Events - The Lare's Picture Show with Peter Bogdanovich
Once upon a time in Hollywood, back in the 1960s, there was a bookstore on Hollywood Boulevard (there were actually lots of bookstores on the Boulevard then). The owners of that bookstore decided they should specialize; Git Luboviski (later Polin) created a catalogue and Hollywood merchandise proved quite popular. The timing was right. A golden age of cinema scholarship and appreciation was about to begin, and the Larry Edmunds Bookshop was right in the middle of it all.
Once upon a time there was a young writer with aspirations who became a regular at this book store and friends with the proprietors Git and Mel Luboviski. His encyclopedic knowledge and exacting study of cinema was incredible, and the Larry Edmunds Bookshop became a friendly confine. His name was Peter Bogdanovich.
For many years during the TCM Classic Film Festival, I have chosen to host Sunday morning events to offer the fans a unique experience and bring them close to the stars they love. Well, since the festival is virtual this year, my event will be as well.
You are cordially invited to join me virtually (on my birthday) Sunday, May 9 at 12:30 pm PT for a special conversation with the one and only Peter Bogdanovich! He will share his memories of the Larry Edmunds Bookshop along with his unique contributions not only as an amazing director, but also as a storyteller, historian, and teacher of the history of cinema.
I'm celebrating my 30th anniversary here, and I cannot think of a better way to honor the extraordinary legacy of the Larry Edmunds Bookshop than by looking back on its Hollywood history by someone who knows it well.
Tickets are $5 - register on Zoom. We hope you can join us!
A limited number of autographed paperback copies of Who the Hell's In it: Conversations with Hollywood's Legendary Actors and Peter Bogdanovich's Movie of the Week will be made available as a fundraiser for Larry Edmunds Bookshop.
Sorry, no personalizations.
Best from the Blvd.,
Jeff a.k.a. The Lare
As a Los Angeles native who grew up visiting Hollywood Boulevard with my parents, reading this post brought back a flood of memories. The Boulevard of the 1970s and 1980s was a genuinely magical place for a kid who loved movies — bookshops, memorabilia stores, theaters still showing classic films. Larry Edmunds was always the crown jewel of that experience. The fact that it has survived and thrived while everything around it changed is a testament to the vision and dedication of everyone who has stewarded it. I use a growthchartcalculator to track my own kids' milestones and think about what experiences I want to give them the way my parents gave me the Boulevard. I use a recipe calorie calculator for…
The golden age of cinema scholarship that this post references — roughly the late 1960s through the 1980s — produced some of the most important writing about film ever published. Bogdanovich himself was a central figure in that moment, both as a critic and as a filmmaker who wore his influences openly and proudly. His interviews with Ford, Hawks, Hitchcock, and Welles remain essential reading for anyone serious about understanding classical Hollywood. I run a film blog and use a random sentence generator for writing prompts, a line counter to manage post length, and a pay raise calculator when reviewing my freelance writing rates annually. I also use a DnD name generator for pseudonymous contributor profiles and an animal generator for creative metaphor prompts in…
I have attended Jeff's Sunday morning events at the TCM festival for several years running and they are consistently among the most memorable experiences the festival offers. There is something about the intimacy of those gatherings — the proximity to people who have actually lived inside Hollywood history — that no panel discussion or screening can replicate. The virtual format is a genuine loss in that regard, but the programming itself remains extraordinary. I plan my festival attendance meticulously using a camping checklist printable format adapted for event logistics, a wedding planning checklist style template for multi-day scheduling, and a tip calculator for the many meals and drinks shared with fellow attendees. I also use a period calculator to plan around my schedule and…
Larry Edmunds has been my first stop on every trip to Los Angeles for the past fifteen years. The posters, the stills, the lobby cards — there is simply nowhere else like it. The physical experience of flipping through bins of original Hollywood material is irreplaceable, and the knowledge of the staff makes every visit feel like a private tutorial in film history. I collect vintage movie posters and use a density calculator when assessing paper stock and print quality of older materials, a mixed number calculator for fractional measurements when framing irregularly sized pieces, and a Pythagorean theorem calculator for diagonal measurements when fitting posters into custom frames. I also use a cubic to feet calculator when calculating archival storage volumes and a…
What strikes me most about this post is the mention of Git Luboviski — later Polin — as the creative force behind the catalogue that defined the shop's identity. Women building the intellectual and commercial infrastructure of Hollywood history deserve far more recognition than they typically receive. Git's instinct to specialize, to create a curated catalogue rather than a general bookshop, was a genuinely visionary business decision that shaped how a generation of film lovers accessed the literature of cinema. I research Hollywood history and use a name numerology calculator when tracing the name changes and pseudonyms common in the industry, a moon sign calculator for a personal research ritual I've maintained for years, and a Chinese gender calendar when working on cultural…