I haven’t been down to South Street in ages, and stores seem to come and go every 5 minutes down there, but I was stunned to find out that the TLA Video that started on South Street and moved to 4th just off of South is closing its doors. It used to be the greatest video store with a library second to none, but it’s a victim of the time and technology. I remembered when they opened. The same folks owned the TLA Theatre which was a terrific revival house, and they thought they would give this crazy home video business a try. They did more than try! They knew movies and they tried to carry every thing!
Back in 1997, they seemed unstoppable. They actually opened a location in Manhattan. Imagine that – lowly Philly business invades the Big Apple. That’s when I was hired to provide this image of everybody’s favorite Japanese atomic reptile smashing the competition up there. It was used in a two-color version on ads, flyers and leaflets.
so sorry to hear the news… mom & pop shops are often victims of poor economic times, or perhaps a victim of netflix?
Great Goh-jir-ah!
They became fairly big with stores throughout Philly, some in NJ and one in Manhattan. The have a website now, and they distribute films. The brick and mortar stores are taking a beating thanks to Netflix and streaming media. Hard to beat convenience and no late fees.
Glad you like the drawing. It was fun to draw.