Magnetic Video Corporation

**Magnetic Video Corporation** was a home video/home audio duplication service that operated between 1968 and 1982.

Magnetic Video Corporation was established by the co-founder Andre Blay (1937-2018), an American film producer in 1968 with Leon Nicholson and was based in Farmington Hills, Michigan. In 1977, it became the first corporation to release theatrical motion pictures onto Betamax and VHS videocassette for consumer use. (Cartridge Television, Inc. preceded it in 1972 when it introduced the Avco Cartrivision home VCR with a line of major motion pictures available for rent on the Cartrivision videocassette format. Cartrivision went off the market thirteen months after its debut.)

Magnetic Video is notable for its contribution to the birth of the modern-day home video empire and the birth of video rental systems. In the fall of 1977, Blay came up with the idea to release pre-recorded motion pictures on videocassette. That year, he convinced 20th Century Fox, which was then in financial difficulty, to license fifty of their films for home video release in VHS and Betamax formats. Blay also established the **Video Club of America** in order to sell the titles directly to consumers by mail.

That same year, George Atkinson bought one Betamax and one VHS copy of each of the first 50 movie titles from Magnetic Video that were then being sold to the public and established the Video Station rental company from a storefront in Los Angeles. He charged $50 for an "annual membership" and $100 for a "lifetime membership," which provided the opportunity to rent the videos for $10 a day. This and similar video stores were a success, and Magnetic Video took off, adding titles from the following companies in the next four years, in addition to continuing to release original titles from Fox:

* **1978:** Viacom, RBC Films/The Charles Chaplin estate, and AVCO Embassy Pictures
* **1979:** Brut Productions, Bill Burrud Productions, and Pathé newsreels
* **1980:** ABC Pictures, ITC (Magnetic's first release from ITC was *The Muppet Movie*), and American Film Theatre
* **1981:** United Artists (UA; including pre-1950 Warner Bros. films which were owned by UA at that time), in addition to establishing short-lived sports and LaserDisc divisions.

The Magnetic Video project was such a success that it soon came over to the United Kingdom as "Magnetic Video UK" in 1978. Not long after, Magnetic Video branched into Australia, trading under "Magnetic Video Australia".

In March 1979, Fox purchased Magnetic Video, which was a small OTC traded public company (Blay was a major shareholder and Chairman). In 1981, Magnetic Video began to issue films in LaserDisc format. In January 1982, shortly after Blay's departure from the company, Fox reorganized Magnetic Video into **20th Century-Fox Video**. Later that same year, Fox merged its video operations with CBS Video Enterprises, resulting in the creation of CBS/Fox Video on June 18, 1982.

Magnetic Video Corporation famously opened its video releases with an animation of their logo and the words "MAGNETIC VIDEO CORPORATION" repeatedly scrolling upwards and mirrored in the background, and an announcement would come over the mellow guitar and horn music playing:

* **"By special arrangement with (movie studio name), Magnetic Video Corporation is proud to offer the following major motion picture on videocassette."**

## Library

### Fall 1977 (The first 50 titles)

The earliest prints of Magnetic Video releases lacked an F.B.I. Warning bumper. Instead, the tapes would typically cut to the Magnetic Video logo, followed by the film itself. The front covers were black/white slipcases, and featured a photo of a scene from the film. In early 1980, they were changed to have the title above the photo. The original back cover catalog listed all the 50 films from Fox, from *Hello, Dolly!* to *A Farewell to Arms* (Fall 1977). Also, in these days, the balance between tapes on two-tape releases was more equal, or else the ratio between program and blank tape was greater on the second tape. The original 1977 printings had their tapes manufactured in, and imported from, Japan.

### Spring 1978

In 1978, a red FBI Warning was added to the start of the tapes. It, and successors based upon it, would carry over to subsequent Fox video labels (it would also be used by some Embassy Home Entertainment titles after their split from Magnetic/TCF Video, and into the 1990s by Worldvision Home Video). Some back covers listed the newly-released titles from Viacom (Spring 1978) and/or the estate of Charles Chaplin (Summer 1978), others listed those plus some more Viacom titles and the first 15 from Avco-Embassy (Fall 1978A), and others listed everything from *Hello, Dolly!* to *The Sound of Music*. Around this time, newer pressings of older two-tape films started filling the first tape more.

### Summer 1978

#### The Estate of Charles Chaplin (RBC Films)

The Chaplin titles had no back catalogs; just descriptions of the films.

### Winter 1979

A single title was released in mid-February 1979. In addition, virtually all titles up to this point were reissued with the back catalog listing everything from *Hello, Dolly!* to *The Sound of Music*.

