CYBERSPACE — Netflix has acquired worldwide rights to “Circus of Books,” the documentary by Rachel Mason that tells the story of Karen and Barry Mason and their legendary West Hollywood bookstore, with producer and filmmaker Ryan Murphy aboard as executive producer.
Deadline reports the distro pact was signed ahead of the film’s premiere in the Feature Documentary section of the Tribeca Film Festival in New York. “Circus of Books” screens tonight, Saturday and Sunday.
The famed brick-and-mortar retail outlet holds a seminal position in the history of adult entertainment in Los Angeles. In 1960, the Masons opened Circus of Books, famously perched at the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and La Jolla Avenue in West Hollywood, and doggedly kept the location open throughout four decades of rapid economic and social change, particularly as West Hollywood became a mecca for the LGBT community, as well as during the devastating HIV/AIDS epidemic, and into the 21st-Century as adult industry print media faded in favor of tube sites and hookup apps.
Circus of Books became an unlikely battleground for First Amendment rights under President George H.W. Bush when an employee shipped a box of straight and gay porn tapes to rural Pennsylvania. The sale was a sting. The Masons were eventually indicted on federal charges of transporting obscene materials across state lines.
Earlier this year, the Masons elected to close Circus of Books and retire. Rachel, their daughter, has revived its legacy with the doc as well as an art exhibition running through May 6 at the Fierman Gallery in New York.
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Although Circus of Books is gone, its legacy as a community meeting place and brick-and-mortar retail outlet will continue. In February, Chi Chi LaRue’s, an XBIZ Awards nominee for Boutique Retailer of the Year, announced it will open a second West Hollywood outlet in the space, called Chi Chi LaRue’s Circus.
