Book Castle-Movie World in Burbank is closing after 51 years — and with it ‘a lot of the neighborhood personality’

The Book Castle-Movie World bookstore on the old Golden Mall in Burbank will soon close its doors forever. The owner, Steve Edrington, has been in business for 51 years and just says it’s time. Burbank, CA 5/2/2018 (Photo by John McCoy)
The Book Castle-Movie World bookstore on the old Golden Mall in Burbank will soon close its doors forever. The owner, Steve Edrington, has been in business for 51 years and just says it’s time. Burbank, CA 5/2/2018 (Photo by John McCoy)
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“It’s a little dusty, but if your sinuses can handle it, there is treasure to be found.” – a Yelp review of Book Castle-Movie World in Burbank.

If Indiana Jones was looking for a map to the Lost Ark, he’d probably find it stuck in an old book on the top shelf of Steve Edrington’s classic movie bookstore in Burbank, right next to the Maltese Falcon.

The place is dusty, claustrophobic, filled with sketchy, interesting characters, and absolutely fun to get lost in for a few hours digging through mounds of old books, magazines, still photographs, press kits, and other treasures of Hollywood’s past – if your sinuses can handle it.

The problem is Steve, 76, is closing the doors for good in a few weeks after 51 years in the bookselling business, and he’s got to get rid of everything fast so he’s selling it for a song, and (keep this under your hat) basically giving away a lot of books he puts in boxes in front of his store as he leaves every night. By morning, they’re gone.

He’s a free spirit who got into the business by accident after the Army sent him an invitation in 1964 he couldn’t refuse. His draft notice.

Off he went to serve his country, but before he left he loaned two friends a fair bit of cash to help them open a book store in Hollywood. They promised to pay him back with interest when he returned, but two years later Steve returned to find his money spent, but an interesting opportunity at hand.

The Book Castle-Movie World bookstore on the old Golden Mall in Burbank will soon close its doors forever. The owner, Steve Edrington, has been in business for 51 years and just says it's time. Burbank, CA 5/2/2018 (Photo by John McCoy)
The Book Castle-Movie World bookstore on the old Golden Mall in Burbank will soon close its doors. The owner, Steve Edrington, has been in business for 51 years and just says it’s time. Burbank, CA 5/2/2018 (Photo by John McCoy)

“They had a garage filled with books they weren’t selling in their inventory, and they’d rented me an empty store down the block on Wilcox Avenue,” Steve says. “They said put the books in there, and in a couple of months I’d make my money back three times over.

“Well, I thought I’d try it for a month or two, and here I am 51 years later. I’ve made that money back many times over.”

That little bookstore in Hollywood he owned for 13 years, Bond Street Books, led to a bigger one in Burbank, where he leased 11,000 square feet in an old Woolworth’s building on San Fernando Boulevard  — watching his Book City business grow to five bookstores in the area during the heyday of ink, paper, and full sentences.

Now, he’s “hunkered down,” he says, in his last and final store, Book Castle-Movie World, right next door to that old Woolworth’s where all the movie studios in town would come to him for research material. Not anymore. It’s all been digitalized and readily available online for free.

The Book Castle-Movie World bookstore on the old Golden Mall in Burbank will soon close its doors forever. The owner, Steve Edrington, has been in business for 51 years and just says it's time. Burbank, CA 5/2/2018 (Photo by John McCoy)
The Book Castle-Movie World bookstore on the old Golden Mall in Burbank will soon close its doors forever. The owner, Steve Edrington, has been in business for 51 years and just says it’s time. Burbank, CA 5/2/2018 (Photo by John McCoy)

His is one of the last businesses still left from the old Golden Mall in Burbank, the city’s first pedestrian mall opened in the ‘60s. It eventually got eaten up by the big box boys who moved into the neighborhood, and crushed most of the mom-and-pop stores.

“It’s kind of sad that all the other businesses from that era are gone, and soon I’ll be gone, too, but 51 years is enough,” Steve says, ringing up another 50 per cent off sale.  “I’ll be closing for good on the 14th (May).”

And with him goes “a lot of the neighborhood personality,” says longtime regular George Nicholas. “Now, this stretch of San Fernando Road will be just like every other trendy neighborhood.”

Steve put boxes of free books outside his store over the Fourth of July weekend in 1995, too, when he was moving. The old Woolworth’s building had been sold from under him, and he needed to get his excess stock out of the basement – 350,000 books. It took awhile.

“We put out 30 boxes a night, and the people of Burbank and the surrounding areas very nicely carried them away,” he says.

Old newspapers he had in storage, some dating back 100 years, filled three railroad containers, and were shipped to a collector in Pennsylvania who promised not to scrap them, something Steve made a condition before giving them away.

The only thing he’s not selling or giving away is his collection of 8,000 books on military history.

“I’ve already read 4,000, now I’ll have the time to read the other 4,000,” he says.

So, with a tip of the hat and a thank you to his longtime customers, one of the last, great characters on the old Golden Mall exits stage right on Monday, May 14 – taking a little bit of the heart of Burbank with him.

“I don’t think the city ever expected me to last this long, but my customers did,” he says. “Some of them are taking my closing pretty hard.”

And why not? There aren’t many dusty, old bookstores left where treasure can be found – if your sinuses can handle it.

Book Castle-Movie World is located at 212 N. San Fernando Blvd., in Burbank. Tell them Indiana Jones sent you.

Dennis McCarthy’s column runs on Friday. He can be reached at dmccarthynews@gmail.com.

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