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your First Video & rental Movie experiences..

3K views 31 replies 24 participants last post by  Shane661 
#1 ·
anyone remember their first video rental experience and the store ..? Mine would be Video Only Vancouver BC canada in and around ..Feb/Mar 1981 (late winter).. Located at 1500 W Broadway . .the store on the north side sold TV's and Video cassette Players/ recorders .. but they were the ONLY store for a few fleeting weeks at that time that couldn't rent you video movies as the practice at that time was not authorized.. so their practice was for the few dozen movies they had.. you had to Purchase a title from $85 to $140 each.. and if you returned the title within 7 days they would give you 95% credit on file to buy another title..., cumbersome but True!. .I had to come in from Port Moody, long drive, my first purchase was Blazing Saddles for $90 .,( I remember being so fascinated at home holding the VHS cartridge in my hand and knowing that the entire 90 min comedy was in my hand It was amazing .... really! ) ...

Then a week later back to get another movie with my $85.50 credit.... but the small selection of titles Video Only had ran up to over $140 retail .. so my next purchase was (for my five year old daughter ) The Wizard of OZ.. and then. .......wouldn't you GUESS it- ..But in the spring of 1981 'three NEW video stores' opened up!! .. One in Richmond and one in North Vancouver at 11th Lonsdale both were named Video Stop . and a third store opened in East Burnaby along E. Hastings 4400 blk? named Laser Video.. The Video business policy's had now opened up.. that you could indeed rent vhs/beta movies., but the titles were expensive.. running $79 to $149 wholesale each !! .. so Laser Video being my nearest store had a policy of a $50 'onetime' membership that in turn gave you a punch card for one free movie a month (@$5) rental..

A Deal ! So what was I to do with my Wizard of OZ tape..?? well I sucked it up and decided to make one more purchase and then to never return the purchase would be mine for ever.. But it had to be a good title so I picked ( for $130 ) - 2001 a Space Odyssey! ., which I was happy to do so.. not knowing or even envisioning that my purchase was pan and scan and in mono .. LOL .... those were the days ... More on the future of other stores later.. ( i.e. 7-11 , which was a long time before Blockbusters) .....................
 
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#2 ·
I was to young when video VHS still existed ,
but I remember my dad taking me to the video store and I would only care about psone CD games,
One time I saw 4.99 on the label of spyro the dragon and thought - what a steal!
so I got my 5 bucks allowance and found out it was for rental, the whole time I thought this store called block buster was selling them for that cheap.
 
#3 ·
I do remember that my family got their first VHS player in 1985 and there was a video rental store near by. I don't remember what movie we rented first, but I do remember going there every weekend and my brothers and I would argue over what movie we would get.
 
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#4 ·
my first purchase was Blazing Saddles for $90 .,( I remember being so fascinated at home holding the VHS cartridge in my hand and knowing that the entire 90 min comedy was in my hand It was amazing .... really! ) ...
What a great detail. VHS tapes were already commonplace when I was growing up, so it's fascinating to read about your perception or concept of "movies" and "storage" shifting in real time.

Already in this short thread lots of neat memories shared. I remember frequenting my local Blockbuster as a kid, and like Arisen Dogma, I was more focused on the game rentals. I can't remember the first movie I rented, but it was almost certainly something like Die Hard.
 
#5 ·
Pink Floyd the wall on the biggest TV we could find, loud stereo, parents out of town, and some really good pot. I had great fun collecting anything VHS I had not seen yet, I had all the mash episodes, and some really great old WW II propaganda films, stuff where you could hear the shells coming in, camera man running for the bunker and kabloom! Great stuff. VHS was awesome and I miss it. I never really got into DVD's. I was more into music, and now am a fan of all the different electronic genre. I became bored of netflix fast, and right now my samsung tv reboots everytime an episode ends, then the tv restarts itself, and I have to wait several minutes for it to "boot up", to let me back into netflix again.
 
#6 ·
The first vhs movie I can remember was "Apocalypse Now " ,probably rented in 1982 or 83 . I had wanted to see it in the theater in 1979 , but my mom thought an 8 year old shouldn't see that kind of film . Luckily a few years later my dad was happy I hadn't picked that Star Wars crap( his feeling) at the video store so I got to watch what to this day I consider the best movie I've ever seen .
 
#7 · (Edited)
your First Video & rental Movie experiences..

