Media Home Entertainment
Encyclopedia
Media Home Entertainment Inc. (also known as Meda Home Entertainment early on until 1981) was a home video
company headquartered in Culver City, California
, originally established in 1978 by filmmaker Charles Band.
The company got off to a rocky start when ABKCO Records
successfully sued them for releasing The Rolling Stones
' Hyde Park concert on Betamax
and VHS
, followed by a successful suit against it, VCI Home Video, and Video Tape Network filed by Northern Music for releasing Beatles material (Media's tapes included Around The Beatles
--featuring the Beatles and the Rolling Stones as backup singers, with performers such as Long John Baldry
--a John Lennon
solo concert, Magical Mystery Tour, a Shea Stadium
concert, Sextette
--featuring Beatles member Ringo Starr
--and a Tokyo
concert), but would eventually become one of the largest independent video distributors in the U.S., relying on acquired films, television programs, and children's programs to establish a library of product. Some releases from the company included the original Halloween
, the majority of the Peanuts
specials (up to 1984), The Adventures of the Wilderness Family
, Enemies, A Love Story
, I Come in Peace
, some films from the Cannon Films library, and all of the Nightmare on Elm Street
films in the 1980s.
In 1984, Media Home Entertainment was bought by Heron Communications Inc., a subsidiary of Gerald Ronson's
Heron International
. However, by late 1990, Media Home Entertainment had began downsizing its staff and selling off its video assets in the wake of Ronson's involvement in the Guinness share-trading fraud
in Great Britain. Ronson became known in the UK as one of the "Guinness Four" for his involvement in the scandal, along with Ernest Saunders
and occasional business associates Jack Lyons and Anthony Parnes
. Ronson was convicted in August 1990 of one charge of conspiracy, two of false accounting, and one of theft, and was fined £5 million and given a one-year jail sentence, of which he served six months. In 2000, the European Court of Human Rights
ruled that the 1990 trial had been unfair because there had been a improper collusion between the DTI inspectors and the prosecuting authorities.
Media Home Entertainment ceased final operations in 1993. At that time, its final titles being prepared for video release were acquired by and subsequently distributed by Fox Video (also some by CBS/FOX Video
) (now 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
). Videos from the Media Home Entertainment library were also distributed overseas in the United Kingdom
and Australia
& New Zealand
by VPD (Video Program Distributors) and Video Classics
respectively. Some releases by Media Home Entertainment and its associated sublabels were distributed in Canada
by Astral Video, a now-defunct subsidiary of the present-day Astral Media
.
The company's remaining library of older titles were sold off as well and are now distributed by a number of home video companies, including Fox, New Line Home Entertainment
, MGM Home Entertainment
, or Anchor Bay Entertainment
(and some Media releases from 1987-1993 were released under the former Video Treasures name). The Peanuts television specials were later distributed by Paramount Home Entertainment
from 1994-2007, and in 2008 were licensed for distribution by Warner Bros. Home Video.
Media Home Entertainment also distributed video product under three additional labels — The Nostalgia Merchant (very old or classic films), Hi-Tops Video
(children's videos), and Fox Hills Video (special-interest videos). The "Fox Hills" name was derived from a geographical location near the company's headquarters at 5700 Buckingham Parkway in Culver City
. The Nostalgia Merchant line is still around, and one can buy its DVDs on its website.
Home video
Home video is a blanket term used for pre-recorded media that is either sold or rented/hired for home cinema entertainment. The term originates from the VHS/Betamax era but has carried over into current optical disc formats like DVD and Blu-ray Disc and, to a lesser extent, into methods of digital...
company headquartered in Culver City, California
Culver City, California
Culver City is a city in western Los Angeles County, California. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 38,883, up from 38,816 at the 2000 census. It is mostly surrounded by the city of Los Angeles, but also shares a border with unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County. Culver...
, originally established in 1978 by filmmaker Charles Band.
The company got off to a rocky start when ABKCO Records
ABKCO Records
ABKCO Music & Records, Inc. is a major independent record label, music publisher, and film and video production company. It owns and or administers the rights to music by Sam Cooke, The Rolling Stones, The Animals, Herman's Hermits, Marianne Faithfull, The Kinks as well as the Cameo Parkway label,...
successfully sued them for releasing The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
' Hyde Park concert on Betamax
Betamax
Betamax was a consumer-level analog videocassette magnetic tape recording format developed by Sony, released on May 10, 1975. The cassettes contain -wide videotape in a design similar to the earlier, professional wide, U-matic format...
and VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
, followed by a successful suit against it, VCI Home Video, and Video Tape Network filed by Northern Music for releasing Beatles material (Media's tapes included Around The Beatles
Around The Beatles
Around The Beatles was a 1964 television special, featuring The Beatles, produced by Jack Good for ITV/Rediffusion London. It was broadcast internationally, and aired live from IBC Studios in London 19 April 1964...
