{"id":3169,"date":"2011-06-21T06:37:59","date_gmt":"2011-06-21T11:37:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/?p=3169"},"modified":"2021-05-25T07:38:13","modified_gmt":"2021-05-25T11:38:13","slug":"dawn-of-the-home-video-revolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2011\/06\/21\/dawn-of-the-home-video-revolution\/","title":{"rendered":"Dawn of the Home Video Revolution or I Was a Teenage Gorehound"},"content":{"rendered":"

Remember when Video Cassette Recorders were new? We got a Sears-branded, top loading, VHS machine around 1983 well after this 1978 ad appeared so I seriously doubt my Dad paid anywhere near $700 bucks for one. I remember the year he brought it home because I used it and the one 90 minute cassette it came with to tape the final episode of M*A*S*H.<\/strong><\/em> I wasn’t a big fan of the show, but its ending was being hyped as something as important as the moon landing so it seemed a reasonable test for the new machine. I watched it, saw that it worked, and I think I taped The Beast Within <\/strong><\/em>over it.<\/p>\n

\"Price<\/a><\/p>\n

Before we got our VCR, there was a classmate of Brian Bubonic’s<\/strong><\/em><\/a> who had one. He probably was the first kid in town to have one. We would rent tapes from a combination liquor\/video store in Woodbury, NJ. It was one store with 2 separate entrances – one for booze and the other for mostly exploitation films on video tape. This was back before the major video chains came and went. Video rentals were the province of mom-and-pop operators who found they could make a lot of money renting movies. They could make even more if they rented skin flicks.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

At the dawn of the video era, the major studios seemed leery about the whole home entertainment movement. They didn’t take it seriously. VCRs were sold for taping broadcast shows while you were away or watching something else. Why would anybody buy movies on tape?<\/em> Schlockmeisters did take it seriously, and I remember a lot of Godawful crap being among the first films available for sale. They were outrageously expensive – at least $100 – for films that seemed about as good as the third feature at the drive-in. I think they were priced with rental outfits in mind.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I think we rented and watched every cheese-ball, exploitative atrocity that combo liquor\/video store had. We were teenage gorehounds<\/em> looking for the scariest movie ever made.<\/em> We never did find it, but we did see gallons of stage blood that looked like poster paint, the occasional decapitation or hacked-off extremity that was obviously fake, lots and lots of T&A, and casts of thousands of washed-up, has-been stars mixing it up with never-would-be starlets who were somehow convinced that disrobing in a Grade Z horror flick was the ticket to stardom.<\/p>\n

We rented Toolbox Murders<\/strong><\/em> and wondered what the hell happened to Cameron Mitchell.<\/em> He was in High Chaparral!<\/strong><\/em> What was he doing murdering a bevy of scream queens with a True Value<\/em> circular’s worth of hardware? Did he need the work? Did he read the script before-hand?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The ad above and several others were from a brochure for VCI Home Entertainment which I probably picked up from that liquor store and recently uncovered. When I looked at it, a wave of nostalgia for those tacky times washed over me. It gives you a pretty good idea of what was available back in the dawn of the home video revolution in the late ’70s\/early ’80s. In the coming weeks, I’ll feature more ads from this brochure. Some of these movies have been remade. Others can be found at the dollar store on DVD. Stay tuned.<\/p>\n