My step mom was a manager at a Fox Photo Video, needless to say we probably watched too many movies lol. The first movie I ever rented was Austin Powers when I was 17. It was at a Hollywood Video. The guy who recommended it was a quirky middle aged cinephile in a cummerbund with a name tag “Lando”. He must of had Aspergers (so does my cousin so please don’t take offense) because he could barely look you in the eye but could tell you every production/cast member of almost any tape they had. I watched that movie about a hundred times on a huge 27” Sony Trinitron CRT. I also probably paid a hundred dollars in late fees, worth every penny.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
#8 ·
anyone remember their first video rental experience and the store ..?
I don't remember the name of the store at this point, but I do remember the place renting movies and VCRs, so that's what we did one weekend before we had a family VCR - rented one alone with the movie "Enter the Ninja"...... LOL. :eek:
 
#11 ·
Neat thread. My earliest memories of going to a video store is, of course, going with my parents two cities over to the nearest Blockbuster around age 4-5. They would rent their stuff and I would get to pick a video from the kid's section. I remember they had small CRTs everywhere that were mounted inside fun, colorful shapes all playing cartoons and it was like a sensory overload. I had a thing where I'd rent the same tapes over and over again -- I remember Bobby's World tapes, Home Alone, Problem Child, Blank Check, and Milk Money were in constant rotation. Why they just didn't buy the movies is beyond me...

My older brother's preferred rental place was the Wherehouse so we'd go there too -- and it was also a lot closer to our house. I remember my dad picking me up very excited one night after he got off work because Jurassic Park had come out on VHS that day. We went to the Wherehouse to buy our copy. I remember standing in front of the black cardboard shipper filled with Jurassic Park tapes. It seemed huge.

All this, of course, was enjoyed on our HUGE Mitsubishi 31" tube TV that was purchased from Good Guys. My dad still has the receipt and the information pamphlet for his Mitsubishi Three Diamond credit card. We even had one of those red race car VHS rewinders with the headlights that lit up.
 
#13 ·
When I got my first VHS machine in the mid 70s I paid like $1200 for it and I got it wholesale. It was the size of a microwave oven. There were no video stores for the next five years. I would show the machine off to my friends and every single one of them asked the same question first. "What are you going to do with it?" My answer was I was going to watch Sunday Afternoon Taped instead of Saturday Night Live. No more staying up until 1 am. Eventually Salzer's in Ventura started renting tapes. I never could understand the 'rewind be kind' attitude but for some reason it was really a sin not to rewind.
 
#14 ·
1984 nextdoor neighbour got the first VHS player in the street and we all sat around as 2 families and watched Evil Dead and First Blood.
I was only 12 and would never think of showing those movies now to my 2 sons. Back in those days we watched just about anything as we just picked films randomly and had no idea what they were about.
 
#15 ·
I can remember when video tapes first came out. The VHS and betamax wars lol. Heck I am old enough to remember when there were no calculators, digital watches and microwave ovens. I was kind of lucky, my uncle was a photographer and owned his own framing shop and gallery. He got in on the ground floor of video rentals and also video taped weddings and stuff. As kids (15 or so) my friend and I used to spend the weekend at his shop. We would help him around the shop doing odd jobs and he would pay us. Then we would spend the evenings binge watching movies after closing. I couldn't tell you the first one I watched but I can tell you it was probably horror. We watched stuff like C.H.U.D., Alien, Friday the Thirteenth, Halloween. All the stuff kids were not supposed to watch lol. Even some X rated stuff if we could get away with it.

We had a VCR in our house, thanks to him. He sold my mom a used RCA for half price. Unfortunately we lived out in the country and the closest town was pretty small. So not much in the way of rentals. Eventually a few popped up though. There were no chain stores then, just mom and pop stuff. Like the grocery store would have a little video section or something.

Then when I was in the Air Force in the late 80's to early 90's I remember laser disk being a thing. Never bought one thank god because that trend didn't go far. I had plenty of friends that had them though. In the military expensive audio and video equipment was kind of a thing. I think mainly because you ended up over seas at some point and could get some really good deals.
 
#17 ·
Antelope Video! They had a model train that circled the building on a track up near the ceiling. Had a tunnel that took it into the adult video closet and back out. There was also a hot girl that worked there that was really into me but I was too young and dumb to go after her. Lifes regrets. I did make it into the adult section a few times tho! :D
 
#18 ·
I miss the VHS days blockbuster, hollywood video, the sounds VCR's made when they operated. I do remember that I used to love renting , movies, my favorites were "twister" the indiana jones trilogy, the young indiana jones movies, when I was a kid, If i accidently rented something with women in underwear in it, or exposed body parts I'd panic. And cover my eyes. When I saw titanic in the theater I screamed so loud the whole theater laughed.
 
#20 · (Edited)
What a great topic! I remember as a kid one day that our next door neighbors (in 1982 I believe) rented out a VHS player which cost $20 per day plus you had to put down a refundable deposit of $100. They actually came over and let us borrow it for a few hours and gave us Raiders of the Lost Ark to go with it. Needless to say, we were blown away at the experience even though our television at the time was just a 19" Sony!


