Category Archives: Authors

An Australian Bookman in Hollywood

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Noel Hart Came All The Way From The Land Down Under to Spend Years Working for the Most Eccentric Bookseller Since the Founding of Ancient Rome:  Eli Goodman of Cosmopolitan Book Shop, a Rabbit Hole of Chaos that Even Alice Would Not Dare Go Down.

by Paul Hunt

Cosmopolitan Book Shop

I admit it, I was wrong.  When Arnold Herr wrote his epic book The Wild Ride of a Hollywood Bookseller, I said that it would be the last book ever written about Cosmopolitan Bookshop.  Arnold Herr’s book is now out of print, and copies are selling for around $100 if you can find one.  But just in time, Noel Hart, another poor soul who suffered for years as an employee and then manager at the book shop, has written a large tome chronicling his years of Melrose madness.  The only catch is that the book is not published in the U.S. and is only available through the author in Australia.

I thought that most of the old time employees were gone to the bookseller’s party in the land of fluffy clouds and ladies playing harps.  I had forgotten about Noel Hart, who had fled Los Angeles and returned to Australia to regain his sanity and sainthood.  Although I had known Eli Goodman for some 20 years, I only had the honor of working at the shop for the last couple years of it’s existence, along with a dear friend by the name of “Five”, and of course, an energetic Arnold Herr who stayed until the end as Store Manager.  Folks in Los Angeles will remember Five during the years that he worked at Bodhi Tree Books in West Hollywood.  He was a writer, a podcaster host of a fun show called Token and Talkin’, an actor, comedian, and great guy.  He has since sadly passed, but I’ll put in a few links to some of his work at the end of this screed.

So, was I surprised to hear that Noel had written a book of over 400 pages about Eli Goodman and Cosmopolitan?  Yeah, shocked that someone was even loonier than me or Arnold Herr, and not only had worked at the shop for 10 years but then spent another number of years mulling it over and actually daring to reveal his experiences to a lethargic public, most of whom have never set foot in a book shop in their entire miserable lives.

I remember once when Arnold Herr and I were having lunch at a landmark coffee shop in Burbank when the waitress asked us what we did for a living.  My first thought was that she was trying to assess just how much service she was going to waste her time on us, or whether her two diners, bearded and shabbily dressed, with books and papers piled on her table, were so suspicious looking that she might dial 9-11 before even giving us a menu.  I piped up that we were booksellers.

“What does that mean, “bookseller”? she said.

“We work in a book shop,” said Arnold.

She smiled and proudly announced that since graduating from high school, she had never read even one book, and I noticed that she was pushing late 50s.  I was trying to calculate roughly how many years that was, between the High School graduation and the current year, how many decades of not reading a book.  My mind locked up at that moment, the silence broken by Arnold.

“That’s OK honey, we won’t hold it against you.  You have that whole stack of menus to read every day.  That’s an ordeal enough for anyone.”

My thought is that all those think tanks pondering the great decline of American education, all the books published trying to determine why our country is behind Peru in reading and Samoa in mathematics.  All the chatter about the declining levels.  My message to all those eggheads is stop gnashing your teeth about it.  Just join Arnold and me for lunch once and you will understand the situation entirely.

And yeah, we still left the old gal a tip.  It wasn’t her fault.  It’s the system. And what difference does it make?  There’s hardly any used book stores left in any big city in America.  And there’s hardly anyone left alive who’s actually worked in one.  Which takes us back to the subject at hand, Noel Hart’s new book.  I’m waiting for my copy to arrive, at which time I’ll have a few more words to say.  A picture of the back cover and the lengthy blurb gives us a preview.  And Noel said he is working on volume 2, which will include a lot of photos.

The back cover.

