After 78 years, World Book and News — the biggest newsstand in Hollywood and one of the biggest anywhere — is closing. I guess I'm not surprised but I have to note how many comic books (among other publications) were sold there. It was a place that carried everything. You could find outta-town newspapers. You could find magazines that no other business carried. You could just hang out there and browse all day, every day, 24 hours a day.
It was located on Cahuenga just south of Hollywood Boulevard. On its right was an alley that some of us learned to park in when we went there. One day, someone pointed out to me that in the Buster Keaton movie, Cops, you can see Buster run out of that alley. I don't know why but since I learned that, it made the newsstand even more special to me. But not special enough that I shopped there in the last twenty years or so; not since the Internet became what it is. I guess that's why it's closing.