The history of Hollywood lives at the Larry Edmunds Bookshop. Opened in 1939, the bookstore, at 6644 Hollywood Blvd., has made its home in four different locations over the years, all in Hollywood. The shop, which specializes in movie posters and stills and entertainment-related new and out-of print books, has been a mecca for film buffs and film stars over the years.
Today, Din Luboviski runs the shop with his brother, Phil, and Git Polin, widow of their brother Milt, one of the original owners. The three are in their 70s and work part-time.
A landmark of sorts, the bookshop has had to make changes over the last few years to keep up with the changing face of business. Staff reporter Claudia Peschiutta talked with co-owner Din Luboviski about the shop’s history and efforts to modernize itself.
“We started as a regular used-book shop but we specialized in movie books, which, at that time was about 20 books total. We kept eliminating other subjects to make room for new movie books until now, where the whole store is jam-packed with movie books.
“Hollywood used to have many, many bookshops and people would come here just for that. But now there’s only two of us left, so we have to rely mostly on tourists and the studios and steady, old-time customers. The Internet, even though we’re on it, has taken away a lot of business.
“We keep trying we have competitive prices, we are the only place, Internet or not, that has this tremendous amount of movie books.
“We never changed anything. We were really old-fashioned until, finally, we joined the 20th century and put in a fax machine. We thought that was enough, but now we have a computer.
“So far, all we have on (the Internet) is our posters, 6,500 posters. Next will be some biographies and then some other books. Pretty soon, we’ll be all set, but it will take time.
“(We’ve served) just about everybody in Hollywood at one time or another, from Peter Bogdanovich to Cybill Shepherd. The names are so many.
“A couple of years ago Sophia Loren came into the shop and there was nothing I could say or do. I was just frozen. I didn’t think I was star-struck, but I found out I was.
“When he was alive, Truffaut would come into our shop every time he came to America and he told everybody about it.
“We’ll keep (the shop) going as long as we’re breathing.”
