To this day my Uncle Jackie has never forgiven my Nana for missing “The Grinch” when he was 7 years old. We all have our favorite Christmas movies. Classics like Elf, Home Alone, and Christmas vacation are always at the tip of our fingers, or remote. In fact, they are available in December or July! Unfortunately in my Uncle’s case, he grew up in the 60’s, when the Grinch was only shown once a year at a certain time. My Nana punished him that night, for a reason she cannot remember, and did not let him watch. When first hearing this story I could not fathom my uncle’s heartbreak, until I realized he had to wait 365 days until he could watch his favorite movie of all time. It made me grateful, yet sad that I could not empathize with my uncle because I’ve had immediate access to my favorite movies and tv shows my entire life. One upon a time, you couldn’t binge watch an entire season of Grey’s Anatomy or Friends. Shows aired once a week at a certain time, and if you missed it, that was it.
Nowadays, we have access to our favorite shows and movies at any time and anywhere whether that be our laptop, tv, phone, or IPad. But before apps like Netflix, HULU, Amazon Prime, and HBO Max, home entertainment had to start somewhere and we can thank Charles Gunsburg for that. In the 1950’s Charles Ginsburg, who worked at Ampex Corporation created the Video Tape Recorder (VTR) which revolutionized television broadcasting. It was created because of the different time zones in the US, in which broadcasters would have to do the same show multiple times instead of just recording one. In 1965, the goal had evolved from broadcasting purposes to home entertainment. Sony then released the first home model in 1964 which then sparked other companies to join the “VCR Revolution”. A little over a decade later, Universal City Studios and Walt Disney Company sued Sony, known as the Copyright Argument. The Court originally ruled in favor of Sony but the decision was overturned in 1981. However the case was taken to the Supreme Court where they stated “time-shifting” was perfectly legal. In the 1980’s, the Format War between Sony’s Betamax vs JVC’s VHS took place. The competition between several companies within the same market was extremely beneficial to consumers because it resulted in the best product both manually and financially, which in this case was the JVC’s VHS. But as time went on the VCR lost it’s spotlight to the invention of the DVD. Little did we know back then that the DVD would also become a distant memory clouded by 7 letters that would soon take the home entertainment by storm; NETFLIX.
Dive deeper into the history of the VCR with the following link! 50 Years of the Video Cassette Recorder
It’s crazy to me how much technology has evolved in the span of my lifetime. I can’t even imagine how my grandparents and even parents have kept up with the fast pace technology. Some of my earliest memories involve going to my town library to rent VHS’s for family movie night. But that memory has become clouded by trips to target for the newest Disney movie out on DVD so we could watch it in the car on a long trip to Florida, or recording the latest episode of Blue Bloods so we could watch it the next time Nana came over (and so we could fast forward commercials), and my most recent memories of watching an entire season of shows within days during quarantine through Netflix. It seems like just yesterday I was standing in front of a collection of VHS in my basement. A decade later, my basement shelves are empty, as are the rest of the shelves where VHS’s were once sold.. It is difficult to comprehend that in the span of my lifetime so far, something I used and thought was high tech could become ancient in less than two decades.
Although I am grateful to live in a time in advanced technology, I am sad too. I am sad that I’ve never got to experience the pure excitement of watching my favorite movie once a year. I think that the anticipation leads to a greater appreciation that has rapidly declined as technology has rapidly advanced. That anticipation has created amazing memories and special moments that can never be replaced. People’s joy was earned through their patience. My uncle would wait an entire year to see his favorite movie, but I complain about Hulu because of the 90 second commercials. As exciting as it may be for a certain show to be put on netflix, nothing compares to the feeling of going to the store, or library and actually grasping that movie magic with your own hands. And now our eyes are glued to Netflix on each of our personal devices, no longer sharing physically and emotionally the movie magic brought into our homes through a video-cassette recorder.
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