[3] Originally known as Lou Bard Playhouse on opening day in 1923, the cinema played the film Tips starring Baby Peggy.

The Vista has drawn many famous actors and directors to attend, host, or sometimes surprise audiences at screenings of their films there.

Anne Hathaway, Taika Waititi,[6] Lupita Nyong'o,[7] John Cho,[8] Zoë Kravitz, Chris Hemsworth, and Tessa Thompson have attended screenings of their films at the Vista since 2018.

In 1989, the theater appeared in Christopher Guest's comedy, The Big Picture, where it was showing the incongruent double-feature of Tess and Hardly Working.

[12][14] The Vista Theatre is featured as a location (exterior and interior) for the music video of Violent Femmes’ 1983 song "Blister in the Sun" when it was included in the soundtrack of the 1997 film Grosse Pointe Blank.