Contains over 400 pages crammed with intensity from the trenches of the used book business in Los Angeles. SIGNEDLIMITED EDITION, which includes a piece of the bookshop tipped in! This is unique to each copy, a portion of a page printed in 1753, sourced from Cosmopolitan Bookshop in Hollywood (see photographs). SIGNED in full by Australian author Noel Hart in black ink on title page. Introductory note by Arnold M. Herr. Cover artwork by Rom Anthonis. This is a NON-FICTION book. Rear cover blurb: “Melrose Avenue, Hollywood. Around the turn of the millennium. A classic secondhand bookshop, dusty and dirty, shabby with age and happenstance, packed tight with decades of stagnant accumulation. So messy it resembles the aftermath of a major earthquake. Bring a shovel, dig for treasures! Crackly radio jazz can be heard emanating from somewhere. Michael Jackson browses porn in one aisle; a homeless man sleeps on the floor in another; a transvestite hooker works the trade in a secluded corner behind a stack of boxes; a serious collector collates rare seventeenth-century antiquarian volumes near the front counter; a frenetic movie set decorator rents books throughout. All the while at the center of the maelstrom sits 80-year-old owner Eli Goodman, a ruminative, philosophical, New York-born Jew, intelligent and funny, an obsessive hoarder to the extreme, a caricature character who distinctly resembles Woody Allen dropped into a Marx Brothers movie, and who happens to live in a decrepit hovel at the back of the bookshop. For fifty years Eli has presided over the famous and infamous, the bibliophiles, researchers, collectors, decorators, actors, models, musicians, hipsters, the scholarly, shady, and insane, all congealed into a conglomerate crush at Cosmopolitan Bookshop. Longtime store manager Noel Hart, an Australian, captures it all, stuff s it into a mind-blender, then spills it out onto the page. NOTE: What began as a talk given to the Australian Book Collectors’ Society in 2018, then subsequently published verbatim in their journal in 2019, has now been expanded into a book-length narrative by Noel Hart, who managed Cosmopolitan Bookshop in Los Angeles for ten years.” Printed in Australia. Published in 2023 by Bookwood Press, Melbourne. A Blurb Production. Bound in publisher’s original pictorial wraps. A LIKE NEW very nice clean tight solid softcover copy. Uncommon Signed Limited Edition.

Click here to see the actual website of Cosmopolitan Book Shop.

Click Here to see the video I shot during the final days of Cosmopolitan, featuring Captain Jack LeVan and Julie Webster.

Click Here to read RIP Eli Goodman by Paul Hunt and Arnold Herr.

Click Here to read Eli Goodman laid to rest, with photos of Eli, by Paul Hunt.

“Five” catching up on his reading at Book Soup.

Click Here to read “Swami Anaconda Bananarama Answers the Question Who Are We?” (Written by Five, in full costume). Thanks to CartoonBazooka.com.

Click Here to watch the video Swami Anaconda Bananarama Meditation in Griffith Park.

Click Here to read We The Sheeple by Five.  Thanks to CartoonBazooka.

Click Here to read Breakfast With Jesus Freaks.  Thanks CartoonBazooka.

AND FINALLY  Click Here to order the book And That Was Only The Front Counter on Abebooks.com

 

 

Los Angeles Vintage Paperback Show Returns to Glendale

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Sunday March 19, 2023 at Glendale Civic Auditorium

Tom Lesser’s Show –
43rd Year!

Known across the country as the best show for collectors of paperback books, it is the only show that has a raft of great authors signing books for free!  Thousands of rare and collectible paperbacks are on sale by vendors and collectors.  Admission is only $10, show starts at 9am until 4pm. 

Location: Glendale Civic Auditorium, 1401 Verdugo Rd., Glendale, CA.

Guests and Scheduled Times – List – Los Angeles Vintage Paperback Collectors Show

Thomas Pynchon Archive

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Huntington Library Gets Pynchon Archive

SAN MARINO, Calif.—The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens announced today that it has acquired the archive of American author Thomas Pynchon, considered by many to be among the greatest novelists of our time. Comprising 70 linear feet of materials created between the late 1950s and the 2020s—including typescripts and drafts of each of his novels, handwritten notes, correspondence, and research—Pynchon’s literary archive offers an unprecedented look into the working methods of one of America’s most important writers.

The author of eight novels thus far and one short story collection, Pynchon, whose work has been translated into more than 30 languages, has influenced generations of diverse and important writers. “Bringing a writer of Pynchon’s caliber to The Huntington is an expression of our long-standing investment in American
history and culture, while underscoring our commitment to 20th-century and contemporary literature,” said Karen R. Lawrence, president of The Huntington. Lawrence, a literary scholar whose research focuses on James Joyce, noted that The Huntington’s support of advanced research in the humanities, as well as the depth and breadth of the library’s historical collections, will enable contextual and sustained inquiry into Pynchon’s work. The author’s son, Jackson Pynchon, compiled and represented the archive. “When The Huntington approached us, we were excited by their aerospace and mathematics archives, and particularly attracted to their extraordinary map collection,” he said. “When we learned of the scale and rigor of their independent scholarly programs, which provide exceptional resources for academic research in the humanities, we were confident that the Pynchon archive had found its home.”

