Andre Villa was born 63 years ago in Vista to Mexican immigrants who didn't speak English. They encouraged him to embrace American culture, to fit in. He went to the movies.
CHARLIE NEUMAN / Union-Tribune
Marilyn Monroe caught Andre Villa's eye a long time ago. Now a statue of the movie star is part of the decor at his Escondido home, a shrine to '50s memorabilia.
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At the old Avo Theater, he watched John Wayne and James Dean and learned about certain kinds of manhood. He watched Marilyn Monroe and learned about something else.
He believes the lessons he absorbed from the big screen helped make him who he is, and he's spent the past 30 years repaying the debt. He's turned his Escondido house into a shrine to those earlier times, complete with movie posters, statues and a turnstile in the front hall.
Today, the house will fill with family and friends for a long-standing Villa tradition: an Oscars party.
“Some dads have an interest in football,” said Arlene Sjogren, Villa's daughter. “For my dad, it's the movies. The Academy Awards show in our house is like the Super Bowl.”
The setting has a lot to do with it. Villa calls his house “The Heartbreak Hotel.” There's even a sign out front. Inside, the decor includes old movie seats, a phone booth with a rotary-dial telephone, and a vintage barber chair. One couch is a seat from a '58 Chevy Bel Air.
CHARLIE NEUMAN / Union-Tribune
Memories of the 1950s - movies, soda fountains, friends - drive Andre Villa's decorating style. "We had a good time," he said.
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In one bedroom is a life-sized statue of James Dean, in another is one of Elvis Presley. Glass cases are filled with collectibles of Dean, John Wayne, Marilyn Monroe and other favorite stars. Biographies of cinema greats line t he bookshelves.
He has so much stuff that he opened the attic up for more display space, installed a ladder at one end and a fireman's pole at the other. When he ran out of room on the walls for posters, he put them on the ceiling. Even the kitchen cabinets are covered with photos.
In the backyard, there's a jukebox, booths from a defunct Mexican restaurant, and a statue of Marilyn Monroe sitting on a bench. (There's a big Ronald McDonald in the side yard, too. Hardly a movie star, but Villa said he couldn't resist.)
Calling his house a “hotel” creates problems. At least twice, passers-by have asked him about the availability of rooms. Actually the house was used last summer for an event more commonly associated with hotels: his sister Elisea's 50th high school reunion.
The cliché is true: It has to be seen to be believed. Villa said he had a police officer come inside during a noisy party and asked them to turn down the jukebox. “Then he said, 'Can I bring my girlfriend over to see this place?'”
CHARLIE NEUMAN / Union-Tribune
Andre Villa liked James Dean in "Rebel Without a Cause" - liked him enough to fill a room with photos, pictures and statues.
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CHARLIE NEUMAN / Union-Tribune
During parties at the Heartbreak Hotel, guests often like to get their picture taken with Marilyn Monroe, seated on a park bench in the backyard.
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Villa, now retired, worked for 35 years in heating and air conditioning. He raised his children, Arlene, Andre and David, to appreciate the older movies – films that are (figuratively if not literally) black and white. Where good conquers evil.
“My dad just kind of grabbed on to movies as a way to figure out the culture,” Arlene said. “They were kind of a moral compass for him. He watched Jimmy Stewart and John Wayne, and they told him something about what it was like to be an American, a man, a father.”
His kids, in turn, absorbed the stories and the messages. When their parents divorced, the movies helped them cope, Arlene said. They had fun memorizing favorite lines.
Arlene used to work at a department store and forgot to wear her name tag one day. When a manager pointed it out, Arlene's reply came quickly: “I don't need no stinking badge.” She'd seen “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” a few times.
David said he felt free to use suave Humphrey Bogart lines on the girls because most of them didn't know the first thing about his movies. “I was pretty much in the clear on that whole deal.”
Villa's children are grown, living on their own, but they always come back for the Oscar party, now with their own kids in tow.
Every year there is a contest to see who can guess the most Oscar winners. The entry fee is $5; the person with the most correct picks wins the pot.
Some of them take it seriously. Throughout the year they e-mail or phone each other, debating the merits of certain films and actors. Some make sure to see all the major movies. They research what the critics are saying. Those unable to attend fax their ballots.
Guests attending the party for the first time invariably get one look at the house and all the memorabilia – this year's additions include life-sized cutouts, mounted on plywood, of Wayne, Bogart, Monroe, Dean and others – and wonder why they even bother with the contest. Surely Villa will win.
Probably not.
He's only won once, back in 1981, when “Chariots of Fire” was voted Best Picture. He said he doesn't pay much attention to current movies and is pulling this year for some older nominees – Peter O'Toole and Alan Arkin – for sentimental reasons.
“I tend to vote with my heart,” he said, “instead of my head.”
John Wilkens: (619) 293-2236;
john.wilkens@uniontrib.com