--featuring the Beatles and the Rolling Stones as backup singers, with performers such as Long John Baldry
Long John Baldry
John William "Long John" Baldry was an English and Canadian blues singer and a voice actor. He sang with many British musicians, with Rod Stewart and Elton John appearing in bands led by Baldry in the 1960s. He enjoyed pop success in the UK where Let the Heartaches Begin reached No...
--a John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
solo concert, Magical Mystery Tour, a Shea Stadium
Shea Stadium
William A. Shea Municipal Stadium, usually shortened to Shea Stadium or just Shea , was a stadium in the New York City borough of Queens, in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park. It was the home baseball park of Major League Baseball's New York Mets from 1964 to 2008...
concert, Sextette
Sextette
Sextette is a 1978 Crown International Pictures comedy/musical motion picture that starred Mae West. Other actors in the cast included Timothy Dalton, Dom DeLuise, Tony Curtis, Ringo Starr, Keith Moon, George Hamilton, Alice Cooper and Walter Pidgeon....
--featuring Beatles member Ringo Starr
Ringo Starr
Richard Starkey, MBE better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for The Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He became The Beatles' drummer in...
--and a Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
concert), but would eventually become one of the largest independent video distributors in the U.S., relying on acquired films, television programs, and children's programs to establish a library of product. Some releases from the company included the original Halloween
Halloween (1978 film)
Halloween is a 1978 American independent horror film directed, produced, and scored by John Carpenter, co-written with Debra Hill, and starring Donald Pleasence and Jamie Lee Curtis in her film debut and the first installment in the Halloween franchise. The film is set in the fictional midwestern...
, the majority of the Peanuts
Peanuts
Peanuts is a syndicated daily and Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz, which ran from October 2, 1950, to February 13, 2000, continuing in reruns afterward...
specials (up to 1984), The Adventures of the Wilderness Family
The Adventures of the Wilderness Family
The Adventures of the Wilderness Family is a 1975 family movie that stars Robert Logan, George Buck Flower and Susan Damante-Shaw. There were two Wilderness Family sequels in 1978 and 1979. The filming location was the Gunnison National Forest in the state of Colorado...
, Enemies, A Love Story
Enemies, a Love Story (film)
Enemies, a Love Story is a 1989 film directed by Paul Mazursky, based on the novel Enemies, a Love Story by Isaac Bashevis Singer.-Plot:...
, I Come in Peace
I Come in Peace
I Come in Peace is a 1990 science fiction action thriller feature film about a rule-breaking vice cop who becomes involved in the investigation of a number of mysterious drug-related murders on the streets of Houston, Texas. The film was directed by Craig R...
, some films from the Cannon Films library, and all of the Nightmare on Elm Street
A Nightmare on Elm Street (franchise)
A Nightmare on Elm Street is an American horror franchise that consists of nine slasher films, a television show, novels, and comic books. The franchise began with the film series created by Wes Craven. The franchise is based on the fictional character Freddy Krueger, introduced in A Nightmare on...
films in the 1980s.
In 1984, Media Home Entertainment was bought by Heron Communications Inc., a subsidiary of Gerald Ronson's
Gerald Ronson
Gerald Maurice Ronson is a British business tycoon and philanthropist.-Career:Aged 15, Ronson left school and joined his father in the family furniture business, named Heron after his father Henry. The company expanded into other activities; in the mid-1960s Ronson brought the first self-service...
Heron International
Heron International
Heron International is a United Kingdom based property development company. Founded by the Ronson family as a furniture retailer, it came to prominence in the 1980s as the UK's largest operator of self-service petrol stations...
. However, by late 1990, Media Home Entertainment had began downsizing its staff and selling off its video assets in the wake of Ronson's involvement in the Guinness share-trading fraud
Guinness share-trading fraud
The Guinness share-trading fraud was a famous British business scandal of the 1980s. It involved an attempt to manipulate the stock market on a massive scale to inflate the price of Guinness shares and thereby assist a £2.7 billion take-over bid for the Scottish drinks company Distillers...
in Great Britain. Ronson became known in the UK as one of the "Guinness Four" for his involvement in the scandal, along with Ernest Saunders
Ernest Saunders
Ernest Walter Saunders is a former British business manager, best known as one of the "Guinness Four", a group of businessmen who attempted to fraudulently manipulate the share price of the Guinness company. He was sentenced to five years' imprisonment, but released after 10 months as he was...
and occasional business associates Jack Lyons and Anthony Parnes
Anthony Parnes
Anthony Keith Parnes is a millionaire stockbroker who was involved with Ernest Saunders, Gerald Ronson, and Jack Lyons in the Guinness share-trading fraud of the 1980s; they collectively became known as "the Guinness Four"....