Born on Long Island in 1937, Thomas Pynchon attended Cornell University and served two years in the Navy. While working as a technical writer for Boeing, he wrote his first novel, V., which was published to immediate critical acclaim in 1963 and won the William Faulkner Foundation Award for best debut novel. Pynchon’s follow-up novel, The Crying of Lot 49, became an instant cult classic. Published in 1966, it has since become one of the most frequently adopted American novels in university courses worldwide. In 1974,
Pynchon received the National Book Award for Gravity’s Rainbow, a touchstone of American postwar literature that Tony Tanner deemed “one of the great historical novels of our time and arguably the most important literary text since Ulysses.” The author received a MacArthur “genius grant” in 1988, and his most recent novel,
Bleeding Edge, was short-listed for the National Book Award in 2013. When critic Harold Bloom was asked in 2009 which single work of American fiction he would choose from the last century for his “canon of the American sublime,” he said, “It would probably be Mason & Dixon, if it were a full-scale book, or if it were a short novel it would probably be The Crying of Lot 49. Pynchon has the
same relation to fiction, I think, that my friend John Ashbery has to poetry: He is beyond compare.” An author who defies easy classification, Pynchon wrestles with the transcendence and the tragedy of American history, his voice marked by a yearning for the beauty of America’s ideals, a frustration with the depth
of the nation’s contradictions, and a cautious optimism in the promise it offers the world. As Anthony Lane wrote in his review of Mason & Dixon, “The novel is as tolerant and capacious as its creator would like an ideal America to be.”
Unlike many American novelists who are associated with only one region, Pynchon has set his novels from coast to coast and beyond. However, “Pynchon’s interest in American history has also been one that returns repeatedly to California—from The Crying of Lot 49 to Vineland to Inherent Vice,” said Karla Nielsen, The Huntington’s curator of literary collections. Inherent Vice, his 2009 private-eye novel set in 1970s Los Angeles, was adapted into a film by Paul Thomas Anderson in 2014.

“We expect Pynchon’s archive to attract profound attention from those wishing to better understand his work,” noted Sandra Ludig Brooke, Avery Director of the Library at The Huntington. “We are honored that Pynchon has entrusted his papers to The Huntington and look forward to stewarding them into a long future
for American cultural history.” The Huntington is home to more than 11 million library items and annually provides access to some
2,000 scholars, who use the collections in their research projects and many of whom are funded through a robust fellowship program. The Library holds significant manuscripts by the most important writers of the 15th through the early 20th centuries, ranging from Chaucer to Shakespeare, Mary Shelley to Charles Dickens, and
Edgar Allan Poe to Jack London. Later 20th-century literary archives include the papers of Kingsley Amis, Christopher Isherwood, Charles Bukowski, and Octavia E. Butler.

The Pynchon archive is currently being processed and is slated to be opened to qualified researchers within the next year.

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What’s That Book Worth?

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A Book Collector’s Guide to Determining the Value of the Books in your Collection.

by

Mark Sailor

What makes a book collectable? Is your copy of “Gone with the Wind” worth $5?  Or is it worth $1,000?  Why are some books more valuable than others?  A book is collectable for three reasons: desirability, thriving on the popularity of a given series [Harry Potter], or a first rate writer [Sue Grafton, Clive Cussler]. Books of popular authors and topics are readily available, making your local bookstore a valuable asset for reading and information. Books available from the publisher are ‘In-Print’. Popular demand for a title or author keeps books in print. Out of Print books are books no longer
published. It might be a tattered copy of Uncle Tom’s Cabin on the attic shelf, or dusty copies of a Nancy Drew series book.  Pamphlets and
stacks of printed advertisements (ephemera) from a bygone area rest in a forgotten corner, hiding their tremendous value as keys to the immediate past or a fortune at the auction house. Can you find a copy of Edgar
Allen Poe’s Tamerlane?  It could fetch some half a million dollars if you did – a bookseller, as an apprentice some years ago, found a copy in a stack of magazines!?!

