The Big Sleep

Situated on Hollywood Boulevard, Arthur Geiger’s bookstore is in fact a front for his real business: a lending library that rents illegal pornography to high-paying customers. Managed by the attractive Agnes Lozelle, the front of the store looks like an upscale gentlemen’s club, with “a thick blue rug that paved the floor from wall to wall. There were blue leather easy chairs with smoke stands beside them. A few sets of tooled leather bindings were set out on narrow polished tables, between book ends. There were more tooled bindings in glass cases on the walls” (15). This outer veneer of genteel culture hides Geiger’s real merchandise, which is stored in the back room—a setup that reveals The Dark Underbelly of Glamour.

As it turns out, the store hides a variety of other illegal activities. Geiger's partner, a young man named Carol Lundgren, processes the pornography orders—their same-sex relationship is against the law in the 1930s. More damningly, the bookstore is a gateway to Geiger’s even more lucrative hustle: It generates a customer list that Geiger uses to blackmail the wealthiest patrons. Finally, the store’s success speaks to the corruption of a local police force that protects the business to keep well-connected customers out of the news.