The line for the free money began to form about 7 a.m. Christmas morning. Homeless veterans, drug addicts, pregnant women with children, and people in wheelchairs took numbered tickets and waited patiently on the sidewalk on skid row.
At 8:30 a.m., when a man showed up nearby and started tossing wads of dollar bills into the air, police stepped in to check him out -- but he wasn't the famous "Father Dollar Bill" they all were waiting for, just a wannabe with far fewer bucks to throw around.
"Father Dollar Bill" is the Rev. Maurice Chase -- and every Christmas for the last 24 years, he has arrived on skid row carrying thousands of dollars in cash.
At 9 a.m. Tuesday, when he showed up at East 5th Street and Towne Avenue with $15,000, people in wheelchairs immediately surrounded him. His tradition is to give the first 10 people in wheelchairs $100. Others in line receive varying amounts, perhaps $20 or, more often, a few bucks.
Chase says he solicits the money from Los Angeles celebrities -- the families of Frank Sinatra and Bob Hope, billionaire Eli Broad. Most Sundays, he's on skid row too, distributing smaller amounts, usually about $5,000 to $6,000.
People in line often tell him how they'll spend it -- on hamburgers, ice cream and other treats they can't get at the shelters. He knows they're as likely to spend it on booze and drugs. But he says he doesn't care. That's not the point. The point is to show them that they are not forgotten.
The first $100 bill he pulled from his black leather wallet went to an older man with a scraggly gray beard, worn watch cap and sweat shirt.
"Thank you, father. Merry Christmas," the man said, smiling for a dozen television cameras.
But after Joe Roberson had wheeled out of range, he climbed out of the chair, gripped the back handles and pushed it across 5th Street.
Roberson, 63, says he's a Vietnam veteran from Shreveport, La., and that he's usually in the wheelchair because of his bad back. He's lived at downtown's Madison Hotel for nine years and said he planned to spend his $100 on canned goods and gifts for his friends at the hotel.
Oh, and blackjack. Roberson likes to play at the Commerce Casino.
"I have good days and bad days, mostly bad days now," he said as Maria Loera, 70, wheeled by with her $100. A dwarf who stands 53 inches tall, Loera said she would save her money to replace her 2 1/2 -year-old electric wheelchair.