The desirability for used and rare books exists in the continuing demand for an author or a title. The scarcity of used and rare books vary. You might have a copy of Uncle Tom’s Cabin in a variety of different forms – it was published many times over. When it first appeared in 1852, it galvanized
a large portion of the American Public against slavery and motivated a movement of emigrants toward Kansas and Nebraska. The effect of the books’ popularity was tremendous in showcasing the need to resolve the issue of slavery, and paved the way for the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The dull grey boards of this 2-volume set and the solemn ‘stereotyped by Hobard and Robbins 1852’ provide “points” – the ‘e-ticket’ to a set of books which can fetch as little as $250.00, or as much as $10,000, depending on condition. A fine copy of these books, and others, in good condition, coupled with demand (desirability) drives the market in used/rare books. In the case of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, it became part of American History, and its
desirability was established for collectors as millions of copies were published.

Often titles are published and become immediately collectible: Gone With The Wind, East of Eden, Wizard of Oz, just to name a few. Because of their popularity, early or first editions become highly collectible when the original copies are no longer available or in print. Try to find a Sue Grafton “A” or “B murder book in first edition- I bet you’ll pay a little bit for a nice copy! More often than not, titles and authors grow from small beginnings. It’s just this fact that makes early titles and editions of authors collectible.
Most importantly then, the condition of any collectible item comes into focus in making a price. Just like a metal Coca Cola sign from 1920 or an Essex 8 automobile from the 30’s, condition is everything.

It’s really pretty easy – you just have to look at your shelves to find a collectible book; get lucky at the local library sale, or a yard sale
on Baldwin Avenue, or an old warehouse on Montecito Avenue.
First, let’s start with BOOKS IN PRINT {Bowker, Ann Arbor, Michigan}. Available at the local library or in CD Rom form, this valuable source will help you determine the status of your book (In Print, Out of Print).
Is it a First Edition? Try A Guide to First Editions by Robert McBride, as well as Points of First Editions. Most used and out of print booksellers carry this handy reference book – and you can, too. Collected Books: The guide to Values, by Allen and Patricia Ahearn, is a readily available pricing guide and reliable source for determining the collectibility of many rare and scarce books. The Ahearns include some 25,000 titles, and this book is an easy guide and a starting point for collectors. It includes the input of several American and worldwide booksellers who specialize in out-of-print
books.

Next, go to Abebooks.com or Addall.com on the net to look up your books. Be careful not to look for just the highest price – that might not be your copy – but then, it just might! Remember, the internet often features sellers who
have unrealistic expectations based on the Uncle Ernie or Auntie Em pricing theory. Just because a seller wants to fetch a high price and finds some other wannabee high pricers, doesn’t establish rarity. Look for consistent price quotes (a spread) from lots of different dealers and look
for patterns from established booksellers. Don’t forget Ebay – lots of discount books are available here; as well as from Bookfinders.com.
Desirability, scarcity, condition.

Before He Was A Bookseller, Arnold Herr and Steve Gibson Re-Invented 3-D Adult Movies

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The Saga of 2 Men, A 3-D Camera Rig, And Big Screen Sex Stories

Famous Hollywood Bookseller Arnold Herr, author of “The Wild Ride of a Hollywood Bookseller”, has a new book out.  It is the story of his life before books:  Arnold was in the adult film business, churning out porn films, but with a kicker, his films were in 3-D.  (His memoir on Hollywood bookselling is currently out of print, with copies going for about $100 if you could find one.)

Arnold Herr’s new book “Skinflick” is important for two reasons.  The first is the “deep dive” into his years of work in the field of 3-D photography and his experiences in working and producing 3-D sex films.  The second, equally important reason, although not stated in the book, shows how outsiders can affect an entire industry by thinking outside the box, in this case outside the camera, and use their inventiveness and creativity to explore unknown territory.

When Mr. Herr began to be interested in film in the late 1960s, he must have looked at the established ladder of cinematic success, and experienced a sinking feeling.  The ladder running up from the USC, UCLA, and New York film schools was packed with thousands of young folks from rich and well-off families who had absolutely jammed the rungs of the ladder.  Even a monkey couldn’t find a hand hold.

So Arnold Herr began his career by going in the opposite direction, down the ladder through a few layers of our tawdry civilization to find a starting point that wasn’t so crowded with the offspring of the well-to-do.  He took a film class at L.A. City College, a well-worn series of buildings in an edgy part of Los Angeles.  To supplement his income, he got a low-paying job as a projectionist in a porn theater.  He later jumped into porn filmmaking finding an even lower paying job with a local porn film company.  He was on his way.

