Of VHS and Laser Disc, my life in home video before my livelihood in Home Video: Part One

Haven’t posted in a bit, so let’s get ready to ramble a bit.

I bought my first VCR, a Panasonic PV-1000A, back in 1979. $799, 2 speeds, heavy as a mother.
Never owned BETA, though I had friends who swore by it.

I did have one friend who actually owned a 1 inch reel to reel machine. I think we had to travel to a place called LERRO ELECTRONICS on North Broad Street to get reels. He made a black and white copy of THE MUSIC MAN, one of my favorite films, on one of these in the mid-1970’s.

First thing I recorded was a HONEYMOONERS episode on the old WKBS Channel 48 in Philly.

Philly had some video pioneers, including a news publication that centered on home video (the name of which escapes me right now).

The one that I read religiously was THE LASER DISC NEWSLETTER, which eventually became THE DVD NEWSLETTER. It was essentially a one man operation, printed tabloid style, but was an extremely informative and detailed publication with tons of new release reviews.

First two videos bought: ROCKY and collection of BEATLES VIDEOS. Yes, both were bootlegs, but this was 1979, and they were about the only thing available. Magnetic Video, MEDA (or MEDIA) HOME ENTERTAINMENT, and EMBASSY were the first home video labels that I remember.

First legit purchase: THE STING. Bought it from Movies Unlimited on Castor Ave, when they were in their tiny store. Also bought HELLO DOLLY (a guilty pleasure, yes). At the time, video rental really didn’t exist. What they did was sell the VHS for $79.95 and give you half credit if you traded it for another VHS. If I remember correctly, MOVIES UNLIMITED started with Super 8MM films.

In 1980 (I think, though it could have been a year earlier), I saw my first Laser Disc demo at a hotel in Bristol PA. Laser Disc was like a DVD on steroids. It was introduced in a limited market in the beginning (Atlanta, I think), before going national. I had a laser disc player, but it was always bulky. The salesman demoed a boat blowing up from JAWS 2. In slow mo, you could see an explosive dropped into the boat to make it explode. The shark was impressive, the movie, meh….

Laser Disc aficionados had a side hobby, as well. Whether through laziness or efficiency, some laser discs didn’t use the second side of a disc for program material. However, they would still press them with content from another entirely different film, and then block it with a chemical cover. People would trade or buy discs to use alcohol to remove the cover and see what film was under there, kind of any early EASTER EGG.

I also had an RCA CED player, or NEEDLEVISION. Because the cost was a bit cheaper, I had about 80 movies on CED, including THE BEATLES LET IT BE, which has yet to see a legit release on DVD. Sold them a long time ago to a collector. I though it was cool when I went to Disney World in the mid 80’s and saw a CED player in the lead-up to SPACE MOUNTAIN (which was sponsored by RCA at the time).

Price of a 2 hour blank VHS tape? $20.

First real attempt that I remember at true rental and sell through: FOTOMAT, the little film processing kiosks. Paramount had a releasing deal with them, and the first one that I remember was GREASE.

I was very meticulous with my VHS tapes at the time, until it became too much. It is amazing how much I recorded considering that Philly didn’t have cable, so we had essentially 7 TV stations.

In 1983, the bug bit me, and in February of 1983, I wound up working in the video retail business. That led to almost 27 glorious years that is now in suspended animation, but will definitely be resumed with an entity that really wants to do home entertainment correctly.

Coming soon, 1983-85 THE “VIDEO WONDERLAND” YEARS…

…MORE TO COME…