Sporting Goods Store Closes Doors in Fitting End for a Fitness Monger
Last week saw the fitness craze in its manic phase in Hollywood.
It also saw the end of another Tinseltown era--a Hollywood era ends about every nine days.
This time it was the end of Hank Kroopf’s Star Sporting Goods Store on Highland Avenue just off Hollywood Boulevard. Kroopf held a closing-out sale, and thousands of sporty bargain hunters descended upon the place.
After 39 years as “Jock-Monger to the Stars,” Kroopf is retiring from the prosperous establishment where he has catered to the sporting needs of folks like Elizabeth Taylor, Lauren Bacall, Marlon Brando, Sidney Poitier and Sylvester Stallone.
About 200 customers--Taylor, Bacall and the others notably absent--were lined up outside Friday before the 10 a.m. opening whistle. Then, almost as one, they plunged through the door like O. J. Simpson going off left tackle. They started grabbing sports goodies ranging from celluloid Ping-Pong balls weighing in at .076 of an ounce each to shot-put balls at 16 pounds.
“It’s a madhouse,” muttered one miffed customer as a more aggressive jock snatched away a pair of Reebok shoes before he could lay a hand on them.
“People are crazy,” said Cathy Kroopf, Hank’s daughter-in-law. “They’re grabbing everything as fast as they can.”
Actress Tracy Swope grabbed a dozen baseball caps and a large red rubber ball. “I bought the hats for a friend’s kid,” she said. “I don’t know what the big ball is for--I just bought it because I like it.”
Jim Kolber, 62, of Van Nuys, grabbed a shortstop’s glove ($66, regularly $100) to replace the one he has worn out playing softball “with a bunch of old guys” in Culver City. He also grabbed a lacrosse ball to juggle, a pair of ski glasses to ski in and a baseball cap to wear while he’s flying his sailplane.
In the check-out line next to the soaring, skiing, juggling shortstop was Ron McMartin, 32, a salesman, who had grabbed a fencing foil for dueling, a protective cup “so I don’t get jabbed while I’m fencing,” and a beach chair “to sit in while I fence.”
The store will be missed in the area, Bill Welsh, president of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, said in an interview. “They’ve been there a long time, and the store was an important part of our economy. We wish (Kroopf) well on his retirement.”
Upstairs in his memorabilia-cluttered office, away from the hurly-burly of end-of-era merchandising, the soft-spoken Kroopf said he was happy the sale was going so well but a little sad that it was all coming to an end.
“I believe we were the largest independent sporting goods store in the area,” he said. “I’ve been trying to buy this building for 39 years, but the owner wants too much. Now he’s raised the rent too high, so I’m retiring--I’ll go to Newport Beach and play tennis.”
He reminisced about some of his famous customers: “Brando came in with Jack Nicholson--Brando wearing shorts,” he recalled. “He bought a football and was throwin’ it around the store.”
He wasn’t sure why Bacall came in--tennis gear, maybe. “She was,” he said, “a tough customer.”
“Sylvester Stallone came in and bought a heavy punching bag,” Kroopf said. “This was when he was doing ‘Rocky.’ I told him he ought to do a sequel. He told me ‘I’m gonna do that, and this time I’m gonna win the fight.’ ”
