(first posted 12/9/2015) Certain things will always bring a smile to my face, no matter what. When two or more of those things combine in a serendipitous way, my camera usually whips out as if in an involuntary action. On this particular night, I was meeting up with good friends for a little pre-Thanksgiving revelry before we all went our separate ways for the holidays. The neighborhood around historic Wrigley Field has an abundance of great people-watching, restaurants, bars, sports memorabilia, and also an unusually high concentration of interesting cars – during any time of year. A big, red, RWD Coupe DeVille with a matching leather interior and a white landau roof? Yes, please. This one was tastier than a stick of Wrigley’s own Big Red chewing gum.
It was only around Thanksgiving and still weeks from Christmas, but there’s no doubt in my mind that this was St. Nick’s whip. Even ol’ Kris Kringle must need to blow off a little steam once in a while. Seriously, the next time you want to complain about your job, think about the extremely high-pressure, time-sensitive nature of this guy’s occupation, even if he delivers only once a year. Maybe he was in Wrigleyville on this night contemplating all the business travel he was about to take on in just four short weeks. Maybe Mrs. Claus was getting on his nerves and he felt the need to get out of the house for a while. Or, perhaps he had a yen for some loaded tater-tots from Merkle’s Bar & Grill and conspicuously parked his pride and joy in front to see if anyone would take notice. Stranger things have happened in this neighborhood.
I didn’t see any “Diesel” markings anywhere on this car (some badges were missing), so I’m assuming Santa made do with the (also) slow, unreliable, heinous 4.1L V8 with all of 135 hp to lug around two full tons of car. I doubt he cares very much, though. He’s got his reindeer and an actual sleigh to get his day (night) job done, and I’m sure the EPA ratings on that rig are through the roof. So there’s that. The Caddy is more his showboat. Despite his advanced age, the dude is nowhere near retirement, so I can’t blame him for owning a car now that he wants – one that even matches his attire. After all, if that concept was good enough for Superfly, it’s good enough for him.
I’ll tell you one thing (and this from personal experience): Wrigleyville – especially on weekends – is one place where Mr. Claus would have easy access to see who’s being naughty and who’s being nice. This scenario comes to mind: “Santa, bring me a great work bonus this year!” One month later: “Sorry, Susie. Remember that night in Wrigleyville when you loudly cursed out the bartender after doing your fifth Jägerbomb shot right before you threw your plastic tumbler of icewater in his face? Enjoy your lump of coal.” (Don’t worry, Susie. There’s always next year.)
Santa’s CDV was just a little rough around the edges. I imagine that its fine, red leather interior was probably saturated with his pipe smoke, but I wasn’t mad at that – I liked the lived-in quality of his ride. Let’s face it – he has other priorities besides maintaining his prized Cadillac. The man has his hands full with spying on people all year, keeping Mrs. Claus’ house in good repair (in the frigid North Pole, for crying out loud), and feeding and cleaning up after a small herd of reindeer. I’m sure the Cadillac isn’t anywhere near the top of his “Honey-do” list.
No doubt Facebook has made his life a lot easier. I don’t care what anyone says about privacy settings. If Santa already knew your business years before social media, he certainly knows it now, and then some – probably more than he wants to know. I wonder how many times he’s said to himself, “Dang it, Johnny. I’m just going to pretend I didn’t see that post. I guess you can still have that thing you wanted.”
I had wanted to stick around to wait for Santa to ask him some questions. I was feeling pretty good, and not at all confrontational (i.e. “Really, Santa? A box of fake Legos that one year?”). His car, while not remotely pristine, was still in pretty amazing shape for a then-27 year old car – in a bodystyle and color combo I’m pretty sure I had never seen before. I wanted some details, and maybe even a few interior shots.
Talking with my friends, I kept one eye on the bar’s front row of windows, looking to see if I’d see the Man With The Bag walking back to his crimson-hued chariot. But alas, One O’Clock AM had already come and gone, and I realized I should probably just go home so I could attempt to have a productive day on Saturday. Riding my northbound CTA Red Line train back to my neighborhood, I couldn’t keep the grin off my face at the idea of Santa Claus being a Brougham Man. For all of his annual multi-tasking (and at such a frantic pace), he certainly deserves all that luxury.
All photos were as taken by the author in Wrigleyville, Chicago, Illinois on (early) Saturday morning, November 19, 2011.
Well now I just have this mental image of elves trying to polish that hood, and not being able to reach across to the middle. I guess I know which list I’m going on.
The elves! I completely forgot about the elves. You’re right Dan – waxing this car would be something he’d have to take on himself.
The elves could just strap waxing mitts onto their feet and skate around on the hood.
*Brilliant.*
I’ve always thought that Santa drove a red/white Eldorado convertible.
I think you have Santa confused with Elvis. 🙂 Besides, everyone knows that Santa is a Lincoln man.
Nah, Santa was a Saab man.
A different car each year? Why not?
I recall he spent most of the ’70s in a Norelco………..
But seems to have been a VW man in recent years – the diesel mileage was appealing and it was easy to fill in Europe. I’ve heard his PR people have asked him to switch brands this year.
I thought Santa was under contract with Coca-Cola™. Or was it Disney? Never mind, go & spend away to prove you have holiday “spirit.”
Delightful post, Joe. We have said so much about these Caddies over the years that it is hard to find a fresh perspective. But you did it, and with some holiday flourish, besides.
I wonder what Santa will choose as his next new car. I have no idea.
