Poor Given $10 Bills as ‘Elf’ Carries On for Cadillac Santa

Cadillac Santa--the anonymous benefactor of Skid Row for a decade--died earlier this year, but a friend kept his tradition alive Wednesday by distributing $10 bills to homeless people.

“He came down with a couple of his people and put out about $10,000 in 40 minutes,” said Clancy Imislund, director of the Midnight Mission at 4th and Los Angeles streets. “There’s no shortage of people who come to Skid Row to do good works with their photographers and PR people. But to do it without any self-aggrandizement is phenomenal.”

Only after the Cadillac Santa’s death Oct. 29 did staff at the mission learn that their generous friend was Ronald Moran, 80, a Cadillac dealer in Torrance. When he died, the mission staff thought his practice of passing out money at Christmas had died with him.

But Moran had a friend who turned up in a green Eldorado on Wednesday to continue the legacy of giving. He said he had always tagged along with Moran on earlier trips.

“He started passing out the $10 bills inside about 10 a.m.,” said mission staffer Brian Nealy. “Word around here spreads like wildfire. Pretty soon there was a line outside almost wrapped around the corner.”

The 48-year-old man who identified himself only as Cadillac Santa’s elf said he passed out the money “out of respect for the Cadillac Santa. It’s a touch of love. It’s Christmas and it’s time for the nation to think about love.”

As he peeled off bills and passed them out, he shouted “Merry Christmas!” to the gathering, smiling throng.

“I love it. I appreciate his efforts,” said Richard Wors, 55. Asked what he would do with the money, Wors said, “Honestly? I’m going to buy me a pack of cigarettes and a couple of cans of beer.”

Tommy Hodge, 37, was beaming: “That’s real cool. I’m going to get me something to eat--four pieces of chicken--and some cigarettes.”

After handing the bills to hundreds of men and women seated in the mission cafeteria and library, the benefactor waved and said to thunderous applause, “See you guys next year.”

“Ten dollars when you don’t have anything is a lot of money,” the man said as he headed for his Cadillac. “The old Cadillac Santa was wealthy, and he used to say, ‘Money isn’t everything, but the absence of it is.’ ”

Some of the men no doubt used the money to buy wine, Imislund said. But he was moved by one man who pulled out a grimy envelope and asked for a stamp. He put the $10 inside and said:

“Now I can send something to my boy in Tucson.”