Victor Rodriguez, the beach bar owner of the celebrities during the golden years of Marbella

Dozens of photos of famous faces cover a large poster at the entrance of the beach bar. Sofía Loren, Brigitte Bardot, Liz Taylor, Rod Stewart, Sean Connery, Anthony Quinn, Ursula Andress, Claudia Cardinale, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Luis Miguel Dominguín, Bobby Charlton, Diego Maradona, and George Best are some who have visited his place. Nearly half a century after its creation, the beach bar that bears his first name is still standing.

–From 1970 to 1985 was the golden age of Marbella, it was clean and small, initially attracting people who were in Torremolinos. This was the first beach bar to feature live music on the beach, we had a stage where British singers and bands performed, and we continued every Sunday. Sixty to seventy percent of my customers are foreigners, including many English, Swedes, and Dutch, says Víctor Antonio Rodríguez.

At the entrance of the beach bar with two friends.

I was born in Algeciras, where I lived until my father, who was in the military, was stationed in Córdoba. I came here in the summers, completed my high school, didn't study further and dedicated myself to playing football. I played midfield for Córdoba CF in the Second Division and later in the First Division. I remember a match against Atlético Madrid, where I came off the bench and had to mark my idol, Luis Aragonés. I was marking him closely and at one point he said to the referee:

–Let's see if this kid leaves me alone, or else I'll kick his ass and send him to the stands.

Later, Luis became a customer at the beach bar, as did Vicente del Bosque, whom I met in Córdoba, where he was on loan. But I wasn't consistent enough to dedicate myself to professional football, in Torremolinos there were too many Swedish girls. I then went to England, worked in Soho, London as a DJ at Whiskey A Go Go, a trendy blues and jazz club in the sixties, and married Anna Sayier, an English hippie like me, my current wife is Manuela Padilla. I returned and worked as a DJ across Spain in bars. I've had several places like Rainbow, JJ, or Castiglione. In the end, I only kept Víctor's Beach, I couldn't keep up with multiple businesses, that meant many employees, social security expenses, taxes, and I dedicated myself to traveling. Back then, we closed from November to March, not anymore.

With Jaime de Mora at the motorcycle gathering.

The bay of El Ancón beach forms a corner of the promenade that connects the center of Marbella with Puerto Banús. In front of a watchtower and a eucalyptus forest, which gives way to urbanization, stands the beach bar known for Instagram sunsets, live music, and beach parties.

An English tabloid once published: Victor's Beach, tit's street, a photo showing dozens of sun loungers with girls sunbathing topless.

–At this beach bar, thirty years ago, the first jet ski ad for Gillette was filmed. They were looking for a jet ski, I had one and a friend had another, they gave me ten thousand pesetas. I was the stunt double in the ad and the face was a model. Two or three months ago I was in Thailand and saw the ad on TV again. We opened in 1978, we've suffered some displacement of the location as we ended up with less beach. At the beginning, we had 500 sun loungers, now sixty. The breakwater of the Hotel Puente Romano was built twice the permitted length and took away a good part of the beach.

–Don Juan de Borbón, the father of Juan Carlos I, was one of our customers, he had a great time and enjoyed himself. He docked his boat El Giraldilla (which was his residence in Portugal) in Puerto Banús and came to the beach bar with a friend. On one occasion he kicked me off the boat. I was with Jaime de Mora, who told him: "If Victor goes, I go too," then Don Juan apologized. Jaime would call him majesty or son of a bitch just the same. Don Juan had a very bad temper, at that time he was with Yamila, a Swiss woman. Jaime de Mora was the secret boyfriend of Brigitte Bardot, he had met her on the Costa Brava and they kept their relationship hidden. With uncle Jaime, I shared my passion for motorcycles – for years I've had a Harley that I ride with a rain suit even when it rains – with him, I organized a gathering. He was old and fell off his motorcycle in the Puerto Banús tunnel. Then we went to a dealership and he bought a sidecar. "Motorcycles are over for me," he told me.

I have a painting with him by Pedro Ramírez, which the painter brought me one day and said: "This is a gift from Jaime de Mora." I thought 'let's see how much this is going to cost me', he sold them then for about 200,000 pesetas. And the painter told me: "Jaime paid for it before he died".