“Skinflick” charts his journey not just into the production of erotic films, but into the world of 3-D filmmaking with his partner, 3-D pioneer and inventor Steve Gibson.  You will enjoy reading how they developed techniques of setting up specialized 3-D cameras, lenses, and special effects.  There is a lot of inside information here.  And because 3-D needed glasses, Mr. Gibson became the king of them, filling a warehouse with millions of pairs that he had manufactured. (He still has a few hundred thousand if you know someone who could use them.)

The secret lesson of this story is that Mr. Herr and Mr. Gibson together invented new techniques and explored new areas of movie making that 99% of the graduates of the expensive film schools have failed to do.  This is not directly mentioned in the story, but is a lesson that will be evident in absorbing it.  Sometimes coming up in an industry the hard way, from the bottom, gives a person a perspective that can’t be purchased by being pegged in near the top.  The hardships of start-up entrepreneurs puts pressure on the creative section of their brain, if they have one, to come up with solutions to vexing problems.

Although not discussed in the book, Mr. Herr and Mr. Gibson went on to film a 3-D horror film that won awards in 3-D festivals, but has still not seen release several years afterwards, a real shame.  As the Movie Theater business has been slammed by many factors like the Covid Lockdowns, big finance buyouts, and competition from streaming and internet, many movie theater chains are either in bankruptcy or looking at it.  Maybe a 3-D film revival will bring some crowds back to the theaters.  It’s tough to have a home set-up for a 3-D film, but certainly a lot of fun to experience it in a movie theater.

“Skinflick” is a fun read, but is also informative for those interested in filmmaking.  It also appeals to those who have an interest in some of the guys and gals in the “adult” film industry, quite a few of them are present in the book, including Bill Margold, (RIP), actor, writer, and Hollywood Press film critic with the great adult film reviews; Serena, John Holmes and many more.

Lawyers of Los Angeles

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New Book Digs Deep Into the Dramatic History of the Lawyers of the L.A. Bar Association and Some of the Cases that Shaped Jurisprudence

Kathleen Tuttle has written an historical history of the Lawyers of the Los Angeles Bar Association. It is not a dry history of certain lawyers, but a dynamic look at many of the court cases that shaped our history and culture. She dug through old oral histories and found the answers as to why certain law firms, judges, and lawyers got involved with some of the biggest cases in Los Angeles local history. A great read and a book packed with local history.  Click below to watch the video Interview of Kathleen Tuttle. She is interviewed by Judge Marc Marmaro (ret). here in Los Angeles, Sunday August 15, 2021.

The book is available at Chevalier’s Book Store in Los Angeles.

[btnsx id=”1245″]

 

Dan Glickman: Laughing At Myself

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New Book Presents Highlights From a Career in Government and Industrry

Mr. Glickman appeared at Los Angeles Book Shop Chevalier’s Books on Larchmont on June 21st.  He was in conversation with Daniel Weiss and spoke about his lengthy career.  Click below to hear his talk – this is an audio recording with a few photos. Mr. Glickman and Mr. Weiss were introduced by Book Store owner Bert Deixler.  The store recently moved into a beautiful location on the west side of Larchmont, a village-like shopping area teaming with shoppers.

Chevalier’s Books, 133 S. Larchmont, Los Angeles.

Dan Glickman

Dan Glickman in conversation with Daniel Weiss

 

 

Charles Bukowski – Was His Fictional Bookstore in “Pulp” Real?

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Bukowski’s Last Novel Pulp and “Skid Row Hollywood”

by Paul Hunt

Bill Nelson from Oddball Books gave me his worn copy  of Pulp to read while I was recuperating from a recent medical incident.  He knew I was at the old Los Angeles Free Press during the days when Bukowski was writing his column “Notes of a Dirty Old Man.”

A lot of the young writers at the time loved Bukowski.  He was a fresh voice and we couldn’t wait to see his latest outrage.  Although he was loved by a lot of the writers of that era, none of us  thought that the public at large was ready for him.  We were wrong, and a few years later, a big chunk of  the literary community had latched on to his rising reputation..

