My sister lived on Guam 1983-84 [hubby in the air force]...she told me about these new machines from nearby Japan where you could watch 'movie tapes'...I was blown away! But hopes were soon dashed upon learning a VCR cost $1000...I knew I could never afford such a movie-lovers dream as this wonderful contraption.
Once the technology moved stateside, the price became more reasonable but as struggling early-career workers and newlyweds, we figured this was indeed a luxury that would have to wait.
Finally, we got our first VCR as a christmas gift in the mid '80s from my in-laws...the first movie we watched was "An Officer and a Gentleman."
What about you?
Posted by mamamiasweetpeaches (Member # 1715) on :
"TEX" I loved Matt Dillon. My parents had a vcr and a video store account but I never got to pick the movies. One day I just went "Look, you GOTTA let me watch this. Matt Dillon, for crying out loud!" and they did. And anyone who has seen TEX knows its a safe one to watch with your parents hanging over your shoulder.
Posted by CT......The Son Of Scarface (Member # 2903) on :
WOW!!! Good Question
I know you might not believe this but i remember!!!
It was the Evil Dead ......I was with me older brother and 1st Couisn and we all went to a local video store and i had 5 dollars burning a whole in pocket. So i give them the money to rent Evil Dead . Cause i was too young, and my mother was'nt going to rent it for me, she said i need to wait till i was a little older to seee this movie. You know what she was right!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by JimBrayFan (Member # 3831) on :
We had a VCR really early (and boy did it last!) And all I wanted to watch was The Pirate Movie. Because that's what I always grabbed when the folks took me to the local rental place in the early 80s. I would through a tantrum if it wasn't available.. well I was pretty young.
That and some anime Dracula movie that was pretty scary for a five year old.
Posted by SouthernKat (Member # 3239) on :
Hi,
My family may have been the first ones in our neighborhood to get a VCR since I remember that we had one in 1978. However, we used it to record TV shows. The first movie video we had was something "Goose" which was a world war 2 movie. My dad was/is a world war 2 fanatic.
In late 1985 and through most of 1986 I was away at college in Louisiana. When I returned in late 1986 my father had a VCR and a really good TV. And by this time video rental stores had started to pop up all over the place. The first movie that I personally rented was in early 1987 and it was.....
Love and Death with Woody Allen and Diane Keaton
The movie was very funny to me since I was a literature major in college and had read lots of the russian novels Woody was lampooning. But even if you have never read a word of russian prose you could probably enjoy the movie. It is as good as "Sleeper," which is one of his masterpieces.
SoutherKat
Posted by ISIS (Member # 1780) on :
Hmmm....I am not totally sure which one I rented personally first.
I remember my Uncle was the first one to get a VCR in our family...He was always the coolest on movies, he had a projector and a big screen, and we use to go to his house on Saturdays, and watch Sinbad and Mighty Joe Young on the projector....
I remember in the 6th grade me and a friend went up to his house and watched Grease on his VCR.
Me and my Aunt use to rent movies every Friday night and I can remember some of the first we ever rented were:
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Raiders of the Lost Arc and Purple Rain
When HBO came out, we watched most of our movies on there.
One of the first scary movies I ever saw was:
Silent Scream, I just sent it to cindymancini, and hope she likes it, cause it scared me to death, and so did :
The Legacy
Posted by cindymancini (Member # 679) on :
Good topic HipsterMom! I think the first video's we rented were National Lampoon's Class Reunion or Porky's or something. What I remember most is the video store we rented from. It was a little tiny place, like a quarter of the size of Blockbuster, however they had a way better selection .
It was next to a pizza parlor that we would all go to after football games in the fall. I can still remember the way the store smelled when you walked in the door. I can still picture the 2 people that worked at the counter and all the vhs tapes numbered behind them on the shelf.
It's weird but renting a movie back then was a whole different experience. Now everything is so commercialized. Cookie cutter, if you will. Do you think I will look back at Blockbuster and be able to tell you who worked behind the counter? Oh well...
Posted by ValleyCat (Member # 1322) on :
I have no idea about the first movie I rented. I'm a movie buff, so it was probably the limit of three for first time renters. Actually, video stores were so new back then, they might not have had a limit yet. Ouch..before someone else says it.
Btw, thank goodness I didn't listen to my brother and buy the beta. Posted by deathbystereo80 (Member # 2005) on :
Hmmmm, I think it was either Stand by Me or Dirty Dancing. Like you , Cindy, I remember that video store better than the movie. It was tiny, and had a really stong cat smell to it - the owner had this really hideous FAT and stinky cat. Perhaps that explains my cat-aversion... Posted by TKO (Member # 1471) on :
I never was able to convince my folks to buy a VCR as they were still very expensive in the beginning. When my best friend got one, we watched our video's at his place. The first movies we rented were: Fist Of Fury, XTRO and First Blood.
