Anyone coming to Los Angeles with dreams of making googly-eyes at Bradley Cooper during the Academy Awards will have a different experience than previous aspiring actors. As of March 31, longstanding theater and film bookstore Samuel French will close its doors in Hollywood.
The small, cozy shop, which opened in 1929, has been at its current location on Sunset Boulevard and Stanley Avenue since 1947. It stocks its shelves with scripts, plays, screenplays, books about writing, histories of Hollywood, biographies of film industry luminaries and other film and theater books.
According to a statement given to American Theatre, the store is closing for reasons we're all pretty familiar with by now -- people are buying their books and scripts online.
"Although the community loves the store and its exceptional staff, most people are choosing to buy their books from e-retailers these days," Samuel French president Nathan Collins said in the statement. "It is an unfortunate situation, in which many other bookshops find themselves."
On Twitter, the retailer wrote that its London shop will stay open, and that it will continue to sell its wares online.
Today, we announce the closing of our Bookshop at the end of March. Our deepest gratitude goes to the staff & customers who made this a beloved landmark. We look forward to still making theatre happen through @SamuelFrenchLtd's London Bookshop & online: https://t.co/OSyjw6jso7.
— Samuel French Bkshop (@SamFrenchBkshp) February 25, 2019
