HOLLYWOOD : Final Chapter Ends for Bookstore

The closing of a bookstore that was once the home of the venerable Pickwick Bookshop has ended another chapter in Hollywood’s colorful history.

The latest owner, B. Dalton Bookseller, a subsidiary of New York-based Barnes & Noble, on Saturday shuttered the store at 6743 Hollywood Blvd. The space had been continuously occupied by a bookstore since 1931.

Barnes & Noble, which has been expanding elsewhere on the Westside in recent months, blamed the closure on poor sales.

“Over the last several years, demographics have shifted, and there just aren’t enough people shopping in the area anymore to support a bookstore,” said Barnes & Noble spokeswoman Ann Rucker. She declined to provide specific sales figures.

B. Dalton acquired the store in 1968, when it was called Pickwick Bookshop.

Russian immigrant Louis Epstein started Pickwick in 1938. The store, named after Charles Dickens’ classic “The Pickwick Papers,” soon became a favorite haunt of movie stars and bibliophiles, said Eugene Epstein, the founder’s son.