Wherehouse videotape rental commercial 1981

The Wherehouse was a record store chain that also rented movies at most of its stores (they still have stores in some areas, but not nearly ... all » as many as there used to be.) This commercial aired in the Las Vegas area and shows many popular movies available in 1981- pre-recorded tapes were usually priced around $50, so more people opted to rent them rather than buy (those who wanted their own copies but didn't want to pay the price would hook 2 VCRs together and make copies.)

The Wherehouse carried titles in both VHS and Beta; many of their stores still rented Beta as late as 1989-1990. All the tapes shown in this commercial appear to be Beta; the shot of someone loading "The Elephant Man" into the Betamax at the end is rather curious since the VCR looks like one of the first-generation models, if it is then it couldn't play the tape at the proper speed since all pre-recorded movie tapes were in Beta II! While this could still be one of the first machines to include Beta II speed capability, it is still quite old for 1981. Not everyone owned a VCR yet at the time though!

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Wherehouse
• rental
• VHS
• Beta
• Betamax
• videotapes

[Osiris1st]

I noticed there was an ELO video in their selection. I want it!!!

[eyeh8cbs]

It's available now on DVD from Image Entertainment. I have the DVD plus the CED videodisc. I have just about all the titles shown in this commercial in one form or another.

[buttholebzerker]

gotta love the way they displayed all those treasures stacked like that!

[studmufinn]

I worked at The Wherehouse in Downey, Lakewood, Bellflower and Whittier Ca from 1983 to 1987 and it was the coolest job I have ever had.

Sex, Drugs and lots of Rock n Roll!

Time of your life kid!

[mrunderbocky]

another wherehouse alum here.... riverside '87-'90..... definite insanity.... sex- check; drugs- check; rocknroll- mmmmm if you could get around the playlist !!! i remember packing all the vinyl up and buying as much as i could, bought my first cd meat puppets "up on the sun", great staff and bosses, i even punched co-worker on the clock and just got sent home for the day hahahaha (by the way sorry bout that), but yeah everyone there was completely out of control .......

[ProgressiveAudio]

Wherehouse video was a big chain here in Southern California in the 90s. My local grocery store used to have one in it in fact.

[graboid78]

I wish places like that were still around today

[MattTheSaiyan]

Renting video tapes - I wonder if in future years someone will start, as a retro-novelty, a place that rents out replica video tapes.

[calchick82]

@studmufinn Hey, I worked at the Wherehouse too in Whittier...from 1984-1985. My first job, and it was quite an experience, lol! Very cool job. Maybe you were at Whittier location at same time I was.

BTW, you are right. It was sex, drugs and lots of rock 'n roll!

[TheXtro101]

"The Wherehouse",gives me great memories in the '80s to mid '90s.Still remember buying 7" & 12" records during the last years of the 1980s.Does anyone remember "Music plus" and shopping mall's,"Sam Goody's".

I think this month and year the great,"Tower Records",finally closed its doors for good 3 years ago(miss Towers).

[ronnykmarshall]

I worked for them '78 - '81.