I bought one of the original Magnavox Discovision players on the first day they were available in the Denver test market in Spring of 1978. I believe I have purchased 4 or 5 players since. I had well over 700 discs. Gave all the discs and 2 players to my son-in-law when we sold the house and moved to a senior apartment in 2019.
Buying laserdiscs was really an adventure those first couple of years. They were all under the discovision label with the silver boxes. I would trek 60 miles down to Denver twice a week to each of the 6 stores that sold them and look through the boxes of discs. The dealers could not order specific titles, just boxes with random discs. About half of the box would be filled with cheap documentary stuff. National Gallery of Art, Cooking shows, etc. The dealers were stuck with these, and after a bit you needed to sort through large quantities of junk to find any entertainment title. I ended up buying movies I had little interest in, just because it was something different. The discovision discs were interesting in that they were in a CAV format that only had 30 minutes per side. They often had an odd number of sides and they would place some random title on the ‘dead’ side and disable it by spraying on a coat of matte lacquer. We soon realized you could wipe this off with rubbing alchohol and see what was there. About 2/3 were Ford dealer titles on maintenance or sales techniques, but sometimes you would hit gold. For example, one disc had an experimental CLV format (1 hour per side) copy of the start of Deliverance, complete with the Dueling Banjos number. I wrote to Sears and received a free copy of their laserdisc Summer 1978 catalog. The format nearly died and titles again became scarce in 1981 when RCA came out with their disc format, but it finally took off full force in 1983 or so, when RCA pulled out. Yes, I had that 1776 disc, that I bought when it came out. Had the original one without the footage as well. I bought a number of musicals that never seemed to show up on DVD. And 2 or 3 adult titles. I watched these discs until I sold the house. I almost never bought a DVD with the same title, but started buying BluRay titles of my favorites. -- Jay Johannes 2716 S Promenade CIR APT#9 Sheboygan, WI 53089 970-290-9797 From: MoPo List <[email protected]> on behalf of Alan Adler <[email protected]> Reply-To: Alan Adler <[email protected]> Date: Friday, July 1, 2022 at 1:44 PM To: <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [MOPO] Laserdiscs Great stories! Thanks to everyone for sharing their laserdisc epiphanies! Keep’em coming! There a funny kind of thing to sniff into after all these years and I’m enjoying the process. Alan On Jul 1, 2022, at 11:37 AM, Glenn Taranto <[email protected]> wrote: I remember there was a time when the out-of-print Criterions were quite collectable. Years ago when I was selling off my discs and player one of the sets I sold was the Astaire-Rogers box set. It went to a man in Japan who sent me three crisp one hundred dollar bills wrapped in tissue paper and tinfoil through the mail. The one disc I kept was a rare pressing of the musical 1776. I played John Adams in high school during the Bicentennial. Naturally the show had a lot of meaning for me. This particular version was the first time the lost footage had been added. That footage was in black and white before they found the right materials for the dvd. I searched everywhere for that laser. On a trip to the very late and still lamented Dave's Video on Ventura near Laurel canyon I found a pristine copy in the used bin. I couldn't believe my eyes. I scooped it up right away and brought it to the front desk to hold for me after I returned from a doctor's appointment. I didn't want this rarity sitting in a hot car in the San Fernando Valley. As I walked out the door to Ventura Blvd. to cross the street to my doctor's, who did I see window shopping at Dave's? The one and only John Adams himself, William Daniels!!! What in the world are the chances of that happening? I spoke to him for a few minutes acknowledging my fondness for his work on St Elsewhere and our 1776 connection. Overwhelmed at seeing him I nearly forgot I had just bought the laserdisc. I excitedly told him about my purchase and asked him if he would be kind enough to sign it. He came into the store and did so. I still find it hard to believe anytime I think of that moment. I have saved some very interesting things through the years but that laserdisc is one of my most treasured possessions. Glenn On Fri, Jul 1, 2022 at 11:11 AM Alan Adler <[email protected]> wrote: Great info! Thanks! Alan > On Jul 1, 2022, at 10:22 AM, Dale Dilts <[email protected]> wrote: > > LD have FEW that will bring a $100 or a $50 every now and then but they are > few and far between. Going rate on bulk collection purchases tend to be well > under $2 a movie these days. > > 80's obscure titles and horror is where the little money is at. Also DTS > disks bring a premium. The last few discs released also bring a premium as > there were far fewer pressed. Matrix, Sleepy Hollow, stuff from 1999 time > period. > > > Word was all of the authoring machines are no more, so there is zero chance > of laserdisc making any kind of come back like vinyl has. > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Alan Adler" <[email protected]> > To: "MoPo-L" <[email protected]> > Sent: Friday, July 1, 2022 8:26:22 AM > Subject: [MOPO] Laserdiscs > > Dear Mopos - > > I just came across what appears to be a well-curated collection of laser > discs. > Good titles - boxed sets - noticed Japanese discs - some still sealed - > including what I was told by the collector was the best laserdisc machine. > > Before I commit to handling the collection, I wondered what the status of > laserdisc collecting was at present. > Has the VHS craze seeped into the world of laserdiscs? > > Any Mopos out there collect these - or is there some kind of marketplace - or > site with titles and values, etc.? > > I always thought laserdiscs were cool but never have found only a few here > and there and no machine to play them. > > Any laserdisc specialists in the audience? > > Thanks. > > Alan Adler > Museum of Mom and Pop Culture > > Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com > ___________________________________________________________________ > How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List > > Send a message addressed to: [email protected] > In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L > > The author of this message is solely responsible for its content. > > Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com > ___________________________________________________________________ > How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List > > Send a message addressed to: [email protected] > In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L > > The author of this message is solely responsible for its content. Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: [email protected] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content. To unsubscribe from the MoPo-L list, click the following link: https://listserv.american.edu/scripts/wa-american.exe?SUBED1=MoPo-L&A=1 Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: [email protected] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.
