The Costumed Vista Manager Unmasked
The beloved Victor Martinez, more than 33 years at his post, says his secret is to be passionate about everything: even the popcorn
I was walking up Vermont and noticing that after a year of having no marquee, the Los Feliz 3 was finally announcing what they were showing in their unique theaters.
It was about 9pm. I was reaching for my phone to take a photo of the signage when a man with a dress shirt, tie, and slacks bounded out of the lobby to inform me that the cinema has a QR code that could tell me much more than what is just on the sign above.
He had a K95 mask on, but I recognized him.
“Victor?” I asked.
“Yes. Hello!” he said. “Do I know you?”
No but who doesn’t know Victor? For years he has been the affable manager of one of the best and most-comfortable movie houses in LA, the Vista at the corner of Sunset and Hollywood and Hillhurst… and Sunset Dr. and Virgil.
If you’re lucky you’d have seen him dressed in costume as one of the characters in the film they’re screening. He tells me he does that during the first week or two of the run, only. To keep things fresh.
What I didn’t know was how long he had been there for, who the owner was, and what the new owner is going to improve on greatness.
Thankfully, all of those questions were answered by Victor with the same energy as he showed me that dark night last month when most managers would have just been looking at the clock, waiting for the last patron to leave.
Here’s some excerpts from our conversation. You can hear all of it in the podcast above.
Victor on podcasts
I want to let you know that this is my official first podcast. Believe it or not. I had many interviews with the LA Times, and the LA Weekly, all these other magazines, but this is the first time I’ve been asked to do a podcast.
On his ‘fame’ of being the long-time Vista manager
I love it because you know, 90% of the people don’t even know my name. All they know is that there’s this manager at the door, greeting people. And he’s been there for a long time. This coming March is going to be 34 years. They hired me when I was in my diapers.
The first movie he worked at The Vista
Cinema Paradiso. That’s the story of my life.
How he got his job at The Vista in 1988
I was just hanging out at home. I was a teenager, so I was just focused on learning English. I still had my Guatemalan accent.
My brother tapped on my shoulder cause I was listening to the music and he’s like, “hey, do you want a job?”
And I’m like, “sure. Let’s do it.”
And I just got up and I didn’t even know where I was going. And then as soon as we got closer to the building, I said, “oh, are we going to the Vista theater?”
Because when I saw that I thought to myself, “man, I think this is meant to be,” because the first day I arrived to America, my parents went to pick me up at the airport and they said, “son, would you like to eat something?”
I said McDonald’s. We love McDonald’s because in Guatemala you only eat McDonald’s for your birthday. So it was a celebration: I had just arrived to America.
And I remember they drove me to Sunset Boulevard to the McDonald’s right there next to Fountain. right there.
The first day in America, I look over to my right and there’s The Vista.
I remember the manager at the time, his name was Doug Endicott. Bless that man. He’s like my father, because he’s the one that gave me an opportunity as an immigrant to have a job at the Vista. And thanks to him. I’m still here.
Money
I was making three dollars and eleven cents an hour. It was awesome. That was the most money I ever had.
The secret of making good popcorn
First is passion.
Then, of course, you cannot burn it. You have to really watch it.
Keep an eye on it because there’s nothing better than freshly popped, hot popcorn, falling out of the kettle.
Popcorn does keep for a few days, if you want to save it, but the fun of making popcorn is when you’re there watching it fall from the kettle.
That’s what a lot of theaters miss out on because they have these giant heaters that they pre-pop the popcorn to have it there for the crowds. They forget that the fun of going to movie theaters is to see the popcorn falling.
Especially if you have kids, you gotta have that experience where you see all the popcorn falling.
Why he wore a costume for the first time, 16 years after he began working at The Vista
After working there so many years, you can say one day I was kind of getting bored by it.
I was like, how could I challenge myself to up, make it a little more exciting?
I used to say things like, “hey, wouldn’t it be cool if someone like dressed up as, let’s say, Spider-Man and he was here at the door?”
One day I accidentally was walking in front of my favorite costume store, Ozzie next to Wackos.
Those guys became my friends and one day I was just passing by and I think it was destiny because I remember they had a Phantom of the Opera costume in a window display.
And I’m like, “wait a minute. Oh, this looks really good.”
And I went in there and of course, those guys are like, “oh, it’ll fit you perfectly.” And then they sold me on it and suddenly I bought the costume.
The Phantom is like one of my favorite musicals from the ‘80s. And I was really excited about the movie.
I was nervous because I called my boss and I’m like, “hey, you know, is it okay if maybe I have a little fun, just the first weekend and do you think it will be okay for me to wear the costume?”
