We report on the use of a simple spin casting procedure to fabricate very thin crystalline films of P-terphenyl doped with fluorescent terrylene molecules. By performing single molecule studies, we show that the guest molecules are oriented normal to the plane of the film. We find that despite the very low thickness of the p-terphenyl matrix. as thin as only 20 molecular layers, about half of the embedded emitters withstand photobleaching for illumination times of at least a day. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.