The Santa Claus Man

The man who first got New York's Santa letters answered at scale was a young publicist who signed himself as Santa's helper, raised money from 76,000 donors and movie stars, promised a marble "Santa Claus Building" that never rose, and was finally pushed out by the city's charity watchdog.

The story as it is told

Every December, children in New York write letters to Santa Claus, and every December the letters find their way to someone who reads them. In the story people tell, it began with kindness: postal clerks who would not let a child's letter go unanswered, and generous New Yorkers who quietly took a wish list from the pile and made it come true.

One year it was a few letters, then more, and a tradition was born, handed down without a break to today's Operation Santa.

What we can confirm

For most of the 1800s a letter addressed to "Santa Claus, North Pole" was legally unmailable. According to the USPS historian, such letters were returned or sent to the Dead Letter Office, where clerks opened them and destroyed any they could not return. Some postmasters quietly broke the rule. On December 13, 1907, Postmaster General George von L. Meyer let postmasters hand Santa letters to charities, but he dropped the permission the next year after charities complained they could not vet the flood. On November 1, 1911, Postmaster General Frank H. Hitchcock granted it again; he renewed it in 1912, and in 1913 it went into the Postal Laws and Regulations.

That opening is where John Duval Gluck Jr., a Brooklyn-born man in his twenties working in publicity, stepped in. According to his great-grandnephew Alex Palmer, whose 2015 book is the main modern account, Gluck started the Santa Claus Association in December 1913 in the back room of Henkel's Chop Shop on 36th Street. The Sun confirmed the address at the time: on December 6, 1913 it reported that the new association "has headquarters at Paul Henkel's, 58 West Thirty-sixth street," with "John D. Gluck, who started the movement here," as secretary, and that it expected "7,500 members by December 20" and to "be able to handle 15,000 letters." The idea was simple and new: collect children's letters from the post office, then match each one with a donor who would buy and deliver the gift. Palmer writes that the group reached 13,160 children by Christmas Eve 1913. The City Reliquary exhibit text says 28,000 in the first year, but that sits badly with the association's own 15,000-letter target that December and with The Sun's figure for the second season, "fully 20,000 children," on December 8, 1914. Palmer puts the total at about 50,000 children in 16,000 families two years later. By its second season, The Sun reported, the association had its headquarters in the wine vaults of the Hotel Astor, nicknamed the "Santa Claus Cave." It later had offices in the Woolworth Building, per Palmer. Stage and screen names took letters, and the City Reliquary lists John Barrymore, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Mayor Jimmy Walker, Al Smith and Warren Harding among the celebrities linked to it.

Gluck was a showman. He claimed a Christmas Day birthday, and the press repeated it: on December 26, 1914, The Sun in New York reported that "John Gluck, organizer and chief worker of the Santa Claus Association," spent "Christmas, which was also his birthday," in the German Hospital. The same item said post offices in and near New York were sending letters addressed to Santa Claus to the association "instead of to the Dead Letter Office," and that the cases were investigated "by Boy Scouts or by volunteer workers," then card-indexed if found deserving. On Christmas Day 1915, Palmer writes, he announced a $300,000 marble "Santa Claus Building," with plans by the architects George and Edward Blum, and took donations for it. The next day The Sun printed a "sketch of the facade of the proposed home of the Santa Claus Association" (Dec 26, 1915, p. 7). It was never built. Palmer also describes a donor list of about 76,000 names and side ventures he calls sham charities, including a "Window Crib Society" and a group styled the United States Boy Scouts with figurehead "vice presidents."

By the late 1920s, the Brooklyn Paper reported, Gluck was padding the group with dozens of public figures as honorary vice presidents. That drew New York's Commissioner of Public Welfare, Bird S. Coler, who had made his name exposing sham charities. Palmer writes that Coler found the association had raised about $106,000 with spending not detailed, and that a $10,000 fund had vanished. The timing is winter 1927-28. NYT headlines (seen only as titles) are dated Dec 24, 1927 and Jan 11, 1928, and on January 12, 1928 the Daily Worker reported that "in response to many inquiries and complaints as to the disposition of funds, a financial accounting of the Santa Claus Association, Inc., has been asked by Commissioner of Public Welfare Bird S. Coler." The Brooklyn Paper reported that Coler's investigation found a one-man operation under Gluck's control with funds that could not be accounted for. The city filed no charges. The post office cut off Gluck's access to the Santa letters, which ended the association, and Gluck moved to Florida. Postal letter-answering in New York went on through other charities and postal workers; the USPS says the "Operation Santa Claus" name for the New York program dates from the 1950s and later.

The facts

• Santa letters were legally unmailable and went to the Dead Letter Office; PMG Meyer allowed charity distribution Dec 13, 1907, and did not renew it in 1908. USPS Historian, "Santa Letters: Gateway to Kindness" (Jan 2013)
• PMG Frank H. Hitchcock granted permission Nov 1, 1911; renewed 1912; written into the Postal Laws and Regulations in 1913. USPS Historian
• Gluck founded the Santa Claus Association in 1913. Palmer (NY Post excerpt), Brooklyn Paper, City Reliquary
• Started in the back room of Henkel's Chop Shop, 36th Street; later offices at the Hotel Astor and the Woolworth Building. Palmer
• $300,000 marble "Santa Claus Building" announced Christmas Day 1915, never built. Palmer
• Coler's inquiry: about $106,000 raised, spending not detailed, a $10,000 fund missing (Palmer); a one-man operation with unaccounted funds, no charges filed (Brooklyn Paper).
• Gluck lost post office access and moved to Florida. Brooklyn Paper
• The Sun (New York), Dec 6, 1913, p. 5: the association "has headquarters at Paul Henkel's, 58 West Thirty-sixth street"; "John D. Gluck, who started the movement here, is secretary"; "They expect to have 7,500 members by December 20 and will be able to handle 15,000 letters." Also: "No money is wanted and no presents will be received" (gifts went straight from donor to child). Read from the page image. loc.gov
• The Sun, Dec 8, 1914, p. 6, "Santa Claus's Home Address": headquarters "for the second season" in the wine vaults of the Hotel Astor, the "Santa Claus Cave"; "fully 20,000 children of the city's poor" to receive presents; "John D. Gluck, secretary and founder." Read from the page image. loc.gov
• Evening World, Dec 8, 1914, p. 3: association offices at 317 Fifth Avenue; "Mrs. Fannie Monsell Baker and J. D. Gluck, the organizer." loc.gov
• Daily Worker, Jan 12, 1928, p. 5, "Santa Questioned": Coler asked for "a financial accounting of the Santa Claus Association, Inc." after "many inquiries and complaints as to the disposition of funds." loc.gov
• Alex Palmer is Gluck's great-grandnephew; his source base includes a relative's large clipping collection. Brooklyn Paper

Related: What enters the public domain in 2027

All sections · Hoaxes, Mysteries and the Unexplained