Steady Job Is on Top of Santa’s List : Economy: Many of those spreading Christmas cheer in the malls will rejoin the ranks of the unemployed when the holiday season ends.
They embody warmth, magic and boundless holiday cheer, but behind those big bellies and wire-rimmed glasses, Westside Santas are finding that their red suits offer scant insulation against the chill wind of recession.
Consider, for example, the less-than-whimsical year experienced by the Santa on duty at the Beverly Center one evening last week.
Last Dec. 22, Santa--he declined to give any other alias--was laid off as an events promoter, a job he had held for six years. That set off an all-too-familiar chain of events, in which he lost his medical coverage and his car because he could not afford to insure it. He was also forced to move out of his Studio City apartment because he could no longer afford the rent.
Now Santa lives in a tiny garage apartment and commutes to the Beverly Center not by sleigh but by RTD bus. Still, he insists he’s never been happier.
“I’ve come to realize that I’ll have to settle for less, but it won’t be the first time,” he said. He added that he finds comfort in “seeing that I’m not alone.”
He isn’t, at least not among the jolly old elf crowd.
“It’s probably the worst year I’ve had in 12 years,” said “Wild Bill” Mock, 49, an underemployed stuntman who earlier this month depicted the arrival of Santa Claus in Hollywood by descending 120 feet by rope from a helicopter to the roof of the Scientology organization’s management building, then rappelling eight stories down the face of the building to Hollywood Boulevard.
Mock said stunt jobs are few and far between because skittish production companies have put the brakes on big-budget films. His most recent disappointment was last month, when he says a big movie deal fell through because the producers decided to take the project to Canada. “I stood to make $45,000 in four months,” he said.
For Westside Pavilion’s Santa, Paul Rheaume, the economy was only part of his troubles.
“It’s hard,’ he said, referring to his chair, not his job. “You get hemorrhoids.”
Occupational hazards aside, Rheaume was quick to admit he felt lucky to have work, because he has found it harder than ever to make a living as a magician, his primary occupation for 29 years. The recession, he said, has flooded the market with cut-rate hacks, meaning more magicians are competing for a shrinking pool of clients.
“It used to be we’d go up to Palm Springs twice a month (to perform),” Rheaume said. “Now it’s twice a year. These companies just aren’t spending what they used to.”
Of course, it would not be Christmas on the Westside without at least one Frustrated Screenwriter Santa. That would be Zachary Hoffman, who relieves Rheaume at Westside Pavilion on weekends. Proudly brandishing an “inflatable butt pillow” pressed into service against that unforgiving chair, Hoffman said his biggest problem this year is the reluctance of Hollywood to take a risk on unproven talent.
“We’re very close to some deals right now, but it’s been so hard,” he said. “Everyone’s so nervous, they don’t want to commit the bucks.”
Consequently, Hoffman has plugged away teaching English-as-a-Second-Language courses and producing ESL videotapes for the Los Angeles Unified School District. His major financial accomplishment this past year was paying off a sizable chunk of a $3,000 credit card debt. “We’ve got to start ’93 debt free,” he said.
Times are tough as well for Ray Bourguignon, 58, and his son, Ray Jr., 24, who until recently were splitting time as Santa at the Fox Hills Mall in Culver City.
On a recent weekday, as a shy youngster screamed “No! No! No!” and refused to go near him, the elder Bourguignon, a retired manufacturing engineer, spoke of seeing vital earnings from his certificates of deposit and other accounts plunge during the past year.
More painful still has been hardship inflicted on several of his friends, who only a year ago were working as engineers in the aerospace industry but have since been laid off. As for the younger Ray, his nursery has been squeezed dry by the drought and the recession.
“It’s been a bad year,” the elder Bourguignon said. And it just got a little worse. On Wednesday, one of Santa’s helpers at the mall reported that Bourguignon, who lives nearby in Mar Vista, had been transferred to the La Puente Mall to take over for the Santa there, who quit. So much for the short commute.
Meanwhile, the Santa Claus at Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza offered a concise analysis of the Southern California economy after living here only three months: “It’s hard to get a job.”
The Santa, who also declined to reveal any other name, said he broke up with his girlfriend, gave up his usual holiday job as Santa at a mall in Bridgewater, Mass., and moved to Los Angeles, taking a part-time job as a kitchen cleaner. He said he was lucky to come up with the Santa gig but will have to find something more permanent after Christmas.
Which is not to imply that all is doom and gloom for Westside Santas.
Joe Kidwell, who dresses up as Santa Claus for various functions in Westwood Village, said his bicycle cab company has slowed somewhat due to the recession. But the self-styled entrepreneur said he is making up for it through other ventures, including a company that specializes in holograph signs and a new anti-smoking system he pioneered.
“There are people making a lot of money right now,” he said. “It’s just finding the right market to tap into.”
An unshakably optimistic Santa at Santa Monica Place, Vincent Kattanick, predicted that President-elect Bill Clinton, supported by George Bush, will lead a powerful economic resurgence in ’93.
And down the road in Westchester, insurance representative Floyd Wood--Santa for the Westchester-LAX Chamber of Commerce--said he would not admit to bad times even if they existed.
“I never have a bad day,” he said.
Then, in the true spirit of the season, Wood, 63, performed a Christmas miracle of sorts by putting a positive spin on his burgeoning gut.
For the first time in 18 years, he said, “My suit fits properly.”
