#erols

[rediscoverthe80s]

A recent #thriftstore haul scored an #Erols #VHS tape of #HeartbreakRidge starring #ClintEastwood. The case is pretty unique cut box that is wide with foam inserts on both sides to protect the tape that slides in from the top. #vhstapes #vhstape #vhsrental #vhscollector #vhsvideo #erolsvideoclub #erolsvideo #80s #1980s #80svhs #80svintage #nostalgia #videostore #videostores https://www.instagram.com/trnsocial/p/CYEeauSraTM/?utm_medium=tumblr

[videostoreboom]

I sold this on Ebay a while ago and still had this photoset lying around. I thought I would post it here.

 Erols was a rental chain and they would repackage their tapes into these giant boxes. The inside of the boxes has foam in them and you could easily slide the tapes in and out of them. It was strangely satisfying. 

More of our regularly scheduled programming later.

[waybackwanderer]

The golden age of old time radio Jan 1999 Archived Web Page 🧩

[andrew-shippin]

About 35 years ago there was an #erols video club in this Mall. I had a huge crush on Rachel one of the employees. Just when I summed up the courage to ask her out. I showed up in time to see Fairfax County Police escorting her in handcuffs. It seems she was caught stealing. I was devastated. (at Fair City Mall) https://www.instagram.com/p/CRsQZidre8Y/?utm_medium=tumblr

[codysummit]

A (sort of) music related post. I found this VHS copy of Ishtar at my family’s house this weekend. This movie was a total flop in the 80s, and starred Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman. It actually was synonymous with failure, as indicated by the Far Side cartoon’s “A Video Store in Hell”, in which every video in the store was a copy of Ishtar! The irony for me is I think it’s hilarious! The plot is basically that Beatty and Hoffman form a Simon and Garfunkel style duo and get wrapped up in some spy intrigue in the Middle East. Hilarity ensues. Now it’s lost in the annals of time. Also, for those in the know- this video is a copy from Erol’s! #ishtarmovie #vhs #erols #ishtar #thefarside #dustinhoffman #warrenbeatty #flop #80s #the80s #lostintime #popculture #popcultureamnesia #forgotten #forgottentoosoon #yalldontknow https://www.instagram.com/p/B2sSEubnkOB/?igshid=argb0438gpx8

[itsmangocity]

i love netflix and shit but

does anyone else miss video stores?  i loved going there on a friday or saturday or even a weekday night, lifted and just perusing shit til i remembered why i was even there.  id roll with my homie neil and we'd rent like 5-6 movies at a time, not counting what we both bough on DVD or vhs.  that shit was fun, man.

[retrobaltimore]

Remembering Erol's, as video rental stores disappear

A pair of beta tapes, in Erol's distinctive cardboard boxes, alongside one of the chain's shopping bags, is part of a "Lost & Found Laurel" exhibit at the Laurel Museum. (Photo by Nate Pesce.)

The imminent demise of Roland Park’s Video Americain, whose owners will be wrapping up their going-out-of-business sell-off on Friday, truly means the end of an era in Baltimore.

Back in the '80s, rental stores were everywhere. Every neighborhood had them. When I lived in Glen Burnie in the 1980s, there were two within easy walking distance; when I moved to Rockdale in 1988, there were at least three within a two-mile radius. Heck, there were at least three within a few blocks of the Baltimore Sun building.

Now, with this week’s closing of Video Americain, there apparently will be none left. You want rentals nowadays, you sign up for Netflix or use one of those impersonal (and extremely limited, option-wise) red boxes outside the local McDonald’s or Royal Farms stores.

Video Americain was never the most prolific chain in these parts. Blockbuster, of course, used to be everywhere. Hollywood Video had plenty of stores. In Towson, Greetings and Readings’ stock included almost everything (and if you needed a last-minute gift, they’d take your handpicked movie off the shelf, shrink-wrap it and sell it to you), while Pick Yur Flicks in Glen Burnie offered obscure movies that their makers probably denied responsibility for. (Anyone ever actually sit through “The Crawling Terror?”)

But the real video-rental pioneer around here was Erol’s, which once operated more than 250 stores in five states and D.C., including more than 30 in the Baltimore area. Turkish immigrant Erol Onaran started renting beta and VHS tapes around 1980. Customers paid an annual fee – I think it was $29.99, but can’t swear to it – and then an additional couple bucks for each rental. Movies were displayed throughout each location, nestled inside distinctive (and over-sized) red or yellow boxes, lined with soft foam-like material to keep them safe and snug.

An Erol's Video Store on East Monument Street in Baltimore, 1990. (Baltimore Sun photo by Paul Hutchins)

Erol’s advertised pretty heavily on TV and in the newspapers, and their bright yellow plastic bags, with convenient carrying slot at the top, would come in handy long after your rental tapes were turned back in. And while their selection might never have reached Video Americain levels, it was pretty good. I remember one of the Glen Burnie stores having a fairly extensive foreign-film section, even a shelf or two of silent films.

At some point, Erol’s even started offering their used VHS tapes (beta was essentially a dead issue by the mid-'80s) for sale, usually for $19.95 or $24.95. Owning a movie yourself was a big deal, especially since most seemed to cost about $80 new. I remember buying a used two-tape VHS of Sergio Leone’s “Once Upon a Time in America” at Erol’s for $24.95, and proudly showing it off to my envious friends.

Times change, of course. Eventually Blockbuster moved in, and Erol’s started losing some of its sheen. The price of new VHS tapes started coming down, and soon people were buying almost as many tapes as they were renting. In 1991, Erol’s, which was once the largest privately owned video-rental chain in the U.S., was purchased by arch-rival Blockbuster for $30 million. Isolated stores remained open, but before long, the Erol’s name was only a memory -- at least as a rental store. Erol’s continued on as an Internet service provider and repair facility, shutting down for good shortly after founder Onaran’s death in 2005.

[dilunchlife-blog]

erols