I was 25 years old. Susan was planning to open her own firm as a family lawyer, and I felt I could run my own business too.
I have always loved women, especially beautiful women. More than that, I get along with women very well. I'm not bragging, but I have an ability to empathize with them. I knew I understood women and had the skill to communicate with them. So I decided to be a modeling agent and fashion show producer. Sue MacIndoe, my high school buddy, felt I must have an ulterior motive for such a career change, and of course, another reason I became a modeling agent and producer was the feeling that I needed beautiful women around me to take my mind off Susan. Ironically, Susan supported me, not knowing she was the main reason for the change.
A lot of men have asked me how I do it, how I get along with women. For a man to understand a woman, he has to empathize, has to be able to listen to her problems, to relate to her problems. If you are going to understand a woman you have to relate to what she's talking about.
But fashion was an area I knew nothing about. To inspire me, I bought Earl Wilson's biography on Frank Sinatra, "Sinatra: An unauthorized biography." Then I bought a Frank Sinatra movie from Videomatica on 5th Avenue in Kitsilano. "From Here to Eternity" was the first of many movies I bought, and eventually I had a considerable collection. My family had always shown movies. In fact, my mother was movie buff and named my sister after Grace Kelly.
Back to school
Where was I going to learn my profession? I picked up the Yellow Pages, looking for places that offered courses. First in alphabetical order was the Blanche MacDonald Institute in Vancouver, so I enrolled there in 1982. Courses ran from 10 in the morning till 4 in the afternoon. Blanche herself was the head of the Institute, but at that time, she was also offering courses in fashion merchandise and fashion designing.I took intensive courses in producing fashion shows, from Peggy Morrison who I consider my mentor, and from Judy Larsen. Before they taught at Blanche MacDonald, both Peggy and Judy used to be the fashion coordinators for the Bay in downtown Vancouver. And Judy Larsen taught only part-time, because she was still freelancing as a fashion show producer.
In the six-month course we learned the basics, such as why produce fashion shows, how to set budgets, and how to set up a stage. Then, how to produce fashion shows in different locations, like hotel ballrooms, nightclubs, and restaurants. We learned to analyze clients, including the designers who sold from small boutique stores, and how to research whether it was high-fashion clothing or casual clothing. Where the store was located was also important for knowing their customers. Was it, for example, in a shopping mall?
Peggy and Judy stressed selecting models, choosing music to suit the venue and the fashions, and dealing with location personnel so everyone benefited. They encouraged open discussions on solving issues like selling tickets. It was a prestigious school, expensive, and you really had to be dedicated to pursue what you wanted to do there. Blanche was also aboriginal, a native Indian-something I admire. When I met her, I realized that she was a tough disciplinarian. But I was lucky because eventually, she also believed in me.
Both Peggy and Judy taught me the key principle of how to produce shows. I later built on this to make my agency different from my competitors. And that was the importance of making sure that everybody would benefit from a show. It was therefore important to learn to deal with all the personnel that we would encounter, working from the level of tips upward. Most importantly, we always had to be aware that clients-and the venues like hotels-were competing with each other. The modelling course did not give us the layout of the business environment in Vancouver, but the instructors did stress that the fashion industry is one of the most cutthroat businesses to get into.
The traditional way
The Institute taught us a straight-up, fairly conservative way of doing things. Peggy Morrison was a perfectionist. She emphasized the selection of models, and how to persuade people that everybody would benefit. In other words, if I was going to do a fashion show in a nightclub, or a hotel, I had to convince the owner that he'd get something out of it. I had to be ready to answer the question, "Why should I allow you to have a fashion show here?" I'd have to show the clients-the designers and stores-that their business would be promoted.Peggy Morrison gave us example of working with the Bayshore Hotel. If I wanted to show in the main dining room or restaurant, I had to convince the food and beverage director of the need to do the show there, when it was the usual custom to do it in the ballroom. I would need reasons why the show would attract people to have lunch in the dining room. The usual deal with a hotel was that the dining room or restaurant would sell tickets for lunch and give 10% of the sales to the producer just before the show. The restaurant management were OK with this. They were making money, drawing more customers. Maybe there'd be no charge to rent the restaurant, but the time limit in the restaurant for the show would be, say, from 12.00 to 1.00 pm.
