Speaker 1: Welcome to them, Christian no Common Show podcast AM Blockbuster
Speaker 1: first came, it felt like a big slice of America.
Speaker 1: You know. It wasn't just about the movies and how
Speaker 1: hard it was to actually find the one you wanted
Speaker 1: to watch. It was also the the ice cream, something
Speaker 1: called Hargan dance. Oh, this is how they do an America.
Speaker 1: It's all part of the fancy American dream. You know,
Speaker 1: watch a video, they watch Hudson Hawk and up into
Speaker 1: their cookies and cream and there are Hargan dance. Honestly,
Speaker 1: kids today will never know how hard it was to
Speaker 1: find your favorite movie going in those blockbusters.
Speaker 2: It's been half an hour and the fday.
Speaker 1: Down the aisles up and you know, now on the
Speaker 1: couch when you're like even trying to find a movie
Speaker 1: to stream instant access on demand. I think Netflix. I
Speaker 1: checked yesterday. Three and a half thousand movies are on there, right,
Speaker 1: but it takes you ages just to settle them out,
Speaker 1: you know in a family. But I don't want that.
Speaker 1: I want that that used to go on up and
Speaker 1: down the ass. Do you want comedy drama, animation? Up
Speaker 1: and down? And then you had that fake find Oh
Speaker 1: we've got it. They've got it terminated too, must be
Speaker 1: the last one you leg it to the counter. And
Speaker 1: then some they were always like half asleep in they
Speaker 1: wanted it's out, So I forgot to put the rented
Speaker 1: card and the sleep Oh no, it's a fake fine,
Speaker 1: a fake mine.
Speaker 2: Back in there, back in the.
Speaker 1: Aisles, people behind the counter, you've got terminated too, No,
Speaker 1: it's out. And that even in that little system, there's
Speaker 1: to check in there if you've got signs of lamb
Speaker 1: out huts and hot fifty copies of that. It's always
Speaker 1: the rubbish stuff that they had loads of copies of.
Speaker 2: What did they do with all their new releases? Because
Speaker 2: when a new release came out, their big flex was
Speaker 2: we've got one hundred copies.
Speaker 1: You'd never post throughout the front, wouldn't you yet?
Speaker 2: So when winter weeklies, what did did they do with
Speaker 2: all those hundreds of copies? Because then they had none
Speaker 2: for every everything you wanted to get, And because new
Speaker 2: releases were more expensive, we were always encouraged to get weekly,
Speaker 2: so we were always walked past the new release section.
Speaker 1: Oh my god. Also talking about the back of the store,
Speaker 1: do you remember that some of those video shops had
Speaker 1: had the special corner behind a curtain member themselves sort
Speaker 1: of grumbling and stuff like looking for like bear ass
Speaker 1: bingo stuff like that. You know, all those sort of
Speaker 1: strange bits out of the back there.
Speaker 2: And if you could hang around, you know, there might
Speaker 2: be a documentary section that's close enough that you can
Speaker 2: sort of peer through the curtain.
Speaker 1: Hong Kong movies was the bit behind the curtain. I
Speaker 1: just very into undubbed Jackie Chair movies, you know, and
Speaker 1: what is that in there? I saw? I saw a bottom,
Speaker 1: the hidden world, the hidden world in there. And then
Speaker 1: if you were lucky enough to get the movie that
Speaker 1: you actually wanted, right, you got your harg nas. You
Speaker 1: went home. Do you know those anti how terrifying, those
Speaker 1: anti pirrating ad work? You know you couldn't fast saw
Speaker 1: them right, and they would go pirating videos is a crime.
Speaker 1: We will hunt you down. And you're like, please, I
Speaker 1: just want to watch show Girls? Who is pirrating show Girls?
Speaker 1: Has anyone actually done prison time for pirates in a
Speaker 1: movie back in the ninth.
Speaker 2: I remember, have you got what you paid for? In
Speaker 2: mind that the very video you're watching now might be pirates?
Speaker 2: So hey, I just went to the video shop.
Speaker 1: I'm not I'd this, and then they used to slap
Speaker 1: up in the UK don't even to hear they'd have
Speaker 1: the FBI's logo, Yes, did the FBI this. They're watching
Speaker 1: this right now? They know I'm watching this has gone
Speaker 1: right at the top used to be absolutely terrifying, and
Speaker 1: then of course you had the quick drop box out
Speaker 1: the front. It must have been so much fun on
Speaker 1: a Monday morning for the people working there to open
Speaker 1: up there used to be like there used to be
Speaker 1: like beer cans. People used to shove in there half
Speaker 1: eaten bookers and stuff like that, and all those can
Speaker 1: anyone remember if they got a late fine and for
Speaker 1: what movie? Patsy oh Hapes Hapes?
Speaker 3: In fact, I had the Dick collector chasing me for ghost.
Speaker 1: I'd borrow oh Itzy, Yeah, crazy supermans back in bright
Speaker 1: from my cold.
