resume tucked in her purse in case she got close enough to slip it to the President-elect. “I just got out of college and I need a job,” said the history major from Jarvis Christian College in Texas.

One place that Clinton missed was the White House, a women’s apparel shop where all the merchandise is white. Inside, the clerks speculated on what Clinton might buy if he stopped in. “I was thinking Hillary would look great walking around the White House in this,” said manager Lili Burgos of Glendale, holding up a silk robe and teddy.

At Kits Cameras the sales staff couldn’t unload the film and disposable cameras fast enough. “Everyone is here because of Clinton,” said sales clerk Adina Ferra, 18, of Canoga Park, who rang up $678 on the register in the first few hours of her shift. “They’re buying things like crazy. They all want to get photos of him.”

Clinton received far more attention than Santa Claus. Wardropper, his first day on the job as St. Nick, took his rival in stride.

“I don’t really mind,” he said, as he stood unnoticed near a crowd of Clinton admirers. “We’re both important men.”

He then shouted at the top of his lungs: “Mr. Clinton, how about a picture with Santa?”

Why Glendale?

Aides said the mall was chosen because the Galleria’s customers represent a typical cross section of Southern California. Here’s a snapshot of Glendale:

Population: 180,038

Per capita income: $17,966

Ethnic breakdown: 63.7% Anglo, 21% Latino, 13.7% Asian, 1.1% black, 0.2% other

Citizenship: 55% native born, 12% naturalized citizens, 33% non-citizens

Republicans: 36,030

Democrats: 24,877