Fast forward a couple of years to the summer of 1984 and my Mom went to Sears in West Edmonton Mall without telling us and purchased a Sears brand Beta VCR for $450. We were quite pleasantly surprised by this. Back in those days, Sears actually rented out movies (up until about a year later) and the very first movie that we rented was none other than Escape From New York. It was awesome. Unfortunately, I don't recall what movie we purchased first. Still, great memories. I remember several times my Dad and I going to Sears to rent movies although back in those days, there were loads of video stores out there!
 
#21 ·
I had a really great setup for renting VHS tapes- the local mom/pop store was located in a mall that was on my way home from work... I would just pop in and pick a tape- go home and watch it, drop it off the next night on the way home and get a new one.


It was a friendly place too, the employees were all my age- 25ish or so, made friends with them... dated the sister of one of the girls for a while and made friends with their friends. We became a group that used to go out to Ground Round for Buffalo Wings on MNF gamenights.


Good times for sure!
 
#22 ·
ttodd0450 said:
anyone remember their first video rental experience and the store ..?
 
I dont remember my FIRST todd but I remember one time we rented a movie and @ the end of the tape (the very end) I recorded a song on the tape... (It was a rap song if I remember right) -- I just did it for the fun of it (probably no one ever went down that far to the end and heard it though) ..... I didnt wanna ruin the movie (I WOULDNT EVER DO THAT!!)

Ya know in all my years since then collecting VHS buddy,I havent ever gotton that tape again!!! (I dont even remember what movie it was) I think it was rented from Blockbuster but I dont recall anymore........




 
#23 ·
LOL I used to do one better .. I'd take the a vhs movie that I had rented and wait at least 10 seconds beyond the final final credits and the screen was now black but still rolling ,, and I stick a 6 or 7 minutes of a recent Siskel and Ebert Movie review of that same title recording it on the in the remaining few minutes of video tape that was left on the spool ...


and I never heard from the store of this practice being discovered and if it was I'd deny it ...



and while I have your ear ( eye) right now ., I read somewhere in the previous posts before I got to this last post about rewinding and the practice of always rewinding your tapes..



One area that always got my goat was the fact that VHS (and beta to a degree) used a lot of tape spooling out and tape spooling in , and the arm mechanisms within the VCR for this practice of spooling out and spooling most always damaged the tape. It would crinkle or crease or the audio edge ( linear) would get pinched and the tapes would not hold up after numerous plays at a rental store .. Even a brand new $100 title out of the box could and did get wrecked on the first VCR that was in dire need of 'medical mechanic' attention.



Video store may purchase the movie tape on a Tuesday.. and by months end it may have been played at least ( the popular titles ) 30 times ..



My rental store in the early 1980's once told me the most mileage they ever got out of a single video title was Arthur with over 700 rentals in two years . and that just rentals only never mind how many times it was physically played . Laser disc and DVD's were a godsend when introduced in late 80's and late 90's as the disc would only be subject to greasy fingers and scratched surfaces on a coffee table ..
 
#24 ·
Hehe thats funny sticking a review @ the end of the movie :D

I cant stand people who say how much they love those VHS TAPE REWINDERS... They are horrible!!

They slam the tape AT FULL SPEED when it stops and thats NOT GOOD for the tape!!!




 
#25 ·
I remember renting Adventures in Babysitting as a kid and having to get a little circular green tag from the wall if you wanted VHS or a red one if you wanted Beta.



Side note, one of the happiest moments I remember from childhood involved a rental place called "Banana Video" in 3rd grade. A friend of mine told me they rented Nintendo games there which I thought was the coolest thing ever. I convinced my parents to take me there to rent a game, and they had a promotional drawing to win a NES. Turns out I was the only person who entered so I ended up winning. So growing up I had a NES in my room and a NES in the living room. I don't smile in pictures, but I still have the picture of me at the store holding the Nintendo box with the biggest dumb smile on my face.
 
#26 ·
My grandparents bought a Betamax around 1980, and we bought a VHS in 1983. Ours was a JC Penney model that was basically a rebadged Panasonic. I don't remember the first video we rented, but it was from a Mom/Pop shop with the green and red tags on the shelves. $5 for 3 nights or 3 for $10 for 3 nights. There was an 'adult' basket of box covers to the side of the checkout counter that you could flip through if you were 18 or older and/or distract the cashier.

Be Kind and Rewind.
 
#27 ·
Yea sadly people didnt care and had to be threatend with additional fees if they didnt rewind! (And even then some didnt)




 
#29 ·
I don't remember my first rental. But I do have a "most memorable" rental experience. What I do remember is meeting the woman I married, while renting a VHS from an Erol's video store.

I used to rent a ton of movies, since the store was within a short walk. I had my eye on a girl who worked the counter, to ask her out. So, I went in, to get that date...only, a different girl stepped up to process my rental. So, I was like, the hell with it...and I asked her out instead! We were married within about 2 months.

We are now divorced, lol.
 
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