Introducing VHS Club

Introducing VHS Club

Attics and basements are where our prized belongings become unseen. Carrying old things away to these dark rooms marks the start of the mourning process before these items make their way to their final destination, which is the thrift store. However, in these humid places lies a breath of fresh air. I’m Darek Makowski, and I’m here to introduce you to Cook Library’s newest club, where we will explore the wonders and history of one of the most important forms of media in the past century: the VHS.

Tale of the Tape

I can’t tell you about VHS Club without mentioning the history of VHS, which showcases the format’s importance and shows why people still watch it today despite its perceived obsolescence.

Home media has evolved drastically over the past few decades. There typically weren’t many options to watch something if you didn’t see it during its original release. Your free time likely had to align with scheduling, decided by television network and movie executives who decided when something would be released in theaters or run on television. Home media’s emergence was a landmark change in the television and movie industry, as it gave people the freedom to rewatch something at any time. You could now rewatch that elusive episode of a TV show, which only your coolest friend managed to see during its initial airing.

VHS wasn’t the start of home video. But it remains the most successful of its contemporaries, which includes Betamax. Betamax was released before VHS; however, VHS became the best in consumers’ eyes due to its convenience. Betamax had better picture and video quality, yet VHS tapes were more efficient since they started out with a two-hour recording length compared to the one-hour length of Betamax tapes. This made the recording process more practical since you could record longer programs or fit more programs onto a single tape.

VHS Appeal

One of the main appeals of VHS is that the format’s an artifact. We can find a treasure trove of VHS titles that were originally released on VHS and never went to DVD or streaming. One of these titles includes the educational Microsoft Windows 95 Video Guide hosted by Friends stars Matthew Perry and Jennifer Aniston.

VHS also served as an ideal vehicle for Hollywood studios to share titles they believed wouldn’t generate much public interest with a traditional release in theaters. These direct-to-video titles were popularized by VHS. VHS was the go-to place for Disney’s animated sequels such as The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride, The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea, and Cinderella II: Dreams Come True. Direct-to-video also provided smaller studios the opportunity to put their films in front of a viewing audience. For instance, 1993’s Firepower by PM Entertainment Group Inc. features WWE’s The Ultimate Warrior in his only film appearance.

You probably don’t think about quality when you think of VHS. But the low resolution of VHS also adds warmth to the viewing experience. It’s the equivalence of catching up with an old friend or seeing the world through the tint of a film camera.

Now, you might be thinking that the appeal of VHS is strictly nostalgia. But that’s not the case. The last known VCR-maker in the world, Funai Electric, stopped making VCRs in 2016. This announcement didn’t put a stop to new titles being released on VHS. Witter Entertainment and Lunchmeat VHS are two boutique companies that have been selling new VHS tapes on their websites. New VHS tapes have also been spotted in physical stores. Notably, Terrifier 2 and Terrifier 3 were sold in Walmart stores as part of Walmart’s partnership with the horror company Bloody Disgusting.

VHS Club

Do you remember picking up a VHS tape from your local video store and then picking up pizza and soda on the way home to create an exquisite viewing experience seemingly lost to time? If you crave these VHS vibes or want to experience this for the first time, then please register for VHS Club!

The first two meetings of VHS Club will be held this September and October. Pizza and soda will be provided at both meetings. Each meeting will also include time for discussion about each tape, the art of collecting, and the beauty and limitations of old technologies. VHS Club is open to adults.

The first meeting of VHS Club will be on Tuesday, September 9 from 7-8:30 p.m. at Aspen in the Meeting Room. We will be screening the Microsoft Windows 95 Video Guide. School’s back, and so are Jennifer Aniston, Matthew Perry, and the “cutting edge” tech of 1995. Join us for this delightfully dated Microsoft Windows 95 Video Guide (Not Rated | 1995 | 60m)!

October is associated with horror, and that month’s screening is George A. Romero’s The Amusement Park (Not Rated | 1973 | 54m) that deals with the horrors of aging. Romero created this educational horror film in the 1970s for the Lutheran Society. The film is entirely set at the amusement park West View Park, which is Romero’s symbolic playground for showcasing the struggles of the elderly.  Romero’s PSA about elder abuse was shelved before its discovery and released more than forty years later. The film was then made available for home media release on platforms such as VHS. Join us at VHS Club to take a walk inside George A. Romero’s reopened The Amusement Park.

The star of VHS Club will be the tapes. We will be screening a variety of tapes, from old releases to new releases. We will also be screening direct-to-video titles, titles that were only released on VHS and titles that are also available on DVD or streaming. I hope to see you all at future VHS Club meetings!

Be Kind and Please Rewind!

Darek