Written by Fred Patten, and published on the LASFS Rex Rotary, March 31, 1965. Intended for Apa L, Twenty-Fourth Distribution, LASFS Meeting no. 1442, April 1, 1965. Address: 1825 Greenfield Avenue, Los Angeles, California, 90025. Phone: GRanite 3-6321.

The Collectors Book Store finally opened last week, and I stopped in on Friday and Saturday to look things over. In case you haven't heard of it yet, it's worth your time looking into. It's run by Malcolm Willits and Leonard Brown, and the emphasis is on the word "collectors". Rather than being the usual catch-all 2nd-hand book store, it will specialize in material for the collector of pulp magazines, motion picture material, and specialists of all sorts. Being sf fans, most of the more prominently displayed material so far runs to old sf prozines and paperbacks, old comic books, movie posters and related material (predominantly sf & horror movies and adventure serials), and even some framed original prozine cover art on the walls. One unusual item they expect to catch on and become their biggest trade item is the old newspaper. They've acquired a very large stock of mint, unopened newspapers going back to the '30s and earlier, and have sealed each in plastic bags for better protection. Those who are interested in "famous headline" issues, and there are such collectors, can now get perfect copies of the entire issue. This is just the start of their stock, they say, they'll be moving other material in over the next few months. The address is 1717 Wilcox Avenue, in Hollywood, just half a block up Wilcox off Hollywood Blvd. (that's right by the Warner Hollywood Cinerama theatre, for those of you not familiar with all Hollywood's side streets), and I think their hours are noon to 9 p.m. every day.

I wonder whether the Collectors Book Store is designed to become a new fan hangout. When I stopped in, I ended up spending nothing but about 45 minutes' worth of time chatting about sf, the old prozines, horror movies & serials, old vs. new comic books, fandom, the Count Dracula Society, and similar assorted subjects. Malcolm complained that being off Hollywood Blvd., not too many people notice their shop, though this isn't too much of a drawback since they're counting on cultivating the trade of the literary collector, who'll hear about them anyway and keep coming as steady customers, rather than the casual passers-by. Hopefully, after they get established in business and develop a steady clientele, they'll be able to move to larger quarters -- possibly large enough to provide the LASFS with a meeting place, even. (He suggested it -- I didn't.) Incidentally, Malcolm wants to know whatever happened to the original Frank R. Paul painting that was supposed to be donated to a LASFS auction, provided we could get it out here from the East Coast. Somebody coming out here from back there was supposed to bring it with him, but who was it, who was donating the painting, and what happened? Malcolm also sends his regards to the club, and regrets he hasn't been able to get to any meetings lately. "This move to change the meetings to Fridays seems to me to be the only sensible thing; I don't know why you didn't do it years ago. Since I teach during the week, Friday would be the only day I could make it -- up to now, at least; since opening this store, I'm going to be busier on Friday night than any other time, unfortunately." Well, hopefully LA fandom will patronize the Collectors Book Store and he'll get a chance to see us fairly regularly, anyway.

On the matter of changing the meeting to Friday night or not, Mike Hillen -- the President of the San Diego sf club -- mentioned that he hopes to get up to LA on the weekend more often, and I asked him whether, if we changed the meeting to Friday, he'd be interested in coming up early enough to attend. His reply: "As for the idea of Friday meetings: Wowie, jee-whillakers, colossal. In other words: great. I know more of our group would be able to attend because they would not have to go to work or school the next day. We don't find it hard to get to LA, it's finding the time to do it that's hard." I guess we can count that as another precinct heard from.

Myself, I don't care too much either way. I'm a strong traditionalist, and it would hurt to see the club do away with one of the strongest unbroken traditions it has -- the Thursday meeting. Bruce pointed out another good reason; the fact that old-timers can count on coming around after several years' absence and still find us on Thursday nights. On the other hand, I recognize that all the force of logic seems to favor switching to Fridays, and I know I'd enjoy seeing many of the members who don't attend now but say they could if we met on Friday. And it would make things easier for me if we met on Friday, since I have to get up at 6:15 Friday morning to get to work, whereas I can sleep on Saturday mornings. So as things stand right now, I don't know which way I'll vote.

-- BEING COMMENTS ON THE PREVIOUS DISTRIBUTION

Tom Gilbert -- Sorry to contradict you, but I did not break my own rule about no more Outsiders, in the case of Dwain Kaiser. The rule was no more Outsiders would be allowed of the type such as Len Bailes, Rich Mann, or Dave Van Arnam, who have never been to a LASFS meeting, have no prospects of ever attending a LASFS meeting, and only joined to get the Apa L Distributions. Dwain Kaiser has attended several meetings, going back to before Apa L was formed, and he attends every time he visits LA -- which may not be often, but which does happen from time to time. I have no objection to club members who are now living outside of LA joining Apa L; this was one of the reasons it was formed. It did an admirable job of keeping in contact with Ellie Turner, and vice versa, while she was in Arizona. If Ron Ellik, or Alva Rogers, or Roy Tacket want to join, I'd be glad to have them -- hoping, of course, that last week's number of contributors does not become a steady thing. Considering that more and more localities are becoming active in Apa L, it might be a good thing not to encourage any more out-of-town contributors, LASFS members or not, as your current out-of-towners drop. That some out-of-towners would someday drop out wasn't that startling a prediction to make; it's more remarkable that those we have have stayed active as long as they have.

Ted White -- Thank you very much for printing those two story passages. Of the two, I preferred the one from Phoenix Prime. For one thing, I prefer sf to Westerns. For a second, there's more action inherent in this selection. For a third, third-person writing is more effective than first-person in a case like this, even if it is more difficult. The first-person narration in The Man At Broken Crossing makes your cowboy protagonist sound just a little too cultured and literate for his setting, and thus it's harder (for me) to establish the rapport with the plot that's necessary. Third-person writing might be harder, but I think it would be more effective. One reason I haven't tried writing more is that I have to force myself to write in any tense other than the present, and I'm too lazy to force myself to observe the necessary discipline. I did enjoy both passages, however, and I'll look forward to seeing more in the future -- and to reading the books when they appear. ## Glad to hear that Terry's looking into Campbell's Empire; I've been throwing out hints in my fmz ever since the ChiCon, hoping that someone would pick up on it. Also the complete manuscript version of Hannes Bok's The Blue Flamingo, but Wollheim already told me he doesn't think much of Bok as an author at all. Besides which, I understand that Bok's apartment was looted after his death and the manuscripts (as well as everything else) are all missing. ## Didn't realize you cared where NULL-F went; as it wasn't specifically written for Apa L, I figured it might as well follow the pages that were.