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Posted (edited)

In 1982 I rode with my dad from the eastern suburbs of St Paul to an electronics store off First Avenune in Minneapolis to buy a top loading Sony Betamax for $600 (a large sum back then). We brought it back home and I helped him connect the RF-type coax and U-type audio feeds to the back of our 21" RCA console. There was one movie rental store within 5 miles, it was about the size of a Subway sandwich shop, including a small, linen closet sized "adult" section that was separated from the rest of the store by a dark red shower curtain.

We came home with two movies that night: The Onion Field and 9 to 5. Quite the double feature. In the coming weeks we'd rent Airplane, Rocky III, Caddyshack and Porkys (I was told to look away when titties showed up).

Celebrate the old days of movies on tape. Whatcha got?

 

Edited by GhostOfTomJoad
Posted

Maybe Raiders of the Lost Ark?

 

Fuck if I know, that was a long ass time ago...

Posted
2 minutes ago, Continental Op said:

I think it was Vacation, which we rented at the grocery store.  

Very solid. I remember us being on the waiting list for Vacation (they had maybe 5 copies in the whole store).

Posted

I was born in '82 so my whole childhood movie watching was centered around renting VHS from the local movie shop. In fact, my 1st T-ball team was sponsored by an outfit called The Movie Shop.

 

Couldn't tell ya what my first VHS movie was.

 

 

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Posted (edited)

Bought a Quasar VHS deck in 1980 - 4 hour record/playback capability. Weighed 40 pounds. Bought a separate video camera that weighed in at about 12 pounds and a tripod. Used the $2,000 outfit to start a part time business taping weddings. Taped a lot of our kids Little League & soccer games with it.

First movie rented to view? Don’t recall the title, but I think the male star was named Harry Reems.

Edited by Armybrat
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  • Haha 1
Posted

Debbie Does Dallas at a friend’s house.

When we got our first VCR a few months later, it was Mad Max. I had no idea it existed but i was obsessed with the Road Warrior and it was on the shelf when my parents bought the VCR at the video store.

Posted

Raiders of the Lost Ark - I remember it was New Year’s night 1984 because it was the evening after the Cotton Bowl loss to Georgia. Didn’t even realize Miami had beaten Nebraska in the Orange Bowl until after the movie.

Seeing the Nazi faces melting off freaked me out, but the Cotton Bowl loss was much more traumatizing.

Posted

I don't remember the first movie, but I remember the first magical moment I was captivated by the wonders of home video tape. It was a Sony Beta Max display that was showing the replay of the Cowboys game vs the Redskins, with Roger fn' Staubach leading the charge. I needed to have that in my life.

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Posted

Not sure the first but always rented from the local movie shop.  One of the early ones I remember was watching The Best of Times.  Great old Robin Williams movie.

Posted

I remember the corded remote control that my dad bought for the Betamax about 6 months later. He didn't want to spend the extra $50 initially. Lulz.

When we got to Austin in '84 dad decided that we needed a 2nd Betamax (even though Sony was already losing the format wars badly). I was amazed at how much sleeker/smaller they'd already become. The Blockbuster at Anderson Mill/183 hadn't opened yet. I remember us going to some video rental shop near 620/183 but can't remember the name of it. They had a smalll beta section. I kinda wish I still had the stupid laminated membership card they used to give out.

Anyone remember I Heart Video & Pizza off 35 and Parmer (I think)? That seemed like a brilliant concept at the time.

Posted
15 minutes ago, DCA_HORN said:

No idea what the first movie was at home but we went and bought my grandparents a VCR specifically to record the Iran contra hearings.

How many hours did you spend teaching them how to program it to record?

Posted

This thread made me remember my first DVD was Trainspotting. You got 3 free DVDs with the purchase of a player at Best Buy. Picked up that, Time Bandits, and Animal House. At the time, I didn’t know about the newfangled cables you needed to use so I just used the regular component cable. The picture looked really grainy. My girlfriend and I were like “what’s the big deal? It looks like shit.”

 

 

 

 

 

Posted

The Long Riders was first, then Caddyshack for the double feature.
The LR movie was one of the first westerns (IMO) that the action scenes were as realistic as can be, even by today’s standard.

Still own the DVD versions of both.

Posted

It was either Jaws, The Jerk or If You Don't Stop It...You'll Go Blind, not sure which I watched first but watched all three soon after getting our first VCR in like '81.

Posted

Can’t recall my specific first VHS but this thread reminded me that the local library had VHS and Beta tapes you could rent back in the early 80s.

 

Posted

Got a VCR around '80, first set I remember:

Blazing Saddles, The Jerk, Superman, Bugs Bunny Road Runner Movie, Grease, and Charlotte's Web.  Oh, and the Groove Tube, but I wasn't supposed to know about that.

Posted
2 hours ago, Radical Larry said:

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Heh, yeah I know 1987 is like a long time after those things came out. I probably saw a buncha them on someone else's VCR but this was definitely the first flick I rented with my own system.  So it's the first one I remember, to be honest.  I did see some stuff on those old LaserDiscs which were very cool, but I can't remember shit.

So this one is my first real VCR memory.

Posted

Can’t remember the first one, but we were the first of our friends with a stereo vcr and a nice stereo system. We must have watched The Breakfast Club 20 times with different friends because they were always amazed by the sound. Btw, that stereo vcr was $1,000 in 1984.

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Posted

Ron Jeremy was doinking both his girlfriend and some woman who was married to Peter North, but then Peter North forgave his wife, had a flashback where he doinked some Asian lady, then he ended up doinking his own wife and their new friend, who used to be Ron Jeremy's girlfriend. Ron Jeremy found out about it and stormed out, emotionally distraught.

  • Haha 2
Posted

I guarantee you we had the first VCR in our little home town. The first night we had it, my dad was going to record Baa Baa Black Sheep. I was in 7th grade and needed to be picked up after football practice. I was scared to call my parents to pick me up because I didn’t want the ringing phone to mess up the recording. The year was 1978. 

I don’t remember the first movie I watched, but the first rated R movie I watched on it was Tom Horn. 

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