Then later in the mid 80's, one could rent these 'movieboxes' at your local video store. These metal suitcases with build-in VCR allowed unfortunate people to finally watch our movies at home.
Posted by Give me NOMS or give me death... (Member # 2688) on :
Flash Gordon or Enter The Dragon...cannot remember which was first for me but I remember being in total awe of those high tech machines...
Noms Posted by Rainbowbrite22 (Member # 2288) on :
I was a little kid when we got our vcr in the mid late 80s I remember renting the care bear movie I always rented that one Posted by joker (Member # 3840) on :
the first video i rented was not actuly a movie it was w.w.f.-wrestlemania the first movie i cctuly rented was footloos i rented more wrestling videos than actual movies now as an adult i own 99% of the videos i rented as a kid i got most of them for under 5 dollers
Posted by Kash (Member # 297) on :
Great question, can't remember the ones I rented (maybe 'Return of the Jedi') but some of the first movies I saw on video were 'Star Wars', 'The Outsiders', 'First Blood', 'Care Bears: The Movie' and 'Ghostbusters'.
Posted by GremlinBreakfast (Member # 2585) on :
I think ET was mine, which was played on our top-load VCR at the time!
My mother used to treat me to a Friday night movie when I was young, and for as long as I can remember I always spent a great amount of time in there choosing! Sometimes I would be running around for up to an hour, and she would get a little cranky!
My lasting memory I have of that particular video store, was the 'Fright Night' poster. It was put up in the Horror section that was always by the front door, and I used to sneak in and run straight past it. Haha, that freaky vampire scared me so much!
~grems!
Posted by logan5 (Member # 1467) on :
We rented our first video as we couldn't afford to buy.
Our first rentals were 'Beastmaster' (for me) and 'An American Werewolf In London' (for my older Brother and Sister). I watched them both, even though they said American Werewolf would scare me. They were right - I was terrified!
Posted by Rainbowbrite22 (Member # 2288) on :
I remember where I lived we had a video store called show time and the horror section was so freaky it had dim lighting and some posters up and even some fake spider webs to make it look creepy and you would step down into it it was awesome sweet movie memories
Posted by jlp937-Sunflower Goddess (Member # 1877) on :
Sixteen Candles is the first one that I can remember I don't know if it was the actual first one or not. I also remember renting Trick or Treat and not being able to watch it because we rented a VCR and it screwed up.
Posted by Chris Fulmer (Member # 3197) on :
I think it was either The Bugs Bunny/Roadrunner Movie or the Sesame Street Follow That Bird film for me.
Posted by Anna Sullivan (Member # 4010) on :
I think the first video that I ever rented (VHS of course, 'cause Beta Sucked!) was Grease. I then proceeded to re-rent it about fifty-nine times. I think the money my parents forked out to keep my sister and I happy with the land of Grease could have sustained a third world country back then. Of course, back then, an overnighter wasn't $7.95!!!! Posted by Lastdaysofrain (Member # 2542) on :
Dawn of the Dead on August 4th 1983 from Video Gallery on Main St. in Melrose, MA.
Posted by VanRayGTO (Member # 3562) on :
The first video I ever remember renting was Ghostbusters. The next thing I rented was The Toxic Avenger, and after that it's all a blur.
Posted by kat27 (Member # 3979) on :
Actually darling sister and wonderful keepers of eighties kitsch, I have the benefit of hindsight and 3 years. Our very first VCR tape (we owned it;it wasn't rented) was: "What's Happening to Me?" That's right, we had doctors for relatives and they thought that this was an acceptable cartoon 'movie' to inflict on us as 12/13 year olds. Actually, in hind-sight, it is really very good and an excellent resource for the classroom but sorry to break it to you darling sister I believe that our very first video was a cartoon look at puberty. Our second video was Grease. Such a difference!
First movie rental though would have to have been "The God's Must be Crazy".
Posted by raggedyman (Member # 4065) on :
the first video I ever rented? oh man, hard to answer - my parents had a video shop and so I grew up watching pretty much everything from there! but I think the first film I ever watched on video was ENTER THE DRAGON...
Posted by Anna Sullivan (Member # 4010) on :
Darling sister, if you re-read the post, the question was "What was the first movie you ever RENTED?" Go on, check, that's what is says. Therefore, I'm right. There were probably movies I was subjected to as a child, in which I had no input (e.g the God's must be crazy) but the first movie I actively wanted to rent was Grease. Sorry, check mate babe.
Posted by kat27 (Member # 3979) on :
Oh it's not check mate love, merely check. There are so many moves we COULD take from here. I love a scandal as much as the next person but perhaps we should end our friendly rivalry here? Agree with you that you were most probably deprived as a child and have very little memory of anything else. Game, set and match darling. Love your wonderful, wise and totally contemptable sister! P.S. you are probably right with the grease thing but there were several others. What about 'Doctors' or 'The Girls of St Trinians?' or 'The Neverending Story'?
