Dick Gidron, 68; Was "Mr. Cadillac"
Bill Schenley
FROM: The (New York) Amsterdam News ~
By Herb Boyd, Special to the News
Dick Gidron, like the Cadillac he was famous for
selling, signified excellence, and few car dealers
in the nation could match his superb salesmanship.
A resident of Scarsdale, N.Y., Gidron, 68, made
his transition last Thursday, October 10 (on his
birthday) at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill
Cornell Medical Center, according to his son,
Richard, Jr. The cause of his death was not
disclosed.
Selling Cadillacs was Gidron's calling card, and no
one did it with as much panache and aplomb as he
did. He parlayed his success as a car dealer into a
variety of other accomplishments, including
lifelong friendships with State Senator Guy Velella,
Rep. Mario Biaggi, Mayor David Dinkins, Yankee
owner George Steinbrenner, Percy Sutton and
Congressman Charles Rangel.
These connections facilitated his political ascendancy
and leadership role in the Bronx, where he was
president of the Chamber of Commerce for a decade
beginning in the 1980s and chairman of the Bronx
County Democratic Committee, also in the '80s.
"Dick was a very, very successful car dealer," said
Rep. Rangel, "and he treated everybody like they
were successful, too. He would go out of his way to
help anyone who was trying to succeed, and he did
all of this without bluster or arrogance. He was a
marvelous personality."
Rangel said he never had any personal dealings with
Gidron. "I never owned a Cadillac," he said. But he
sold other types of cars. "Dick was known for the
Caddy, just like I'm known as the chairman," Rangel
laughed.
Born in Chicago in 1939, Gidron was raised by his
mother and grandmother after his father died when he
was 7. At 19, he was employed in a Cadillac
dealership on Chicago's South Side.
Though he picked up a few lessons about selling in
night school, it was on the car lots and showrooms
that he really polished his sales technique.
He was only 26 when he became Cadillac's first Black
salesman and quickly outdistanced his colleagues,
earning a national reputation.
Gidron was so good that in 1972 when GM sought
a minority owner in the Bronx, he beat out Sammy
Davis, Jr. and baseball immortal Hank Aaron. Not
only was he the first African-American Cadillac dealer
in New York, he was the second in the nation.
In less than a decade, his annual sales surpassed
$40 million, and Gidron lavished the earnings on
himself and many of his close associates, as well as
those in financial trouble who called for assistance.
"He supported us through every one of the civil rights
struggles in the past 20 years," the Rev. Al Sharpton
told the press. "And he was the Black folks' bank.
When you didn't have credit, you could still get a car
from Dick Gidron-and I speak as one of his noncredit
customers many years ago."
Mayor Dinkins also fondly recalled Gidron's
generosity and friendship. "If one were to look in an
encyclopedia for 'loyal friend,' you'd see a photograph
of Dick Gidron," he said.
But helping others in dire need meant he often neglected
his own financial affairs, and by the '90s, he was in
trouble with the IRS and the state for nonpayment of
corporate taxes.
According to Gidron, in an article by Robin Nash in
Positive Community, things began to unravel for him
in 2000 when a fire in the service department of his
Cadillac/Oldsmobile dealership on Central Park Avenue
in Yonkers destroyed 16 customer cars along with parts
and equipment valued at over $400,000.
"Though his company had occupied the premises
since 1998, leasing it from General Motors, two weeks
after the fire, GM informed him that they had no
insurance on the building and did not have the money to
repair it. GM then asked Gidron Cadillac to renovate the
building, and offered to sell Gidron Cadillac the building
at the negotiated price of $2.2 million. He was even given
a letter of commitment," Nash wrote.
Two years later, in 2002, he was indicted on charges of
evading more than $1.5 million in state and federal taxes
from the sale and leasing of cars from 1995 to 2000,
according to a news account. He subsequently pled guilty
to two counts of "grand larceny and one of offering a
false instrument for filing-admitting that he kept car
payments meant for lending institutions-and was
ordered to pay $1.6 million in restitution and sentenced
to three years of home confinement and five years of
probation," a New York Times story related.
"I think Dick got a bad deal on all of this," Rangel said.
Bad deal or not, Gidron served a year in prison, and
when he was released last year he sued General
Motors for $150 million, charging that the automaker
had reneged on a deal to sell him an auto repair center
in Yonkers that he had restored at a cost of millions
after it was damaged in a fire in 2000. The suit is
pending.
When asked about his relationship with Gidron, his
longtime friend and Bronx political leader Stanley
Friedman said: "I never met somebody who made so
many friends from so many walks of life-rich, poor
and in between. Dick lent his hand to all those who
needed his help, and didn't brag about it, either."
Along with his son, Richard, Jr. of Scarsdale, Gidron
is survived by his wife, Marjorie; a daughter, Bridgett
Gidron of Scarsdale; two sisters, Dorothy J. Holmes
of Stone Mountain, Ga., and Freddie M. Kessee of
Aliso Viejo, Calif.; a brother, Thomas Parker of Little
Rock, Ark.; and two grandchildren.
At press time no plans for funeral or memorial services
had been disclosed.
tr...@iwvisp.com
> Death of 'Mr. Cadillac' Dick Gidron Passes at 68
>
> FROM: The (New York) Amsterdam News ~
> By Herb Boyd, Special to the News
>
> Dick Gidron, like the Cadillac he was famous for
> selling, signified excellence, and few car dealers
> in the nation could match his superb salesmanship.
He used to be a major sponsor of Don Imus's show on WNBC. Imus would
do a live testimonial commercial for "Dick Didron Chevrolet and end
it with, "If you haven't bought a Chevy from Gidron Chevrolet you
don't know Dick!"
Ray Arthur