Goodbye Samuel French.

The Samuel French Theatre/Film Bookstore in Studio City closed its doors today. I would be sad, but I never particularly cared for the Studio City branch. It seems stupid as I type this, but I always hated how the plays were arranged by title instead of by author, like they are in the Hollywood store. I rarely go into the shop searching for a specific play, but prefer to spend a couple hours perusing my favorite playwrights’ sections for a new find to add to my collection. But that’s all a side note. The store is closing because the rent on the building was raised to an amount that a little specialty bookshop cannot afford. It’s tragic, because the two Los Angeles-area Samuel French stores are (and “were” in the case of Studio City) an absolute treasure and every second I’ve ever spent inside one has been incredible. I feel lucky to live close to them, as the Samuel French and Dramatists Play Service online shipping departments leave something to be desired. All of this is to say that although I am sad to lose one half of my second-favorite thing about Los Angeles, everything in the store was on sale for 75% off and I got quite a haul today and only spent $21.