Posted by Adriana (Member # 4090) on :
The first VHS video I saw was a Christmas present. It was Young Sherlock Holmes (1985, I think). I LOVED it and I was so excited that I could watch it anytime I wanted. I watched it every day. I STILL love that movie but no one else has ever seemed to know what movie I am talking about. Maybe someone here will know it.
Posted by Chris Fulmer (Member # 3197) on :
I do. Thanks to AMC showing it a couple of years ago, I've been hooked as well. It's a prime example of how Chris Columbus was a great writer before he became a great director. Good thing the Wright Brothers didn't get to see they were actually coopted out of the first flight. Is there any DVD petitions going around fori t, because I'd sign it.
Posted by logan5 (Member # 1467) on :
'Young Sherlock Holmes' was a childhood favourite. It's funny that it isn't well remembered.
Posted by wallyum (Member # 2746) on :
That would have been "Breaking Away", two years before we had a VCR.
Posted by Rancid (Member # 4108) on :
Using a borrowed VCR for the weekend it was "Risky Business" & "Into The Night"
On our own VCR it was "THE NEW KIDS"
Posted by TheHornyViking (Member # 2691) on :
Oh, yeah! I like this topic. I remember long, long ago when I watched The Hobbit cartoon movie on video, and that was one of the first my family rented.
It also could've been The Last Unicorn. Yeah, I know, my family rented very disturbing anime films for me to watch as a tot.
Posted by bigworld (Member # 3107) on :
The film I watched all the time when I was younger was Enid Blytons Island of Adventure
I watched it every day and it drove my Mum mad
I still have a copy, copied from Betamax to VHS and the theme tune can still make her angry
I would love to get a better copy of this does anyone remember it?
It probabally wasn't shown in the states (Bill was played by an actor from Emerdale Farm!!!!)
Posted by the young warrior (Member # 9554) on :
The first 2 movies I ever watched on home video were the comedies - airplane and monty python's - the life of brian.
[ 23. February 2015, 00:46: Message edited by: the young warrior ]
Posted by Bernie_Lomax (Member # 8571) on :
Ghostbusters was the first movie. It was 1985 when we rented it.
Posted by kevdugp73 (Member # 5978) on :
I really can`t recall the first movie I rented. I do have vivid memories of waiting waiting waiting to rent Wrestlemania 3....man that was hard to get. Finally got my hands on a copy and watched it over and over.....great memories....
Posted by Crash (Member # 7484) on :
My first home video experience was Kind Hearts and Coronets with Alec Guinness which I picked up on VHS from a drive-through photo-developing store called Fotomat, circa 1979. Very few folks remember those things, but at one time, there were thousands of these little booths across the U.S. and just about every decently sized town had one. Drive-through movie rentals! Some things were just years ahead of their time. Here we are not even 40 years later, and not only are Fotomats extinct, but film developing is too. And video rental stores are headed there soon.
[ 13. April 2015, 20:33: Message edited by: Crash ]
Posted by Johnny Roarke is reckless (Member # 9826) on :
It wasn't the first movie i ever saw on home video.. but the first one i ever took home myself, was..
-drum roll-
REVENGE OF THE NINJA !
It was april 1986 and my life was changed forever. (for the better or for worse depends on one's point of view)
Funny thing : Revenge Of The Ninja gets a blu-ray release next month.. so i guess that means i've come full circle ! Posted by TerdNthePoolGGB (Member # 9818) on :
i think it was the Golden Child with ed murphy
Posted by aTomiK (Member # 6575) on :
Must have been The Octagon, Robbers of the Sacred Mountain or Acapulco Gold.
My father was working in the local electric and plumbing company. They had also home appliances for sale there and yes, they rented VHS tapes. VHS were everywhere back in those days
So, my father worked there as a plumber and we practically got to see films for free, not a bad deal!
Posted by Blake (Member # 75) on :
Return to oz. The wheelers freaked me out and still do a little
Posted by Dolenz85 (Member # 10835) on :
The first video I ever rented (well my mother rented) was The Elephant Man with John Hurt and Anthony Hopkins. I was allowed to bring some friends over as the VHS Ferguson Videostar was new and it was an opportunity to show it off, although the choice of film was hardly kid-friendly!
Posted by TerdNthePoolGGB (Member # 9818) on :
Welcome back Dolenz85!
Posted by Pittsburghgirl (Member # 7514) on :
I'm fairly sure the first movie that was rented in our house, by my parents, was Raiders of the Lost Ark. We got our first VCR in 1981 or 82. I couldn't tell you the first video I rented myself. I didn't have an account until the early 90's, at the local grocery store, Giant Eagle. I remember my Dad used to rent most of the videos at Phar Mor, but we also had a great little locally owned shop, and he had a great selection. He'd also give you a call if you wanted to reserve a movie; he'd let you know it was in and to come pick it up.
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I always rented that one ![[Frown]](frown.gif)