Rhino Records closes

Sad to say but we will see the passing of an entertainment landmark this comming weekend. Rhino Records makes this announcement in their latest Newsletter.
Rhino Store’s Last Sale
Sad, but true: the store where it all began thirty years ago is going out of business. The Rhino Record Store on Westwood Boulevard in Los Angeles is holding its last-ever parking lot sale on January 21 & 22. From 10 AM to 4 PM on Saturday and Sunday, CDs, DVDs, LPs, and VHS tapes will be priced to move in one final bargain blowout. If you’re in Southern California this weekend, stop by for a sweet deal and to tip your hat to the passing of a true music retailing landmark…
It was back in the early 70's, 1973 I believe, that Richard Foos and Harold Bronson opened up the Rhino Records music store. For most people that would be an accomplishment in itself. However, these two had bigger dreams and four years later it was a record label. It was small and they struggled to get their records to the public till they signed a record deal with Capitol Record in 1986 and around that time they also got the rights to the Monkees from Columbia Pictures. This put Rhino Records on the map. By the late 1990's Rhino was a unit of Time-Warner and started another label. Rhino Handmade released limited edition reissues. Among the first efforts were "The Monkees Headquaters Sessions" and "The Monkees Summer 1967 the Complete US Concert Recordings" A recent release last year is "Allen Sherman My Son the Box"
Harold Bronson was the biggest Monkess connection for the label. Mr. Bronson started out as a rock music journelist. He has been published in Rolling Stone, The Los Angeles Times and the UCLA Daily Bruin. In 1971 he interviewed Mike Nesmith and Micky Dolenz for and article about the Monkees. He became friends with Peter Tork when they were on the same softball league. In 1975 when Dolenz, Jones, Boyce and Hart was formed he got interviews with all of them. His friendship with the Monkees grew over the years and resulted in him overseeing the entire reissue of the Monkees catalogue for Rhino Records in the 1980's. Later, in 1996, he was the one who encouraged all four of them to reunite to record their first album since the 60's.
All this was from the humble beginnings of a local record store in Los Angeles. Here is a link to Rhino Records website. However, if I were in the LA area this weekend I would go to the store and visit this historical landmark in music history. Next weekend it just might be a Starbucks.