Donate to Dick Vivian's Health Fund

Dick Vivian is still opening Rooky Ricardo's daily at age 78. After a decade surviving two displacements with serious rent hikes (courtesy of SF retrofit closures) and a pandemic, he still covers his living expenses selling 45s and LPs on the same block of Lower Haight. He surveys the street from his window and greets every passerby as he has done since 1987, the year he opened the shop at 448 Haight.

In March 2025, after the progressive onset of debilitating symptoms, he was diagnosed with stage 3 Pancreatic cancer. He is fortunate enough to be receiving care at UCSF and, with help of a few friends and the largesse of his community, makes it through the days fighting his disease and staying on his feet. He is receiving weekly chemotherapy infusions with the option of surgery. Thanks to a lifelong career in restaurants honing his razor-sharp wit and nimble memory as 'Dick: Head Waiter', he has insurance that helps cover the cost of treatment. He has his rent-controlled apartment and his shop, and these still remain the cornerstone of his standard of living.

Rooky Ricardo's is Dick Vivian. Not only has it served as an energetic hub of the immediate community, but of the city, and ultimately of the world. While he was taping Manhattans LPs for the neighbors, he was selling rare 45s to British record dealers, just as much as he'd be cheerfully helping some average music fan find that Ronettes song just on the tip of their tongue. For every native, every touring musician, every DJ, every working stiff on his weekend off, every teenager-off-the-bus, bus driver, producer, head, culture vulture, artist, fishmonger, server, scenester, collector, interloper, rubbernecker or just plain curious visitor, he never hesitated to serve.

Now, he needs some help. Dick is going to be entering a new period in which he needs much more help, more than even friends can individually provide.

If he has ever touched your life... insulted your haircut in the funniest and most savagely sweet way possible... given you that most sublime moment of a record at the listening station... Put his personal mixtape in your hands that travelled four cities and six relationships with you through... Sold you (or given!) that record to unpack, fresh home from your commute -- it could be the 22 bus to your apartment or it could be back in Melbourne after 24 hours of international travel... Please consider donating to the fund.

Viva la Viv, in 2027 it will be 40 years of Rooky's.

in 2013, GQ wrote a feature on Dick:

https://www.gq.com/story/rooky-ricardo-dick-vivian-san-francisco