Painting of Jaime de Mora and Víctor Rodríguez.

Sean Connery never paid and it wasn't because he lacked money. He also didn't participate in rounds, as the English do and pay dutch. Joe, Mr. White's partner from Oasis, had it very clear and when he was at the bar he would say: "We have to invite him, he's never going to pay".

Sofía Loren was a very good friend of Mrs. White, who owned house Uno in El Ancón. The Duchess of Alba and Alfonso de Hohenlohe, good neighbors of the beach bar, also stopped by. Ursula Andress would meet with Connery as she was a Bond girl in the 007 movies.

Rod Stewart surprised me one day. He had left a pair of brand-name sunglasses in the bathroom. A waiter picked them up and I took them to his table, and he gave them to me. "For your honesty," he said. Once Bertín Osborne came, and there were lots of girls doing topless. "I'm Bertín," he introduced himself and no one responded because they were all foreigners. Jesús Quintero came one day in a Rolls Royce Corniche, showed it to me and parked it so no one would see it.

The footballer George Best stayed three days sleeping off a hangover in a hammock. Many football players came, from Santillana to Guti.

I've always considered the paparazzi my friends, I knew what they wanted and if there were British celebrities who didn't mind, we would let them know who was there. Sometimes some would hide in the eucalyptus trees and take photos from up high. Regulars included Antonio González, El Pescaílla, El Beni, or Los Choris; Gunilla came less often.

With Jesús Quintero.

–During a season when we were renovating the beach bar, a German man would come every day and ask when we were going to open and I would tell him: "Tomorrow," he did this at least three or four times. I then explained to him that in Spain, tomorrow means it's not today.

A few days later, I found him dining with his wife and children. I had made a promotional wallet to celebrate 25 years of the Beach and decided to give him one. When I approached his table, two guys from a corner stood up, and I saw Pepe, a National Policeman who had painted my house fifteen years earlier, who tells me: "It's the German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder". (The German chancellor after leaving his government post works for Russian state energy companies and claims in a documentary his good relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin).

On another occasion, two former Ministers of Economy came to the beach bar, Miguel Boyer, from the beautiful people, and Carlos Solchaga, who said that Spain was the country where it was easiest to get rich.

–I was wearing a necklace around my neck that a Arab client had given me. They took a photo of me with Boyer and Solchaga, when some friends saw it they called me and said: "What have you done, bastard: the chain you're wearing has a little spoon that's used for coke". I didn't know, I hadn't even realized it.

In the late seventies in the United States, a second use was discovered for the McDonald’s plastic spoons, they were also used to measure and snort cocaine. The coffee spoons could hold 100 milligrams of the drug, enough to achieve a strong dose. At a private party in a New York loft, guests were greeted with a bowl of cocaine and 20 spoons from the fast-food chain. Eventually, these spoons ceased to be manufactured.

Victor's Beach Bar in the seventies.

–Back then almost everyone used drugs, but in a measured, almost respectful way. On the other hand, there were many sporty, natural, and healthy people.

–My customers are now into the fourth generation, many have met here and some have even gotten married. Sundays are very lively, we still have live music. In the eighties, La Fonda, Menchu, Sinatra, Mau Mau, or Victor's beach bar were the trendy places. In Banús, I had the Piano Bar Forte, El Tumbao, or Faces, I've created more than twenty entertainment venues. Jaime had the discos Kiss and Old Vic.

In 1975, in the bullring of Puerto Banús, the first pop festival in Spain took place, a rock concert tolerated by Franco's regime, which would last ten hours. With fewer artists than announced, the event was held with Soft Machine, John McLaughlin, and part of the Mahavishnu Orchestra and Vishboni. Although it managed to gather about six thousand people, it was considered a failure, as they expected to reach fifteen thousand, causing great losses to the organizers. British pop music was still not popular.

–For us, the festival was a real party, with our blankets on the ground, the backpack, the joint, the beer, and very good sound. Those were times when everyone knew each other, Hohenlohe would invite us, asking us to dress up nicely to set the mood at the parties. On the beach, there was a hippy whom I let sleep inside the venue. He had a stove to keep warm and one night he set the beach bar on fire. The next day he disappeared.