Pulp is a fun read, but it is not just another private eye book and  Nicky Belane is not just another gumshoe, he is “Hollywood’s greatest private dick.”  He is also a world class drunk.  He is drinking on every page, everywhere he goes, which includes every dimly lit bar within shouting distance.  Bukowski was having fun with this, mocking every private eye mystery in every way possible.  Private dick Belane drank so much that about half way through the book I briefly thought about heading out to an AA meeting just to keep my sanity.  Luckily, my old friend Sol Grossman was on my mind.

Sol Grossman

Sol was a partner in the California Book Fairs that I was involved in.  He had also operated a mail order business dealing in private eye novels called “Mainly Mysteries”.  In his personal life, he was heavily involved in the AA movement.  He wasn’t just a friend of Bill’s, he was Bill’s long-lost twin brother.  Sol was on my mind as I read Pulp, because he had just died the week before at the young age of 92.  I started laughing out loud just thinking about what a gigantic rant he would have gone on if he had read Pulp.  He was passionate beyond belief against drunkenness, and would wave his big cane around in a profane-laced rant at anyone perceived by him to be a drunk, even a fictional character. Sol was the main sponsor of AA meetings in Ventura, where he lived.

Even while drunk out of his mind, private dick Belane takes on an odd assortment of clients.  One hires him to find Celine, the long-dead French writer, who was seen frequenting a Hollywood bookstore.  Belane knows deep down that this is crazy, Celine had been dead for years, but off he goes to Red Koldowsky’s bookstore to check it out.

“You know Red.  He likes to run people out of his  bookstore.  A person can spend a thousand bucks in there, then maybe linger a minute or two and Red will say ‘Why don’t you get the hell out of here?’.  Red’s a good guy, he’s just freaky.  Anyway, he keeps forcing Celine out and Celine goes over to Musso’s and hangs around the bar looking sad.  A day or so later he’ll be back and it will happen all over again.”

Anyone not familiar with Old Hollywood might think that Red’s bookstore is just another fictional creation of Bukowski.  Red was, however, very real, and Bukowski knew him well.  His real name was Sholom “Red” Stodolsky and his bookstore was Baroque Book Store on Las Palmas Avenue, just a half block south of Hollywood Blvd. An article I wrote back in the 1970s and expanded and printed here on Bookstore Memories, called “Hollywood Blvd. Bookstore Follies” lists most of the bookstores in Hollywood at the time Bukowski was prowling around the area.  Here’s the listing:

Baroque Book Store. Photo by Wayne Braby

Lastly, we come to BAROQUE BOOK STORE, which almost adjoins Universal News.  Owner Sholom “Red” Stodolsky specializes in modern literature, literary criticism, music theater, film, poetry and first editions.  You can get an added thrill to that exciting out-of-print tome you find by reading it while strapped into the electric chair that sits in the middle of the store.  Don’t worry about the volts, it’s only a make-believe mock-up from a movie set. (Who said that book dealers are eccentric?)

As I remember Red in those days, he was about 5 ft. 10 in. had thinning red hair, a small red mustache, and a small belly paunch, the kind older men frequently acquire for free later in life.

Some of Red’s remarks from Pulp:

“Can you believe some of them come in here eating ice cream cones.?”

“Hey you” he yelled “get the hell out of here.”

“I can tell when they’re not going to buy.”

Red in his doorway. Note the Bukowski sign.

Was Red really that way, yelling at potential customers to “Get Out” or was this just a Bukowski exaggeration?.  By the late 1970s and into the 1980s Hollywood was declining.  This was mostly due to the greed of developers, banksters, and their handy tool, Mayor Bradley.  A Redevelopment area was created and plans laid for a billion dollar boondoggle of building, which is still going on to this day.  But in order to drive property values down to the low level that they could then be acquired by huge developers, services were cut, the police cut back, and the area of Hollywood got worse every year.  Bukowski called it “skid row Hollywood.”  By the 1990s the only three places that he thought were still viable were Red’s bookstore, Musso’s (Musso and Franks) and Fredericks of Hollywood.  The rest of Hollywood was repulsive even to Bukowski.

As the years wore on and crime increased, the booksellers had an increasingly hard time coping with an onslaught of thieves, the unwashed, the rude and the crude. Some of the book dealers could cope, others like Red were deeply offended at the incivility of it all.

Curmudgeon:  a crusty, ill-tempered person, usually an old man.