Thanks, JPC! I, too, have to wonder what Santa will choose next, as I haven’t seen many new, large cars in a shade of red this bright. I can’t see him rolling in a silver “sleigh”, though I can imagine silver bells accessorizing the right car.
What great photos, I especially liked the street view of the side mirror with the Cadillac script and the script on the vinyl top. These were elegant machines but not just for perfumed princes, but for people who had been around and were comfortable on the seedier side of town, as well as easy street. Thanks for sharing
Thanks, John. And I agree with you that Cadillac ownership – probably to no insignificant degree – was an equalizer of sorts, a pass into the club, no matter what your background.
Santa obviously cares about this car, it still has whitewalls and not the Vogue kind. 🙂
Cool old Caddy, good photos, fun story. I enjoyed this! I especially like that none of the bumper fill panels look deteriorated. Clearly someone loves this car.
Yet …ANOTHER…Cadillac article?
I demand equal time for Lincoln Town Cars.
🙂
My bad, Mark! I’m just thankful Paul hasn’t put me on a “Colonnade Moratorium”. 😉 Yet.
One more pithy, edgy “Pre-Coffee” remark from me and Paul just might banish me for all eternity.
🙁
Noooo….. I’ve somehow managed to capture three colonnades around town in the last few months.
Mark, ya need to join The Brougham Society. We are an equal opportunity Broughamployer. https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheBroughamSociety/
I would love to join you there, but unfortunately, I do not have Facebook as I reject social media of that sort.
Well, we do have a couple of ‘nuts and bolts’ non-FB site as well. Though its focus is more on new cars. There is more vintage fare on there, however.
http://becausecars.blogspot.com/
A Lincoln fan named Mark? Kinda seems…..appropriate. 🙂
Santa just can’t stay from the red sled.
I was at a car parts swap meet on Sunday. Santa was there, red coat, red pants and all. I should’ve taken a picture. I thought it was unlikely that he’d find parts for his sleigh there, but this explains everything!
What did I just read?
Bah, humbug…
Thanks, everyone, for taking the time to read this. Writing this piece gave me a great excuse to “relive” a fun night out.
There a still a few of these driving around my neck of the woods in Upstate, NY despite the snow belt. I spotted a 1984 brown coupe Deville being driven by an older lady with minimal rust and it still sounded good. Probably didn’t have more than 50-60K miles though and was never taken above 3000 RPM’s to hurt the engine.
I wonder if she was one of Santas helpers.
1060 West Addison? That’s Wrigley Field.
Great read, thanks!
Santa must be hiding something if he falsified his renewal…
Beautiful find, and great pictures too! This one appears to be a 1984 Coupe de Ville as it has the gold winged Cadillac crests on the parking lamps–newly added that year. Here’s an identical one that was on ebay a couple years back, though this one was an ’80 with the 368 V8.
Oh, and I’m sharing this on The Brougham Society. 🙂
Thanks, Tom! Always glad to share my better brougham finds!
Santa has good taste in cars. He obviously keeps his Coupe de Ville nice. I think the red color goes nicely with Rudolf’s nose, who obviously has to help pull he Coupe de Ville along with the other reindeer as that old 4.1 liter engine needs help. Such a heavy car and a heavy driver!
Beats the previous year’s reindeer that kept trying to use only 3 or even 2 of their legs if that’s all they deemed necessary for lighter loads or downhill segments…
Bright “Santa Red” seemed to be a Cadillac color from the mid ’50s through 1984. The period 1975 through 1984 seemed to step up the color, usually with a white vinyl top and a white trimmed interior. Not hugely popular, but you did see them around without having to look too hard. The fact that I live in Nebraska where the University of Nebraska Lincoln “Go Big Red” football team is almost a religion may have something to do with that.
These downsized DeVille and FWB coupes really looked quite good in red. I’d never seen an ’80-’85 version and it carries over well from the first 3 years in this color. Really like.
I was trying to add that while I frequently still saw the early 80s coupes growing up, I remember them mostly in white, or beige, or other fairly uninspiring colors. Maybe a handful in navy blue, and a few in a darker gray, but all very muted.
I don’t recall ever seeing one in red, yellow, dark green, or even powder blue. The sedan versions, yes, but not these. It seemed to me that the bland, beige colors that characterized the 90s reached the Cadillac coupes a decade early.
The ’80 restyle put a crease in the sheet metal for the edge of the vinyl roof, so you had to get one to not look dorky. In the mid or late 70’s, Cadillac switched to a single center seam in the vinyl instead of two side seams to avoid interference by the sunroof, but that was all but moot for their coupes, which were nearly universally landaued starting in ’74. They were like giant wheel sizes are now–unavoidable.
Close. 🙂
I know they made some Fleetwood coupes with a smaller opera window, but not that late. Wikipedia says 1985 was the last year of the coupe and the RWD HT4100.
How quickly big coupes declined in the 80’s. Sedans took a little longer.
It would seem that as of 2011, Santa has become a Mercedes man, LOL!!
It’s a real shame that the last of the full sized Coupe de Villes ended up with the awful HT4100 engines. The ’81 had the V8-6-4 which had been been shrunk to just 368 cid. These De Villes were handsome cars with a lot of presence, the post ’80’s facelift was not initially accepted by myself as I had bought a ’77. Looking back I think the face lifted cars turned out quite well, but that motor! I think that the Buick V6 was actually an option at one time. I would never consider an HT 4100 model but GM improved it, as the 4.5 and especially the final 4.9 are considered to be quite reliable.
Unfortunately the FWD Coupe de Ville never got it right. It wasn’t the FWD, as the Eldo and Seville ended up looking pretty good in their final years.