There is more than meets the eye when it comes to the humble VHS tape. This old school analog format was once the reigning king of home entertainment and amateur movie making. When the VCR was first invented, everyone was dying to get one. People used to rent VCRs and VHS tapes just to watch their favorite movies on the weekends.
The VHS tape was very popular, probably more popular than the cool girls at your middle school.
So, in order to celebrate this famed format, we’ve got 7 fun facts about the VHS tape that will show you just how cool this video format is. Read on to learn something!
The first movie released on VHS was The Young Teacher.
The first movie ever released on VHS was a South Korean film called The Young Teacher. In the film, a teacher organizes a volleyball team at her school to increase school spirit and self-esteem in her students. Have you ever heard of this film? We didn’t think so. While the film did not receive much acclaim, the VHS format quickly became a worldwide success. At least The Young Teacher will always have the title of the first movie released on the famed VHS format.
A VHS cassette can contain up to 1,410 feet of tape.
One VHS tape can hold up to 4-5 hours of playtime, making the tape inside 1,410 feet long. If you stretched that out, it would be longer than four and a half football fields! Just don’t ask us to run that length. No thank you.
In today’s dollars, a VCR would be worth a pretty penny.
VCRs were sold for $1000-$1400 when they were first introduced on the market in the late 1970s. In today’s dollars, that would equal about $4444-$6222! You can get a good quality laptop for less than that today. Can you imagine spending that much on a VCR? We can’t.
There is a National VCR day.
June 7th is National VCR day, and there are lots of fun ways to celebrate! Gather your family around the VCR and pop in old VHS films and home movies to watch together. Make some popcorn, get some candy, and bring the movie theater home to you! You can relive some of your family’s best moments, whether that’s your cousin’s wedding tape or your first birthday party video.
The last movie released on VHS was A History of Violence.
A History of Violence was the last movie released on VHS tape, and chances are you’ve heard of this one. It garnered two Oscar nominations and two Golden Globes noms, making it a very successful film. The movie is about a man named Tom who must commit an act of violence in order to protect himself and his business. He is regarded as a hero by his community until a new man comes to town accusing Tom of being a long-lost mobster. This drama is definitely on our “to watch” list.
The last VCR ever made was produced in June of 2016.
Japan’s Funai Electric continued producing VCRs and other outdated media formats long after their time. They made their last VCR in June of 2016, and there hasn’t been one made since. It’s kind of sad, isn’t it? There’s something special about the VCR and the VHS tape. The good news is that there are still plenty of VCRs in existence, and lots of people sell theirs on eBay or at garage sales. If you’re desperate to find one, you can without a doubt locate one. The nostalgia lives on!
There is a festival dedicated to lost and found VHS footage.
The Found Footage Festival is devoted to lost and found home videos on VHS. Finding weird, wacky, and unique home footage found on VHS is the shared passion of the festival-goers. Participants search in their own home video collections and at yard sales to find the most interesting footage to submit to the festival. Would you have anything in your VHS collection to submit to this zany festival?
These are just some of the most interesting facts about VHS tapes. There are plenty more because this old format has a lot of history! We love VHS tapes at Legacybox, but there’s one thing we love even more - digitizing them! If you’ve got a collection of home videos in a shoebox or in a basement somewhere, send them into Legacybox and we’ll transfer the content in those tapes to digital so that the memories will live on forever. Tapes only last so long before they start to degrade, so it’s best to get those tapes and other analog formats digitized while they’re still around. The best part? We take care of all shipping and handling, and we’ll send you your originals and your digitized copies back directly to your front door so you can save your time and energy for more memory-making. What’s not to love about Legacybox?