Bukowski, writing Pulp, certainly was aware of this and described Red that way, maybe actually understating it.  L.A.Times writer John McCormick described being booted out of Baroque around the 1980s.

“Are you going to buy anything?”  asked Red

“I don’t know” said McCormick.

“Then get out.”

Retired Bookseller Fred Dorsett

 

Now retired bookseller Fred Dorsett remembers Red as “curmudgeonly a human as I have ever met.  In fact, he is the benchmark against which all curmudgeons are measured.”

Fred tells of a book scout who occasionally would bring in some lit to sell to Red.  They had a cordial relationship, until a strange incident occurred.  The book scout picked up some signed sports books, totally out of Red’s area of expertise.  The scout sold them to Gene at Cherokee Books on Hollywood Blvd.  Somehow, during some gossip, Red heard about it, and the next time the poor Book Scout stopped into Baroque Book Store Red yelled at him, accusing him of the grandest and most foul type of betrayal, and told him to get out and never come back..  The book scout was still trying to figure that one out years later.

Trolling through the internet blogs relating to Bukowski and to Baroque sheds some more light.  A few remember Red fondly, and said they were always treated with respect, and that Red would  often give them something extra with a purchase.  Some other comments weren’t quite as kind:

“A cranky old fucker.”

“He was a type of eccentric character that seems to be dying off, along with the rest of his generation.”

“I was treated like shit.”

“A Jerk”

“Cranky”

etc.

Bukowski, however, got along just fine with the real Red.  He was impressed that Red was a huge fan, and had gone out of his way to stock a ton of both new and used Bukowski material.  In 1989 Bukowski wrote a poem about Red, and it was published in a limited edition of 50 copies

Red, a poem, limited edition

Good luck trying to find a copy to purchase, the last one I saw was around $1700.  If you are diligent, you can find the actual poem on the  internet, but you will have to look hard for it, maybe even hire Nicky Belane, Hollywood’s greatest private dick to give you a hand. Hey, don’t laugh, he found Celine, didn’t he?

Red Skodolsky died in 1998 at the age of  82.  The bookstore was closed and the stock liquidated.

Charles Bukowski died in 1994 not long after he finished Pulp.  The one case that he had taken early on in the book was to find “The Red Sparrow.”  Through thick and thin, he could never solve that until the end of the book.  It’s an interesting ending, which you will enjoy, especially when you figure out who or what the Red Sparrow is.

Time for a glass of wine. Cheers to the old Hollywood.

A plaque at the site of Red’s old bookstore on Las Palmas.

 

 

 

 

 

Hollywood Bukowski Mural Obliterated

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Cultural Depravity?  Who Painted Out The Great Bukowski Mural?

First – Here’s The Mural and the Artist As I Filmed it in 2015.

The Mural, at Kingswell and Vermont in East Hollywood was painted in 2015 by Nathan Anderson, a local L.A. artist.  The person who evidently commissioned the mural was none other than Hollywood bookseller Alan Siegel’s daughter, who was trying to open a “Bukowski” bar a few feet east of the Mural.  Alan ran Hollywood’s biggest bookshop for years.  He also had another huge store out in Burbank, and a 10,000 square foot warehouse in NOHO.  His daughters were raised in the book stores, and I heard it was Marcie who was opening the bar, which I don’t think got off the ground.  If anyone has any information on this let us know.

I was sad to get this message from my Facebook friend Robert Ready:

“Hey Paul! I wish I had been mistaken, but that Charles Bukowski mural on the south side of Kingswell at Vermont in Los Feliz *has* been painted over–with an ugly and pointless brown pigment. Oddly, the mural of his books is still up, just a few yards to the East…”

Here’s the latest photos Robert sent us:

No more Bukowski – Just an Ugly Brown Wall, which is perfectly symbolic of the antics of Hollywood landlords.  Photo by Robert Ready

Some books still survive the wipe out.  Photo by Robert Ready

Bukowski curbed, so to speak  Photo by Robert Ready

I love this photo, I took it about 2 months after the Mural was up. Buk would have liked the idea of homeless folks sleeping under his Mural. Photo by Paul Hunt.

The physical destruction of old Hollywood continues, with countless buildings and entire blocks being torn down.  Billions of dollars pour in to build monstrous complexes.  And the homeless population seems to increase by the day.

Paul Hunt