Louie Torres began his movie poster collection at age 16 by cleaning out movie theater basements in Gallup.
"In 1976, I walked into the Coronado movie theater, and there was a 'Star Wars' poster on display," he said. "I asked the movie theater manager if I could have it. He said the only way I could get one is to work in a movie theater, so I went back to Gallup where I was from and I got a job at a movie theater."
The district manager came into town and saw the basement was a dark, dank mess. Nobody wanted to do the cleaning.
"I told my manager, 'I'll do it if I can have the movie posters down there,' and he says, 'I don't care. Take anything you want from down there, just get that basement clean,'" Torres said.
Now he's the established UNM-area poster shop guy who runs Louie's Rock-N-Reels at 105 Harvard Dr. S.E., and he's expanding into the space next door. He plans to be completely moved in by the third week of September.
"The owner of We Buy Music has decided to move to another location," Torres said. "I never thought his space would come up. I approached the landlords. They said, "Yup, it would be great to have you expand. You're an asset to our block, and you can have it."
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His shop is so stocked full of posters, movies and film books that it's hard to walk through without crashing into something. He will soon have enough space to properly display everything and let his two dogs lie around with more room. His two Labradors, Mr. E and Blanco, have become friendly staples on the block.
"Mr. E has been going to work with me every day for the last eight years," he said. "And being a dog lover, I support the Animal Humane Association. I have one of their little collection boxes by my counter, and people leave their change and every month Animal Humane comes by."
He also contributes to PAWS (Pets Are Wonderful Support), a branch of New Mexico AIDS Services. PAWS cares for pets of AIDS victims who put their money toward medicine and spend lots of time in the hospital.
"At my new location, I'm going to start a section of $5 movie posters," Torres said. "These are posters where I maybe have 50 copies of one poster, or maybe they're posters people have brought into the store and donated. Every time someone buys one, $2.50 will go to PAWS and $2.50 will go to Animal Humane."
Torres carries tens of thousands of posters, postcards, press photos, cloth tapestries, books and films.
"When it comes to music, I carry imported British music posters, commercial American posters, record label promotional posters and a very small quantity of concert posters," Torres said. "I also sell lobby cards. I don't have those on display 'cause I never had the room. They quit making them in 1985, but they were scenes from the movie in color in 11x14 size."
His posters, in general, sell for between $6 and $20, and students usually come to him for dorm decorations by word-of-mouth.
He said that some people have strange requests, and sometimes they ask him if he's heard of a woman named Marilyn Monroe or of a band called The Beatles.
"My best friend and I laugh because some guy walked into my store years ago and asked me for a nude photograph of Ernest Borgnine," Torres said. "He was one of the stars in 'The Poseidon Adventure.' He's no Brad Pitt. I thought he was joking."