Speaker 3: Hands, conveniently forgotten to take it back, and it was
Speaker 3: like one hundred and ninety bucks or something. Yeah, I've
Speaker 3: just forgotten.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, if you put that now, that's the
Speaker 1: equivalent to thousands, isn't it one hundred and ninety back
Speaker 1: in the nineties. How many years did you have it?
Speaker 4: For it?
Speaker 3: But I forgot I had it haws, you actually just
Speaker 3: stolen it.
Speaker 1: And it was a fine for feest.
Speaker 3: I was hoping they wouldn't notice, but because it was
Speaker 3: the only video store in town, I had to pay
Speaker 3: it or I'd never be able to borrow another video again.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because everybody in Wangerano wants to watch Ghosts at
Speaker 2: your house.
Speaker 1: And so did you get Blockbuster there or do you
Speaker 1: have a Video Easy with like the cheap and half
Speaker 1: priced Tuesdays.
Speaker 3: I think it was Blockbuster and then it might have
Speaker 3: became Video Easy, I think, but the very first store
Speaker 3: was Elliott's Golden Video in the late eighties. Yeah, up
Speaker 3: the street.
Speaker 1: Do you know what this morning? Then? I'd love to know,
Speaker 1: Like Patsy and Ghosts, can you remember any video you
Speaker 1: mantually get out that you had a late fine? Full?
Speaker 1: As well? Also, anyone who worked in those stores where
Speaker 1: there's Blockbuster or Video Easy. And I'm presuming there are
Speaker 1: are there any left that's DVDs now I think the.
Speaker 3: Last one's closed.
Speaker 1: Really Yeah, if anyone knows that there is at least one,
Speaker 1: just one going now say it must be just DVDs. Now,
Speaker 1: we'd love to know, so we want on this morning?
Speaker 1: Then what was your late fine for out of video?
Speaker 1: Did you work there? And also I presume there were working.
Speaker 1: There's none open now in Melbourne, Australia. But if you
Speaker 1: know what the wise, give us a call. This is
Speaker 1: the Christian O'Connell show podcast. We're taking you back to
Speaker 1: the days of the video stores for your video rentals.
Speaker 1: You kids today will never know how hard it used
Speaker 1: to be to watch a movie. Watch it on your phone,
Speaker 1: now on your Google glasses. What have happened to those?
Speaker 1: Show me? Then we're going to be the next big thing.
Speaker 1: I reckon. There's loads of landfill seized un pairs of
Speaker 1: discarded Google class.
Speaker 2: I would love to know if anyone in the city
Speaker 2: still wears the Google glasses.
Speaker 1: How hard it was to watch a video back in
Speaker 1: the day when you're too blockbuster or video.
Speaker 4: Easy with so many copies of the sixth sense it
Speaker 4: will be in stall or you're rented free. Guess the
Speaker 4: blockbuster promise Blockbusters?
Speaker 1: And you said there used to go one hundred copies
Speaker 1: of the six go wait till Friday? Did you finish work?
Speaker 1: You need to go Thursday night to get it ready.
Speaker 1: And I'm saying earlier about that that terrifying piracy advert videos.
Speaker 1: This was the music, wasn't it. Do you remember some
Speaker 1: sketchy looking guys straight outs and killed her.
Speaker 2: You wouldn't steal a handpag, you wouldn't steal a.
Speaker 1: Car, but you would pore a gopy of Hudson or
Speaker 1: all right, that's gonna work, Lewis, Good morning, Lewis.
Speaker 5: Yeah, give out, Chris and I used to love the
Speaker 5: video store. I'm finding with these streaming services that I
Speaker 5: actually watch any movies. That just spent so long looking
Speaker 5: for something to watch. When I went to the video store,
Speaker 5: I made sure I got my five weeklies and I
Speaker 5: sat down and watched those five weekly.
Speaker 2: The weeklies, they were just pretty much given away from.
Speaker 1: You're right, Lewis, there's too much choice.
Speaker 5: Now you're sat in front, can watch anything, watch and
Speaker 5: if you do get you get like two minutes into
Speaker 5: something and go, oh, this is boring, I'll turn it off.
Speaker 5: But when you actually went to the video store and
Speaker 5: you made that commitment to look around and spend hours
Speaker 5: in the video store looking for someone what you'd made
Speaker 5: sure you sat down and watched that movie beginning to end,
Speaker 5: and you watched the commercials before the film started.
Speaker 1: You preach it was, and also there was no you're
Speaker 1: not you can bail out of a movie easy now
Speaker 1: because there's another one. There's another fifteen you can choose from.
Speaker 1: When we used to watch a movie, no one just
Speaker 1: got up and left it. You would watch that in
Speaker 1: time because it's a big deal. There's a movie in
Speaker 1: your front room and you had your leads a tub
Speaker 1: of Hargain dance as well. Lewis great call, Thank you
Speaker 1: very much, are you sir, Jess? Good morning, good money? Jess.
Speaker 1: What do you remember about the days of the video
Speaker 1: stores and Blockbuster?