I had left UBC in the spring of 1982. The course at Blanche Macdonald Institute lasted just a year, from spring 1982. I got my license in January of 1983. I did my very first fashion show in the spring of 1983 while still taking courses at Blanche McDonald. I didn't know much about other model agents and fashion show producers operating in the city, but I'd been to see shows while doing the course.
For example, I saw two shows by Judy Larsen. She was always meticulous. One was at the Four Seasons and the other at the Hotel Vancouver. Judy worked with only the best models in town, drawing from any agency. Every girl had a specific time to be on the stage. The choreography was very precise too. Judy used 20 models in these big shows, for a dozen designers to preview their spring and fall collections.
Her timing was impressive. If a designer featured a dozen outfits, each model had only 45 seconds on stage. Judy also had dressers to help in the dressing room, as well as security to take care of some very expensive designer collections, from Pappas Furs for example. Judy also had great lighting. I also saw some other kinds of show by Judy, like prom night shows, but they all had the same meticulous timing, traditional models, tight choreography, an organized change room, and music geared to the fashions that the models were wearing.
I also saw shows that Peggy Morrison produced, but she was more laid back. She would give younger models a chance. Peggy introduced me to Helen Clark, who was 5 foot 7 inches, too short for a traditional model, and looked she looked slightly girlish. She was only 18 when I met her, but the top models all had a sort of pixie look. I hired her, and she worked with me until from 1983. I met her parents, who went to every one of my shows. She left in 1988 at age 23, and married a minister. She was a good model, the 2nd best I ever worked with. My shows at Richard's on Richards nightclub were her best.
My ideal model and my trademark
I would later base part of my business strategy on the models trained at Blanche McDonald. They always had a classic look; legs covered with hosiery, high heels, makeup, and hair well done. They always looked straight ahead. When I set up my business after graduating, my trademark became the traditional beautiful but cold, glamorous but aloof, "Victor Dino model." Even in my personal life that's the way I preferred my women.Cynthia Seeser (who I hired much later) was the epitome of a Victor Dino model. She was glamorous. She was elegant. She was also mysterious. She just had a way. When she entered a room, you could tell. When she posed in front of the camera, she had this mysterious aura about her. You could not touch her with a 10-foot pole. She was serious.
And that is a reflection of who I am. I always expected my models to represent my identity. Peggy and Judy at Blanche MacDonald didn't teach this principle, but they always said you could tell which agency a model worked for, or where she'd been trained, by how she carried herself. For example, I knew that Helen Clark and Denise Peat were Blanche MacDonald models. When they walked, they didn't wiggle their bums.
You could always tell if a model came from a big agency, because she reflected the attitude of the producer. That applied to my main competitors, Charles Richards and John Casablanca. Their attitudes were different.
By the end of the course, the energy of Peggy and Judy, along with my dedication, convinced Institute boss Blanche MacDonald that I would be a good agent and fashion show producer, and she gave me my first model. I would discover that I still had a lot to learn.
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In January of 1983 I went to Vancouver City Hall and I got my license. It allowed me to be not only an agent for models, but also to promote singers, actors, and exotic dancers. That license had to be renewed every year or two. And I still have it.
Blanche MacDonald had given gave me Denise Peat as my first model, a Lauren Bacall look-a-like from "Key Largo" (1948). I was lucky because Blanche, or her booking agent Mark Huber, attended the first three fashion shows that I did. She would normally not attend student fashion shows, but because she was close to Peggy Morrison, who was actually my instructor, she would do it specifically. Afterwards, they would take me aside and advise me how I could improve my show. That is why I became so meticulous about choreography, music, the order of models, how much time they would have on stage, and so on.
Two weeks after I signed Denise Peat, I added veteran Australian model Fran Wheatley and sound technician Patty Ribbins to my team, after meeting them at the Burnaby Village Museum.
