MARY WISNIEWSKI
Assistant Living Editor
A miniature red truck sits on a shelf near a toy skeleton holding a guitar, surfboards are attached to the ceiling, a Pepperdine banner is posted above the door and a sign proclaiming, “Welcome to the house of perpetual commotion,” on the wooden wall. This is no bizarre antique shop. It is the Dume Room, owned by Mario Vitale.
Vitale wears black sneakers, black exercise pants, a black t-shirt and black sunglasses on top of his black hair. In fact, the only color on him is his Windex-blue eyes. Locals come and go, and Vitale speaks to them making friendly banter — it is clear everybody knows his name.
This is not so surprising, seeing as for the past four years come this March he has run the Dume Room.
Opened in 1972, the Dume Room was a cowboy joint that even had a hitching post outside of the door to hold the horses while the cowboys relaxed inside.
Now, it is affectionately known as Dume Room University, and students and locals frequent it for karaoke, intimate concerts as well as just to chill.
Vitale said the Dume Room is unique to Malibu because it feels like a place one could find at home.
“It’s the real deal,” Vitale said. “It has history.”
Vitale said the place attracts electric customers, such as construction workers, retired lifeguards, celebrities and students. Vitale said his favorite customers are the old time locals as well as students.
“The kids come from good families, and they actually listen to me,” he said.
Vitale said the Dume Room was not as friendly before he took it over, and, back then, some customers did not like students.
Vitale said he made some changes, and now the locals get along with the students for the most part.
“The guys realize there are so many beautiful women,” he said.
Junior Kate Causey is a frequent visitor of the Dume Room and said she feels like she lives there. She said she likes the atmosphere and thinks Vitale is an amazing person who is wise and deep.
“He’s like a little Dalai Lama,” Causey said.
The Dume Room will be going under reconstruction this year to make it more airy, as well as to implement feng shui and give it a beachier theme after the lease is finalized, Vitale said.
He said it will be hard to reinvent the Dume Room since it is 35-years-old, but he is ready to meet those challenges.
“I look at it as an old hag getting a face lift,” Vitale said.
Of course, the Dume Room is only one aspect of Vitale’s life.
Vitale was born in the Bronx in 1956 to a broken family and grew up in a multitude of homes. Throughout all of this, he was raised Catholic and even was an altar boy. He said he caused trouble as a youth, and consequently tasted every kind of soap there was due to his bad mouth. For example, Vitale said he had to go to confession after he drank all of the communion wine.
Once he turned 18, Vitale went to the Art Institute in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Still, at times, he had a hard time focusing there because of the women on the beach.
“I had to go to school or go to the bikinis,” Vitale said.
Despite the distractions, Vitale continues to pursue his art. Now, he mostly does abstract art that he said can sometimes predict the future. For example, he said he did an art project that revealed the World Trade Center in flames years before Sept. 11 ever happened.
“It freaked me out,” he said.
Besides being an artist, Vitale is an actor and said he is always typecast as someone from the mafia.
Vitale said in five years he wants to be in Thailand playing golf. This is not so surprising, seeing as his wife of two years is from Thailand.
Vitale also jokingly said he wants to run for mayor of Malibu.
“I’ll have free shuttles for Pepperdine students,” he said.
Regardless of what he does, it is clear Vitale’s establishment, the Dume Room, is almost as eclectic as his life.
10-05-2006