. Ronson was convicted in August 1990 of one charge of conspiracy, two of false accounting, and one of theft, and was fined £5 million and given a one-year jail sentence, of which he served six months. In 2000, the European Court of Human Rights
European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is a supra-national court established by the European Convention on Human Rights and hears complaints that a contracting state has violated the human rights enshrined in the Convention and its protocols. Complaints can be brought by individuals or...
ruled that the 1990 trial had been unfair because there had been a improper collusion between the DTI inspectors and the prosecuting authorities.
Media Home Entertainment ceased final operations in 1993. At that time, its final titles being prepared for video release were acquired by and subsequently distributed by Fox Video (also some by CBS/FOX Video
CBS/Fox Video
CBS/Fox Video was a home video company formed and established in 1982, as a merger between 20th Century Fox Video, formerly Magnetic Video Corporation, and CBS Video Enterprises....
) (now 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment is the home video distribution arm of the 20th Century Fox film studio. It was established in 1976 as Magnetic Video Corporation, and later as 20th Century Fox Video, CBS/Fox Video and FoxVideo, Inc....
). Videos from the Media Home Entertainment library were also distributed overseas in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
& New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
by VPD (Video Program Distributors) and Video Classics
Video Classics
Video Classics was one of the first major Home Video Distributors in Australia.Between 1979 and 1984, Video Classics was one of the leading names in Australian home video and claimed to have "Australia's largest range of quality video movies"....
respectively. Some releases by Media Home Entertainment and its associated sublabels were distributed in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
by Astral Video, a now-defunct subsidiary of the present-day Astral Media
Astral Media
Astral Media Inc. is a Canadian media corporation. It is Canada's largest radio broadcaster with 83 radio stations in eight provinces, and is a major player in premium and specialty television in Canada, including The Movie Network, Super Écran, Family, Teletoon, Canal D, Canal Vie, VRAK.TV,...
.
The company's remaining library of older titles were sold off as well and are now distributed by a number of home video companies, including Fox, New Line Home Entertainment
New Line Home Entertainment
New Line Home Entertainment is the home entertainment distribution arm of New Line Cinema, founded in 1990. According to New Line's website, Misery was the first New Line Home Video release....
, MGM Home Entertainment
MGM Home Entertainment
MGM Home Entertainment is the home video and DVD arm of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.-History:The home video division of MGM started in 1979 as MGM Home Video, releasing all the movies and TV shows by MGM. In 1980, MGM joined forces with CBS Video Enterprises, the home video division of the CBS television...
, or Anchor Bay Entertainment
Anchor Bay Entertainment
Anchor Bay Entertainment is a U.S. based home entertainment and production company and is a division of Starz Media, which is a unit of Starz, LLC. It was previously owned by IDT Entertainment until 2006 when IDT was purchased by Starz Media. Anchor Bay markets and sells feature films, series,...
(and some Media releases from 1987-1993 were released under the former Video Treasures name). The Peanuts television specials were later distributed by Paramount Home Entertainment
Paramount Home Entertainment
Paramount Home Entertainment is the division of Paramount Pictures dealing with home video founded in late 1975.-History:...
from 1994-2007, and in 2008 were licensed for distribution by Warner Bros. Home Video.
Media Home Entertainment also distributed video product under three additional labels — The Nostalgia Merchant (very old or classic films), Hi-Tops Video
Hi-Tops Video
Hi-Tops Video was a children's home video sublabel of Media Home Entertainment and Kartes Video Communications , active from 1985 until 1992...
(children's videos), and Fox Hills Video (special-interest videos). The "Fox Hills" name was derived from a geographical location near the company's headquarters at 5700 Buckingham Parkway in Culver City
Culver City, California
Culver City is a city in western Los Angeles County, California. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 38,883, up from 38,816 at the 2000 census. It is mostly surrounded by the city of Los Angeles, but also shares a border with unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County. Culver...
. The Nostalgia Merchant line is still around, and one can buy its DVDs on its website.