They’ll Make You a Star

When Samuel French Inc. was founded in 1830 its business revolved exclusively around the publishing and licensing of plays. In the ensuing 165 years, however, it expanded in many directions. Opening an office in downtown Los Angeles in 1929, Samuel French continues to publish and license plays, has a distribution company (Samuel French Trade), and operates stores in Studio City and Hollywood that stock about 70,000 titles covering everything to do with the performing arts. “There are thousands of plays in our inventory--we probably have the largest selection of plays in the world,” says Gwen Feldman, speaking from the Sunset Boulevard store that opened in 1947. “We also carry books on dance, theater, film, music--I even have stuff on performance art and the circus. We’re a specialty bookstore, so we carry anything to do with our field, and get around 100 new titles in the store every month. We carry books known as library editions that aren’t available to every bookstore--they’re very expensive books printed in small editions--as well as highly technical books on things like digital sound recording and cinematography that you won’t find in most bookstores.”

Feldman says it’s impossible to say what the store’s most popular play is. “We handle standards like Thornton Wilder’s ‘Our Town’ that always sell, and we publish Neil Simon, who sells well too. At the moment we’re selling hundreds of copies of Tony Kushner’s ‘Angels in America,’ which we didn’t publish, and Quentin Tarantino’s screenplay to ‘Pulp Fiction’ is selling well, as is Edward Albee’s play, ‘Three Tall Women.’ ”

Except for the plays, Samuel French’s stock is almost exclusively nonfiction, heavy in film history and theory and, of course, biographies. Although they’re committed to carrying a wide range of biographies in the interest of completeness, they don’t sell in large numbers--because, as Feldman points out, “you can usually find those in a chain for 25% off.”

“People don’t come to our store for that type of book--our best-selling books are the ones on how to get into the industry,” she adds. “For example, we have a title, ‘Deal Making in the Film and Television Industry’ by Mark Litwak that’s selling like crazy--Litwak is a lawyer, and his book tells filmmakers how to avoid contractual pitfalls. Books on screenwriting also sell well, and there’s a book that came out a few weeks ago, ‘Opening the Doors to Hollywood,’ by Carlos Abreu and Howard Jay Smith, that’s doing well. We have a book called ‘The Agencies’ that’s a listing of agents that’s updated every two months and we probably sell 300 of those a week--we sell lots of directories people use when sending out their resumes.”

Samuel French also services a mail-order clientele with subject-specific flyers--for instance, a listing of 200 books about screenwriting. The store does not try to compete in the video market, although there is a stock of about 25 practical videos on topics such as how to audition.

Samuel French Theater & Film Bookshop is located at 7623 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood. Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. (213) 876-0570. The Studio City store, at 11963 Ventura Blvd., is open 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday. (818) 762-0535.