football_fan 42 Posted March 12, 2005 George Atkinson, who opened the United States' first video-rental store, in West Los Angeles in 1977, has died of emphysema at his home in Northridge, California. He was 69. In the fall of 1977, George Atkinson bought one VHS and one Betamax copy of each of the first 50 movie titles that were then being sold to the public. Announcing the availability of the videos for rent in a one-column-inch ad in the Los Angeles Times in December 1977, Atkinson launched the first video rental store, Video Station, a 600-square-foot storefront on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeless. In order to raise capital, Atkinson charged $50 for an "annual membership" and $100 for a "lifetime membership," which provided the opportunity to rent the videos for $10 a day. Atkinson was soon threatened with a lawsuit for renting the videos, but discovered that U.S. copyright law gave him the right to rent and resell videos he owned. Atkinson went on as an entrepreneur to create the Video Station chain of video stores; at its peak, the chain had over 600 franchised outlets. Atkinson retired in 1997 George Atkinson Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
