That's an old photo of World Book & News, a partially-outdoor newsstand on Cahuenga Boulevard just south of Hollywood Boulevard. Someone sent me this photo and I realized two things. One was that I spent an awful lot of time and money at that place when I was between the ages of…oh, let's say fifteen and twenty-five. And I also realized I haven't spent one moment or one cent there since. I believe (I could be wrong about this) that it's still there but somewhat diminished. Somebody who's been there lately, please lemme know.
It was an amazing place when I was in my teens because they carried everything — everything! You could even get relatively-current newspapers from all over the continent. If any newsstand anywhere carried it, World News had it. And they were open twenty-four hours. In fact, I remember thinking that the way it was designed, there was no way to close it up and go home — no doors to lock or anything.
I have two special memories of the place. They had (of course) a rack with every currently-published comic book and I bought a lot of them there. But you kinda had to get there within a few hours of the comic going on sale if you cared about condition — which, being a collector, I certainly did. Browsers pawed through them constantly, which wilted the pages quickly. Also, the comic book rack was open to the elements. If it rained or even drizzled, the comics didn't get directly wet but the H2O got close enough to make the comics a bit limp and undesirable. They just didn't fare well in such an open-air environment.
And one time, someone set fire to them. I have no idea who who or how or why but one day when I went there, all the comic books were barbecued or seriously-singed with one exception. In the midst of all those charred funnybooks, one comic title had somehow escaped incineration and, so help me, it was Tomb of Dracula.
The other memory is more personal. In June of 1969, about a week after I graduated from High School, I decided it was time to get serious about launching my long-planned and hoped-for attempt to become a professional writer.
I had more-or-less ruled out comic books. I had actually come close to selling some scripts to editors at DC Comics and Charlton. I got to the point where three editors — Mort Weisinger, Jack Miller and Dick Giordano — had said of something I'd submitted, some version of "I'm going to buy this" and then they were suddenly no longer editor of the comic in question so they didn't. In a way, that felt worse than if they'd sent my submission back with a big "THIS STINKS!" written across it.
I decided I didn't like the idea of submitting to strangers three thousand miles away. I figured that there had to be magazines in Los Angeles to which I might sell something. I liked the idea of being able to go in and talk to the editor in person about what he or she needed or why something I submitted didn't make the cut. The comic book industry, after all, was based wholly on the East Coast — all but Charlton in New York.
Except that wasn't true. I thought that but it wasn't true and I knew it wasn't true. Gold Key Comics had an office in Los Angeles from which half their line emanated…and I knew that. In fact, that office was within walking distance of Hollywood Boulevard and Cahuenga. In 1971, I began working for them and the head editor there — a lovely man named Chase Craig — encouraged me to write as much as I could for him and bought almost all of it.
So why didn't I think to submit something to them in 1969? It's one of those things in life that you — or I — look back on later and think, "Why the hell did I do (or not do) that?" And you can't even explain it to yourself, much less explain it to someone else. I have a long list of these.
So in June of '69, I went looking for some magazines based in L.A. that I might be able to write for and my search took me to — where else? — World Book & News at Hollywood and Cahuenga. I paged through various magazines there that contained material I might be able to write and I found a couple. One of them was Laugh-In magazine, based on the then-current hit TV show. The magazine was kind of an awkward cross between one of the "fan" magazines (which the same publisher also published) and a MAD imitation.
And of course — the way things go in my life of constant coincidences — they were not only based in L.A., they were also within walking distance of Hollywood and Cahuenga. A week later, I took them six submissions and the editor there — who happened to be in dire need of material — bought three of them. And, again in keeping with the way my life plays out, a few weeks later, that editor was fired and the magazine was discontinued. But I was still, at least technically, a professional writer.
So that is why I will never forget that newsstand even if I never again stop at it. That is, if it's even still there. Somebody please write and tell me that it is.
One other interesting thing about the photo…
Scroll back up and take another look at it. You see that alley on the far right? Well, below is a brief hunk of a wonderful Buster Keaton film called Cops shot in and around the streets of Hollywood in 1922. About a minute and a half into it, you'll see Buster and a whole mess of policemen running out of an alley. Same alley.