TROPIC OF HUSTLE

Every video store has ‘em--life-size promo figures for movies on cassette. But the one seen recently at Vidiots in Santa Monica was more than life-size--it was writer-director Tom Schiller, in the flesh, not the cardboard cutout.

Schiller, armed with a copy of his documentary, “Henry Miller: Asleep and Awake,” stood in the store for several hours to “see people’s reactions” and “to see how it felt to be like one of those cardboard figures.” If patrons showed interest, he pitched his product. Three people wound up renting the tape during his stint.

Filmed in 1973, Schiller’s 30-minute videocassette shows the writer in the bathroom at his Pacific Palisades home where Miller (who died in 1980 at age 88) talks to the camera about his dreams, his nightmares, his revelations and his wives. (The bathroom was chosen because the walls are decorated with pictures of Miller associates, including writers, artists, poets, wives, etc.)

Schiller, a former “Saturday Night Live” writer who also directed short films for “SNL,” resurrected the documentary for his own “ego gratification,” the money and because he believes there are a lot of Miller fans out there. (The tape sells for about $29 at the Henry Miller Memorial Library in Big Sur.)

Son of veteran TV writer Bob Schiller (“I Love Lucy,” “Ozzie and Harriet”), Schiller, 38, first met Miller 20 years ago when he was working as a soundman on a Miller documentary for the BBC. It marked the beginning of his friendship with the novelist.