…and remember to adjust your linear tracking for best picture quality!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Remember when Video Cassette Recorders were new? We got a Sears-branded, top loading, VHS machine around 1983 well after this 1978 ad appeared so I seriously doubt my Dad paid anywhere near $700 bucks for one. I remember the year … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[31,120,26],"tags":[458,459,76,461,460,456,457,462],"class_list":["post-3169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blast-from-the-past","category-curious-clutter","category-stuff-joe-likes","tag-exploitation","tag-gore","tag-horror","tag-mom-and-pop","tag-toolbox-murders","tag-vcr","tag-vhs","tag-video-store"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1ed1x-P7","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":36745,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2021\/11\/02\/be-kind-please-rewind\/","url_meta":{"origin":3169,"position":0},"title":"Be Kind – Please Rewind","author":"Joe","date":"November 2, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Sometimes I have a great notion, and a lot of times I have merely middling notions. It was while pursuing one of these middling notions that I came across a treasure trove! I was trawling the fabulous Internet Archive which is a great junk heap of pictures, prose, video, audio\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blast from the Past"","block_context":{"text":"Blast from the Past","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/blast-from-the-past\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Price Break! VCR for $699!","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/2410\/2406851836_44cf723857_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/2410\/2406851836_44cf723857_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/2410\/2406851836_44cf723857_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":37983,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2022\/06\/29\/relics-of-the-recent-past\/","url_meta":{"origin":3169,"position":1},"title":"Relics of the Recent Past","author":"Joe","date":"June 29, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"It's weird to think that Blockbuster is gone. I wasn't a regular customer because there was another chain closer to home, but they were everywhere. At the height of the popularity of video rentals, I always felt that large urban centers such as Philadelphia could use more video rental outlets.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blast from the Past"","block_context":{"text":"Blast from the Past","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/blast-from-the-past\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/blockbuster-sticker.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/blockbuster-sticker.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/blockbuster-sticker.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":37699,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2022\/06\/05\/desert-island-cinema-the-thing\/","url_meta":{"origin":3169,"position":2},"title":"Desert Island Cinema – The Thing","author":"Joe","date":"June 5, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Another movie that I couldn't live without is Howard Hawks' 1951 production of The Thing or more specifically The Thing From Another World. It's based on the short story \"Who Goes There?\" by John W. Campbell, Jr. The bare bones description of the story is that something mysterious has been\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Desert Island Cinema"","block_context":{"text":"Desert Island Cinema","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/desert-island-cinema\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Howard-Hawks-The-Thing.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Howard-Hawks-The-Thing.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Howard-Hawks-The-Thing.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3214,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2011\/06\/29\/dawn-of-the-home-video-revolution-or-ernest-borgnine-made-me-do-it\/","url_meta":{"origin":3169,"position":3},"title":"Dawn of the Home Video Revolution or Ernest Borgnine Made Me Do It!","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"June 29, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The great Ernest Borgnine as the devil in The Devil's Rain from 1975. This was one of those typical 70's films that featured stalwart veterans like Mr Borgnine and Keenan Wynn, up-and-comers like John Travolta and down-and-outers like Ida Lupino and William Shatner. This was also a pretty neat film\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blast from the Past"","block_context":{"text":"Blast from the Past","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/blast-from-the-past\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/ruby.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3278,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2011\/07\/08\/dawn-of-the-home-video-revolution-kingdom-of-the-spiders\/","url_meta":{"origin":3169,"position":4},"title":"Dawn of the Home Video Revolution…Kingdom of the Spiders","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"July 8, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"This one is for frequent visitor and commenter JT who mentioned this cinematic marvel in the comments section of my last Dawn of the Home Video Revolution post. As luck would have it, Kingdom of the Spiders is one of movies featured in the VCI video brochure from the early\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blast from the Past"","block_context":{"text":"Blast from the Past","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/blast-from-the-past\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/For-JT.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2426,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2011\/04\/14\/holy-high-tops-batman\/","url_meta":{"origin":3169,"position":5},"title":"Holy High Tops, Batman!!!","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"April 14, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Geek Cred returns with this fabulous pair of canvas sneakers emblazoned with the Batman logo! These Converse Sneakers were released to coincide with the 1989 Tim Burton movie. After the movie's release, and the VHS tape's release, and the VHS tape finding a home in Blockbuster's previously viewed rack, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Curious Clutter"","block_context":{"text":"Curious Clutter","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/curious-clutter\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Bat Sneakers","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3587\/3606770301_6807f72aee.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3169\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}