Today, let’s rewind time and examine a significant cultural touchstone in GenX’s life: the VHS cassette and video stores. Before 1977, the only way to watch a movie was in a theater, at a drive-in, or when a TV network aired it. What did that mean? Sometimes, people saw a movie one time, and that was it. They never watched it again. Then, along came JVC. Today, let’s rewind time and examine a significant cultural touchstone in GenX’s life: the VHS cassette and video stores. If you enjoy this article, please like it, share it, and subscribe to 7080: GenX Pop. Thanks!
Before 1977, the only way to watch a movie was in a theater, at a drive-in, or when a TV network aired it. What did that mean? Sometimes, people saw a movie one time, and that was it. They never watched it again. Then, along came JVC. Japan Victor Company was an electronics firm, later known as the Victor Company of Japan. JVC produced the first Japanese-made televisions, but in 1976, it developed a little item that would change the entertainment world: the VHS. The VHS, or Video Home System, was a consumer-level analog video recording cassette. Although the television industry had used magnetic tape video since the 1950s, consumers did not use videotape at home until the 1970s. A few companies had developed devices to record or watch videos, but the cost was prohibitive. The devices cost thousands of dollars. They were also bulky, some weighing up to sixty pounds. Some of them didn’t even offer a rewind feature. Sony developed the Betamax video format in 1975. Although many people considered Betamax the superior product, JVC’s VHS format quickly surpassed Betamax in popularity. In 1977, the first VHS-based VCRs hit shelves in America. What else happened in 1977? Film studios released Star Wars, Saturday Night Fever, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Smokey and the Bandit. These movies were massive hits that people wanted to watch again and again. The timing of the VHS and VCR couldn’t have been better. And entrepreneurs with their eyes on consumer behavior knew it. Video stores seemingly popped up overnight across America. According to Mental Floss, 15,000 video rental stores operated in 1985, and by 1987, consumers had purchased 37 million VCRs to play their rented movies. Blockbuster Video ruled the market for video store rental chains. The first one opened in 1985 in Dallas, Texas. By 2004, Blockbuster owned more than 9,000 stores. Its chief competitor was Hollywood Video. If you lived in a small town or a rural area like I did, you couldn’t bop down to a Blockbuster Video. You had to rely on locally owned stores. In small towns, video store owners set up shops where they could afford rent. That meant they sometimes operated in rundown buildings in sketchy neighborhoods. Savvier shop owners partnered with tanning salons or other small businesses to share space in the “better” areas. I loved local video stores. Blockbuster had multiple copies of hit movies, but I could find what I liked at the independent shops: foreign films, cult movies, and horror flicks. My favorite video store stood in a shopping center down the road from Monticello, on the outskirts of Charlottesville. If you couldn’t find what you were looking for elsewhere, you’d probably find it there. Local video stores were also superior to the chains because video clerks could be knowledgeable about movies. Director Quentin Tarantino was one such clerk before he became famous. Additionally, some clerks and owners developed warm relationships with their customers. My husband’s family rented Disney’s animated film Robin Hood so often that the owner finally told them to keep it. Oo-de-Lally! All video stores tended to be organized into sections by genre, such as action, comedy, romance, sci-fi, and horror. The only section I never browsed was the one behind the curtain (or saloon doors, in one case). You know the section—the little room with the naughty movies. Occasionally, I would see a middle-aged man give a furtive glance around the room before sneaking behind the curtain. One of the best parts of renting movies at the video store was the tangible experience of picking up the VHS boxes and turning them over to read the back. Usually, the front of the box featured the movie title, artwork or photos, the rating, and the stars. Often, the back offered a synopsis of the movie and a few more pictures from it. Video store patrons studied these for a long time. After all, it was a big commitment to shell out money, take the VHS home, put it into the VCR, and hit play. What if you made the wrong choice? You were stuck with it. Horror movies had the best box artwork. The worse the movie was, the better the box cover had to be to compel you to rent it. The renter often would get the movie home and start watching, only to realize that the cover had nothing to do with the movie. Horror movies released in VHS format were also the target of a censorship campaign in Great Britain. Mary Whitehouse, a British teacher, founded the National Viewers’ and Listeners’ Association (NVALA) to fight the distribution of content that she considered obscene. Her activism spurred the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to release a list of movies that they felt violated British obscenity laws: the so-called video nasties. Most of these videos were horror movies. Police seized videos, and the DPP prosecuted some producers, distributors, and retailers. Subsequently, Great Britain’s creation of the Video Recordings Act of 1984 imposed far greater restrictions on movies released on video cassettes than those applied to movies released in cinema. Movies shown uncut in theaters often suffered major edits for video distribution. Censors cut some films so heavily that the edited versions didn’t make sense. Eventually, in the 2000s, the authorities relented a bit, and British horror movie fans finally could see some of the movies as the filmmakers intended. The VHS leveled the playing field for independent movie studios and filmmakers. It was relatively cheap to release a movie direct-to-video instead of in theaters first. Movies released that way tended to have less-than-stellar reviews. However, some studios leaned into the direct-to-video market, especially for faith-based movies, family movies, animated sequels, erotic thrillers, and pornography. The VHS played other roles in GenX culture. It was recordable technology. You could tape a favorite TV show, make a copy of a movie (not that anyone would do that), or use a video camera to record important life events, such as weddings, graduations, and birthday parties. Ironically, the VHS format suffered the same fate as its early competitor, Betamax. It became obsolete due to another technological innovation. DVDs appeared on shelves in 1997; by 2003, DVD rentals overtook VHS tape rentals. In 2005, Walmart announced plans to stop selling VHS tapes. That same year, The Washington Post wrote an obituary for the VHS, noting that Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith would be the first Star Wars movie not to be released in the VHS format, and in 2006, The Los Angeles Times reported that A History of Violence was the last major motion picture released on VHS. By this time, most of the little video stores had disappeared. With the advent of Netflix, Redbox, and video-on-demand, it was only a matter of time before the giants fell. Blockbuster Video and Hollywood Video filed for bankruptcy in 2010. Today, only one Blockbuster Video store remains. In 2020, filmmakers released a documentary about the Oregon store. The allure of the VHS remains strong. In recent years, we’ve seen movies with plots that rely on videotapes, including Ringu and its American version, The Ring, V/H/S, Be Kind Rewind, and The Poughkeepsie Tapes. You’ll find several books and documentaries about the history of VHS, VHS culture, and VHS artwork. And VHS collectors will pay for pristine or unopened copies of VHS movies. Back to the Future, Gremlins, and Rambo: First Blood have sold in the thousand-dollar range. Recently, collectors bought The Goonies for $4000 and A Nightmare on Elm Street for $5000. Streaming has good points but doesn’t evoke the feelings I experienced during a trip to the video store. I will always fondly remember the VHS era. Next week, let’s talk about the GenX joy of getting your driver’s license. Thanks for reading! #genx #generationX #1980s #video #vhs #videotapes #videonasties #betamax #blockbuster #vcr
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AuthorNeva Bryan has published over 70 short stories, poems, and essays in literary journals, online magazines, and anthologies. She lives in the Virginia mountains with her husband and their dog. She also writes a series of essays about GenX life in the 1970s and 1980s. |