To establish my presence in the industry, I made a point of meeting all the fashion reporters at the Vancouver papers: the big Vancouver Sun and The Province, and the smaller ones like the Courier and the Georgia Straight. I also "pounded the pavements" for contacts, making a point of meeting the venue managers of all the big Vancouver hotels.
First show
As a new producer, I had to confront several problems in my very first show. It was scheduled for March 1983 at the Planetarium, featuring fashions by designer stores West Coast Woman and The Leather Ranch. It was an evening show, for entertainment during a dinner that was followed by a demonstration of the Planetarium.The problem was that I had only two models. So I opened the Yellow Pages and called some competitors to see if they wanted to collaborate. Charles Stuart was one of the first because agents were listed alphabetically. He did not know me but we met in the St. Regis Hotel's bar.
He agreed to collaborate. We arranged that Charles would provide five or six models and I would provide my two plus the sound technician. Problems arose when Charles said that West Coast Woman should show more outfits than The Leather Ranch. I disagreed. I said that if the clients shared the cost, they should share the models equally. Charles said that one of the clients had inferior clothing, and he was going to pull out of the contract because he refused to let his models work with that. He also said that he didn't think I would last as a producer. Of course, I got upset. He walked out, thinking I couldn't do the show with only two women.
During this discussion, I had by chance noticed an exotic dancer (i.e., a stripper) on stage. She looked like Candice Bergen from "The Sand Pebbles" (1966). She was about 5 foot 8, and I approached her and asked her if she could model. She said, "Sure!" Later she said she didn't think I'd been serious. But Penny Archer became my third model, or first exotic dancer, and I did the show with only three models: Penny, Fran, and Denise.
When Charles Stuart pulled out, I also had to move the show from the Planetarium. The Planetarium was too big for just three models - especially in this, my first show (though later I did shows with only two models and even with one model). The problem was, I had already sold tickets for the Planetarium for a date in March, and I had to contact all ticket holders and offer a refund. Rescheduling took me a whole week. I told the Planetarium we had to postpone. There was no money down, so I just cancelled.
Then, looking for a smaller venue, I approached the food and beverage director Mark Andrews at the Hyatt Regency. He gave me the dining room for a lunchtime show. We had first met when I was doing the course. He invited me to get in touch when I had finished the course. Mark Andrews and I got along well, and we became friends.
The new date was April 28th, 1983, but even then we had little advance notice. Because of this, Patty had no time to tape the desired music in the order I wanted. So, we used the microphone and music provided by the hotel. There was no stage in the dining room. I didn't do any commentary: the clients just put their business cards on the table, along with brochures describing the fashions worn by the models according to their order. All I had to do was to welcome the diners to my show of fashions by the two clients. It was a simple, relaxed, and intimate start, but it set the fact that I could produce impossible shows.
The clients were satisfied, so I did a similar production with the same retailers on May 2, 1983, at the Hotel Vancouver's lounge.
When I received my invitation to Susan's wedding, I called Trevor to congratulate him. He told I should continue seeing Susan even after they got married, because he saw I was like a brother and loved her very much. Susan and I developed a close platonic friendship, although she never really knew I always had romantic feelings for her. There was never anything physical between us. We both knew that if one of us crossed the line, the other would be uncomfortable.
I did not attend the wedding. I gave a lame sort of excuse. I knew I might break down and cry, and I did cry the night Susan married Trevor on her father's yacht on June 25th, 1983. When she was single we would exchange gifts, but I have not given her a gift since she married.
When Susan returned from her month-long Caribbean honeymoon, she wanted me to celebrate her birthday with her. Trever said again that he wanted me to continue seeing her, and since then we've seen each other as often as possible.
I composed myself to analyze what I had accomplished since 1970. I'd broken barriers at Eric Hamber, graduated from UBC with a B.A. and a Diploma in Adult Education, and become a licensed modeling agent. All in a wheelchair using only one hand. I had achieved a lot, but the greatest challenges were still to come: dealing with more models, retailers, designers, and people who wanted to destroy my business. I knew I could succeed with help from others, but doing it, as Frank Sinatra would say, my way!
