Cherokee Book Shop, Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, CA, c. 1960s

Cherokee Book Shop was opened long before Collectors Book Store, but the comic book section only began a few years earlier. The owner had one son, Gene Blum, manage the lower part of the store, while he had his other son, Bert, deal in comics on the smaller second floor. It has been said that they hid Bert away and gave him something harmless to do. I have also heard that a cloud of a certain type of smoke would come out upon opening the door to Bert's office and rare comics room. Whatever, I found out about Cherokee Book Shop soon after my first visit to nearby Collectors Book Store, and I visited Cherokee a few months later. I went there, mostly to buy Silver Age comics, for a few years. I then stopped until a single visit in about 1981 to see what Disney cel and background setups Gene still had available for sell -- I had learned that Cherokee was the source for the many such setups that were formerly hung on a hallway at the Disney studio. I bought a cel of the Cheshire Cat standing (literally) on his own head for $150.00, which was the last purchase I ever made from Cherokee Book Shop.