And at first he wasn’t sure. “I don’t know, Victor. Okay. We’ll make it just like the opening weekend.”
Great. So then I did it and man, the response was so unbelievable.
How people in Los Feliz reacted to Victor’s first weekend in costume
That’s when email was first invented. I remember my manager got like hundreds of emails, people saying:
We love that guy!
Who’s that guy?
Can you do it next weekend?
I want my mother to see him. I want my grandmother to see him and my kids.
I didn’t know, because I was just innocently cutting tickets at the door.
So my manager came to me and he’s like, “uh, do you think you can wear your costume one more weekend?”
Even though Victor and new-Vista owner Quentin Tarantino knew each other before he became a director, it wasn’t until QT’s 6th movie that Victor wore a costume for one of his films
Will had all these great conversations about movies. But when he did Kill Bill, it was more like a female character. And the other movies, they were not really like a costume thing, even though they’re amazing.
So then the day finally came when Quentin did Inglorious Basterds and I said, this is it. And I went out, got myself a classic soldier costume. And then I was able to borrow good replicates of the same guns that have in the movie.
Then Quentin came. I was cutting tickets with my costume on. And then the employees are like, “Victor, Quentin is in line. He used to do that. He used to buy his tickets and line up with the audience. He was like one of the first in line for his own movie.
I thought that was so cool. I would offer him to come in and he’s like, “no, Victor, I’m staying here with the fans.”
So you can’t imagine, I literally pee in my pants when Quentin comes in and he’s like, “cool, dude, this is awesome. I’m impressed. I’m impressed.”
I said, “I did it all for you.” I was like, I was just so happy.
Did the rumors from the outside come first or did Quentin tell Victor of his plan to one day in own The Vista?
I think it was more of an intuition because he would come in all the time to see movies. And I would tell him, “Quentin, you know, you’re my number one choice. If something ever happened to the owner.”
Victor thinks Quentin should own even more movie houses
He deserves the Dome, he deserves the Chinese. I’m so flattered that he wanted The Vista.
So when you love movies, the way he does, you know, I mean he, he deserves more and there might be more you never know
Liza Minnelli likes the same thing at The Vista that you do
I met Liza Minnelli.
I told her, “you could have been at any theater in the world. Why are you here?”
She’s like, “well, I was in Hollywood and I love your theater because I love the deco. But the part that is my favorite, you always start the show with the song.”
“Customers notice everything, man.”
Anything they didn’t like or anything they do like, they would tell me at the door. They were like, “Victor, we love what you’re doing,” or “no, we don’t like when you do this” or “please whatever you do, don’t ever take out the curtains.”
I’m like, “yeah, dude, we’re proud of our curtains.”
Or “whatever you do, never take the space between the seats.”
Victor on the unique, extended legroom in the back half of The Vista
The theater used to sit 720 people, because in the 1920s, they used to build everything really tiny and kind of tight.
And Lance [the Vista owner for the last 40 years] said, “we don’t need all these seats. Let’s remove every-other row and make it nice and comfy and more modern.
That was one of the greatest things he ever did. Lance has done well in life. So it was not about money. It was about quality. So instead of quantity, he went for quality.
Big dudes love it because we don’t bother anyone going to the restroom.
We’re not going to change it.
Victor on what is changing at The Vista now that Quentin owns it.
Don’t worry. The Vista is in good hands. The work that they’re doing is mostly internal.
The projection room, even though it’s kind of painful to touch it, it really needs to be upgraded because we’re talking about a 1920s projection room, you know, and Quentin is gonna make it spacious. He’s going to put 70 millimeter in there, which is a new chapter in my career because I have never operated 70 millimeter. So I am so excited.
I’m going to be going to Quentin School, man, like Projection School.
Wasn’t Victor incredible?
Thank you Nancy, Ali, Shawn, Matt, Sean, Emilio, Jamie, Greg & Molli, Mark, Keira-Anne, Barney, Ben Welsh and Henry Fuhrmann.
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Hear in LA is produced by Tony Pierce and The Phantom of the Oboe, Jordan Katz.
Editing, mixing, and music supervision by Jordan Katz
Songs by Orgōne and Jordan Katz.
This blog post was produced and edited by magical elves. They know it doesn’t match up perfectly with the pod, but they say maybe this is a better way to do things on a blog.
Shout out to:
Cindy for the graphic.
Jen Adams for the encouragement to do this years ago!
And Lance for all that he did for decades for The Vista, including selling this precious gem to a true movie lover instead of to the highest bidder.