Speaker 3: So this wasn't overdo easy.
Speaker 6: Do you remember when you did.
Speaker 7: High videos from the look bar?
Speaker 1: Yes, they always have a very slim selection and they
Speaker 1: were they looked dodgy as well. They had like the
Speaker 1: very badly photo copied covers.
Speaker 2: That's who the FBI.
Speaker 7: So we were looking everywhere for the Spice World movie.
Speaker 7: I don't remember if you remember, but when it came out,
Speaker 7: it was huge and she could not get it anywhere,
Speaker 7: like they were waitlists.
Speaker 5: That was huge to hire the.
Speaker 2: Movies SpongeBob.
Speaker 7: O Hey for SpongeBob, SpongeBob Spice World.
Speaker 5: Was yeah.
Speaker 7: So yeah, we finally founded a copy of the Milk Bak.
Speaker 1: So we hired that had it for about three weeks
Speaker 1: and then we finally.
Speaker 7: Made to take it back.
Speaker 1: We got the lifetime then the milk Bar because Steadium
Speaker 1: sir a lifetime from any Sweet and they did the
Speaker 1: milk zero tolerance tough on the causes of piracy. That
Speaker 1: is amazing us. You really enjoyed Spice World.
Speaker 3: She kept it.
Speaker 2: To be honest, I guess they only have about ten movies.
Speaker 2: So if one's missing for three weeks.
Speaker 1: Here the old business modelers out of wak Actually, yeah, Jess,
Speaker 1: that's it. Brett One, thank you very much your story. Thanks,
Speaker 1: thank you. We have to do a phone in one
Speaker 1: day about lifetime bands from your milk bar. Let's go
Speaker 1: to Amanda.
Speaker 5: Good morning, Amanda, Good morning Christian So.
Speaker 6: I used to work in a video store in the
Speaker 6: eighties called Video Phone. It was in Southierra in Tuacro
Speaker 6: and our very innovative friend Tony decided to open this
Speaker 6: store and we'd be the first store ever to deliver
Speaker 6: videos to someone's home.
Speaker 1: Wow, that's actually quite a good idea. So how did
Speaker 1: it work?
Speaker 3: Well, what do you do?
Speaker 6: If you'd ring up, you'd say which video you wanted,
Speaker 6: we'd check that we had it, and I was on
Speaker 6: a shift with my best friend and we loved working together.
Speaker 6: So unfortunately, when they would ring and after the video
Speaker 6: and then they'd give us their address, we would then
Speaker 6: go to their house, but we would shut the store
Speaker 6: so we could stay together and we would deliver the
Speaker 6: video and sometimes I'd ask for a packet of cigarettes
Speaker 6: from the seven to eleven next door or deer or
Speaker 6: we're just going pick it all up.
Speaker 1: And you were a uber first door down.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we were the first ubers.
Speaker 1: You were that years ago, back in the day with
Speaker 1: video phone. It's a very high maintenance business models. You've
Speaker 1: got to shut the store every time you've got like
Speaker 1: two hundred customers trying to get in, and you're heading
Speaker 1: off to some address and doing getting slushies at seven
Speaker 1: eleven on the way.
Speaker 6: That's right, But I don't think it didn't last very long.
Speaker 6: Maybe less than a year, yeah.
Speaker 2: Because you do like three rentals a night.
Speaker 7: Yeah, that's about it.
Speaker 6: Really, because obviously we couldn't answer the phone if we
Speaker 6: were out delivering, and we just liked working together so
Speaker 6: much that would just leave the store.
Speaker 1: Oh what brittant memories Amanda, Thank you very much for
Speaker 1: sharing that may have a good day. Thank you, Sarah,
Speaker 1: good morning, good morning.
Speaker 7: Here are you going?
Speaker 1: I'm good? So video stores, Video Easy, Blockbuster? What do
Speaker 1: you remember?
Speaker 4: So?
Speaker 7: I actually got my mum a ninety dollar fine that
Speaker 7: went to the deck collectors because I hid the making
Speaker 7: of Thriller in my bedroom for like months.
Speaker 1: Contracts and how much how much did it get up to?
Speaker 7: Yeah, it was over ninety dollars. So when the deck
Speaker 7: collection letter came, then I came clean and told her
Speaker 7: that I had been interesting letters from the video shop
Speaker 7: and yeah, got into a world of trouble.
Speaker 1: For that one, I bet you do.
Speaker 7: And the making of the thriller, Yeah, the making of
Speaker 7: Michael Jackson's Thriller. It was on VHS and it was Yeah,
Speaker 7: it was my favorite movie for years. So I decided
Speaker 7: I didn't want it to go back to the shop
Speaker 7: and needed.
Speaker 5: To stay with me.
Speaker 1: It was yours and yours Sarah, Thank you very much.
Speaker 1: A cool have a good day.
Speaker 7: Thank you, he too, a brainer.
Speaker 4: Now you're listening to the Christian o'crl's Show podcast