#### 20th Century Fox

* Put on moratorium in November 1981 in anticipation of an upcoming stereo reissue.

### Summer 1979

The first version of the back covers for 1979 (Summer 1979) listed all the titles (except, for some reason, for *Fantastic Voyage* and *Von Ryan's Express*), plus a few from Avco-Embassy that never got released. The second (Fall 1979A) and third (Fall 1979B) versions of the back covers list different tiles (the latter including some new releases) along with "And many more...".

#### 20th Century Fox

* The 20th Century Fox Television logo of the era appears at the end.
* Later printings ended with a trailer for "The Empire Strikes Back."
* Put on moratorium in November 1981 in anticipation of an upcoming stereo reissue.

#### Radio Corporation of America

* The Magnetic Video Corporation logo does not appear on this release, nor does the FBI warning screen.

### Fall 1979

Beginning with this wave, the warning on the front of the box was re-aligned. In addition, the "T.M." trademarks were now printed on the spines of the tape cartridges by the Magnetic logo, and titles from Avco-Embassy now carried a mini-logo of such studio on the fronts and sides of the packaging.

#### Bill Burrud Productions

Wildlife documentaries produced by wildlife expert Bill Burrud. At least 6 of them were released by Magnetic Video in 1979. All have specially-patterned marquees reflecting nature itself, and even most of the normally white parts of the slipcover use this pattern as well.

#### Pathé News

At least 4 different collections of public domain newsreels from the French company were released by Magnetic Video in 1979; as with the Chaplin titles, there was no back catalog.

### March 1980

At first, the back catalog was the same as before, except it now carried a 1980 copyright date.

### May 1980

The back catalog was the same as before, but the font had changed, the title makeup was changed, and the marquee was now at the top.

#### ITC Entertainment

Most ITC Entertainment releases featured an Associated Film Distribution logo, the American arm of ITC, or else that of other local American distributors of ITC's films. Magnetic's first title from ITC Entertainment was 1979's *The Muppet Movie*.

* Originally filmed in the Academy ratio and intended to be shown in widescreen; this release was cropped from a widescreen transfer.
* The Associated Film Distribution logo has its original music on the original 1980 release, while it's silent on the 1981 and 1984 (CBS/FOX) releases.
* 1970 MPAA rating card appears at the end of the original 1980 release.
* This was the only ITC Magnetic Video release with the gray 1980 back catalog.

### July 1980

Around this time, the company got a new logo: the angled letters "M" and "C" written in a rounded font, with the inward-facing edges turning into lines; with a small triangle in-between (sometimes colored red), the negative space between the letters formed a "V". The company's name and a Twentieth Century-Fox byline were written in a thin font, beneath the logo. This only ever appeared on the packaging of tapes and promotional material; the tapes themselves continued to use the 1977 mirrored-M logo. (It did make an on-screen appearance on the MVC co-produced video compilation *A Golden Decade of College Football* in 1981, however.)

#### ABC Video Enterprises

Some films either had the ABC Pictures logo, or the ABC Pictures International logo. Most films that had the latter on the tape originally had the domestic 1968 version. ABC Pictures films were originally distributed by Cinerama Releasing, but such logo was removed on most Magnetic Video releases.

#### American Film Theatre

14 were produced for Motion Picture Theaters from 1973 to 1975, and all of them were released by Magnetic Video in 1980. They came in large leather black bookcases. On the front was the words "Video Playhouse" written in script on the top, and on the bottom was a small picture from the film, and the title in script font.

### 1981

Towards the end of 1981, the company got one last logo change; it was basically the text from beneath the "MVC" logo ("MAGNETIC VIDEO" in thin letters), only increased in size. Again, the original semi-circles logo continued to be used at the start of the tapes.

#### United Artists Corporation

United Artists' library included films that were previously distributed by Warner Bros. and owned by now-UA subsidiary Associated Artists Productions; also, earlier UA releases from Magnetic Video featured Transamerica references to the company. The sale to MGM wouldn't be finalized until August 1981, and following that, Transamerica then ordered UA to remove their name from the logos of all their films. Transamerica references were also seen on early CED and LaserDisc releases of United Artists films, earlier in 1981. Transamerica logos are also rumored to appear on UK Intervision Video releases of UA films from December 1980.

### 1982

* This version is missing Emanuelle's conversation with the missionary outside the airport.
* Laura Gemser, the star of the film, is credited as Emanuelle.
* The back of the box says "Copyright 1982 Magnetic Video Corporation".
* The last release to use the Magnetic graphic on their packaging.

## See also

* The CBS/Fox Company
* 20th Century Studios Home Entertainment
* The CBS/Fox Company (duplicator)