Larry Edmunds Bookshop in Hollywood

LOCATION FILMING
IN LOS ANGELES

BOOK SIGNING AND SLIDE SHOW
with ALL 3 AUTHORS

KARIE BIBLE, MARC WANAMAKER
AND HARRY MEDVED

THURSDAY, JANUARY 27th at 7:00 PM

LARRY EDMUNDS BOOKSHOP

6644 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood, CA 90028

If you are in the area and love film books, do try to attend. They could use the support. More about the bookstore:

LARRY EDMUNDS BOOKSHOP BIOGRAPHY TIMELINE
Compiled by Marc Wanamaker of Bison Archives
The oldest of the movie bookstores got its name from Larry Edmunds who died in the 1950s and was taken over by Din, Phil, Milton and Git Luboviski. The advertisements said that “Larry Edmunds Bookshop is the only store that carries every film book and play (except those published by Samuel French) in print. The store was filled with theatre, film, music and TV books from floor to ceiling. The store also had 8x10 stills, film magazine back issues and a large collection of autographed photos, movie posters and lobby cards and various film memorabilia.

1938-1955 1603 N. Cahuenga Boulevard, Hollywood.

1955-1990 6658 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood.

1990-Oct 6644 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood.

1938 Larry Edmunds established a bookshop at 1603 N. Cahuenga Boulevard (Tel> HE 3273). Larry Edmunds had been the manager of the famous Stanley Rose Bookshop that had closed around 1938. (Rose died in 1940) Milton Luboviski joined Larry Edmunds in establishing the Larry Edmunds Bookshop after Rose's shop closed. Luboviski said, “There was a time for the writers and artists and movie people who gathered at Stanley's shop and then that time was over. We wanted to continue this tradition at Larry Edmunds.”

1940s William Faulker was a regular at Larry Edmunds Bookshop. Writer-historian Rudy Behlmer was a regular customer at the Cahuenga shop and he wrote, “Back in the late 1940s, I would occasionally get a telephone call from Milt Luboviski of the Larry Edmunds Bookshop (the located in a narrow cubicle on Cahuenga Blvd, near Selma Avenue. 'A new books on film just arrived Rudy' he would announce excitedly. In those days a book dealing with some aspect of the movies was rather a rarity.

1953? Retired motion picture publicists Ted Taylor and his associate sold to Milt Luboviski a major collection of film related, books, photos, documents, clipping files and historical studio memorabilia circa 1915-1945. This collection of thousands of pieces was the basis for Larry Edmunds Bookshop becoming a bookshop specializing in movie research and collectable materials.

1954 Git Luboviski started a sale catalog of books and other items sold in the store. Milt Luboviski said “ I started to specialize in books on film and film memorabilia such as press books, lobby posters, shooting scripts and all sorts of memorabilia.”

1955 Larry Edmunds Bookshop moved to 6658 Hollywood Boulevard to a larger store. It was located next to the Pussycat Theatre and the Hollywood Magic Store.

1960s Film personalities were regular customers even if they lived out of state or country. Some of these personalities included, David Lean (when he was in town), Roddy McDowall among others.

1964? Larry Edmunds added a formal still department when Gene Ringgold, an author on books on film personalities, sold his collection to Milt Luboviski.

1968 Larry Edmunds Bookshop has fan magazines some dating back to 1901. Some of the stars shopping at Larry Edmunds during this time included, Debbie Reynolds, Ursula Andress and Jean Paul Belmondo, producer Frank Perry (David and Lisa), John Derek, John Saxon, Scott Marlowe, Carl Reiner and Francoise Truffaut among many others. With a staff of five Larry Edmunds would send a catalog to some of the University librarians where there was a film department. Since we were in Hollywood, the film capital of the world, there was a need for such a bookstore.”

1970 Director and Larry Edmunds Bookshop customer Paul Masursky shot part of his film Alex In Wonderland on Hollywood Boulevard and at Larry Edmunds Bookshop while on location. The story is about a young filmaker (Donald Sutherland) with a special imagination, and tries to make a film depicting social upheaval including the issue of the Vietnam War. Masursky shot scenes in and in front of Larry Edmunds Bookshop with stars, Donald Sutherland and Jeanne Moreau with Lazlo Kovack as cameraman.

1970s Milt Luboviski had on display in the store early motion picture equipment and pre- cinema memorabilia. There was a mutoscope and early pre-film slide projectors in the window and in the store.

1976 Larry Edmunds Bookshop was selling scripts, stills, lobby cards, posters, magazines “Everything but film itself” said Milton Luboviski. “The current catalog contained 15,000 items in more than 500 pages”. Francoise Truffaut said in an interview in the October 1976 issue of the New Yorker Magazine said, “Larry Edmunds is the Best shop for film…FANTASTIQUE!!”

1977 An East of Eden poster sells for $60.00.

1987 Larry Edmunds Bookshop located at 6658 Hollywood Boulevard was in front of Marsha Hunt's Star on the Walk of Fame.

1990 Oct According to Mike Hawks Larry Edmunds moved from their longtime 6658 Hollywood Boulevard address to a new location just east of the old location at 6644 Hollywood Boulevard.

1991 April Former Book City employee Jeff Mantor began work at Larry Edmunds Bookshop.

2007 April Longtime employee Jeff Mantor took over all the daily operations of the bookshop from Git Luboviski of the Luboviski family and began a general cleanup, painting and re-organization of the entire store with the help of Mike Hawks another longtime employee.