Sad State of Affairs
As of today, the Hollywood Video in downtown LO is shutting down forever.
That store opened around 1990, and it was the source of almost all my video games and movies for nearly half of the 20 years it was open. I have fond memories of hitting them up every friday after school to rent a game or movie for the weekend, since I never had the money to buy games or movies.
It had an absurdly well-stocked anime section (like 150 titles in 2000!) that opened me eyes to a whole genre of terror and insanity that I would otherwise have never encountered as early as I did. Their classic VHS section had almost everything I could want.
I remember when they had audiobooks and VHS tapes. I remember renting Final Fantasy II and Chrono Trigger. I remember our late-night runs to find something worth watching. Mostly I have amazingly detailed and special memories of the place.
Even when my parents couldnt buy me something they always had money for a game rental at Hollywood, and a pizza at the Little Caesar’s (next to the taco bell down the street). That was my escape from the loneliness of my life when I was young.
I have a lot of the same feelings and memories for Hollywood that a lot of you had for Rosewood video. It’s so goddamn sad to see these places that fueled our youthful discoveries go away. One more reminder that we’re not little kids anymore and the real world is changing and being rebuilt for another generation entirely. For me, it’s like watching someone tear down your childhood home, or the playground near your house, or hearing that a long-lost friend died.
I’m going down tomorrow to raid their stock- I feel like I’m graverobbing by doing so.
Drink a toast to the past, and for the happy memories that sustain us.
-Warren
I totally remember going there when we had sleepovers at your place. and everything u said is spot on. I was just talking to Geoff about how things never changed while we grew up, and then bam in the last few years everything from a new HS to bridgeport came out of no where. I went from 3rd grade to 12th in LO without hardly anything (noticebly) changing, to seeing things go up and come down in an instant.
This post struck a certain chord with me.
I am sorry to hear about the closing of Hollywood Video. I remember many nights from our collective youth where we would end up at that location and spend far longer than we needed to debating which movie to rent for the evening.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the advances in technology, and how technology seems to be expanding at an exponential rate. Remember VHS and audio cassettes? Technology which used to be a fixture seems quaint and dated by today’s standards. How anachronistic is it that modern cars STILL have tape decks? Where can you even buy a VHS player these days (combo players don’t count). I remember floppy disks all the way through high school, but they had completely vanished by college. The computer I’m typing on doesn’t even have a floppy disk drive.
I’ve been thinking, too, a lot about CDs. I received a few CDs this year, and it seemed almost inconvenient. I haven’t fired up a CD player in a long time, so CDs as a digital media are merely MP3 delivery sources these days. I wonder how much longer before I feel the same way about DVD?
On the actual closing of the L.O. Hollywood video, it is definitely regrettable, but not entirely unpredictable. After all, didn’t its parent company file for bankruptcy back in 2007? And isn’t the location next to Palisades Market still staying open?
Even in the day of Netflix and On-Demand service, there is still a need for video stores. On-demand may not have the movies you want, and Netflix requires a certain amount of patience. But if there’s ever something you “have to see,” but don’t want to buy outright, there’s always the video store (though, admittedly, there’s one less now).
I kind of disagree with the idea that LO didn’t change all the time we were in grade school. It did. We just may not have noticed it. Again, I think it has everything to do with our perception of time. When we’re young a year seems endless, but as we grow up, they seem to go by so quickly. Track seasons and winter breaks seemed like an eternity, but it seems odd to think I’ve been with Quinn for nearly 9 years. Building takes time. As a kid you don’t notice it, but as an adult things seem to “pop up overnight.”
With the high school, to us it seems like it magically appeared. But ask Julia or Marilyn, who had to deal with every single year of construction, and I can guarantee you they remember it in every gritty detail. To those who say L.O. didn’t change, I ask if you remember The Three Day Market/Flea Market/24 hour fitness? What about Natures/Wild Oats? The town changed in small increments. It’s only when you look back and assemble those increments that the change seems vast.
My advice? Remember the good times for what they were– good times. Instead of focusing on the present day emotion of loss, think back to the good memories of the past and they will shine as brightly as they did before.
I hope you find some items worth treasuring on your raid tomorrow.
Hollywood Videos are closing down left and right since, as Miles mentioned, the company that owns them (Movie Gallery) is going out of business and they haven’t been able to make rent payments. It sucks, because once upon a time Hollywood was a local business chain that is now going under mostly because of Blockbuster crowding the market and not because of Netflix or anything. Renting movies at an actual location isn’t going away yet (though I wouldn’t be surprised if it does in the next 10 years).
I looked it up and here’s the story: Blockbuster tried to do a hostile takeover of Hollywood video in 2005 after forcing Hollywood to spend more money than they had just to compete with Blockbuster. Instead of being bought out entirely by the company that inched them out of business, Hollywood agreed to be bought out in part by a third company, Movie Gallery. Blockbuster backed out, so Movie Gallery had to buy all of the Hollywood stocks, which led them to bankruptcy.
also before three day market was food4less, and the one by palisades market is a blockbuster lol
Renting movies and video games back in the day was worth it, but not today. With the internet we can download any movie we don’t want to actually buy because it is either a guilty pleasure or fear it isn’t worth the plastic it is stamped on. Of course rarities might be an exception…
Maybe it is because I have not seen Hollywood video in ages, but it closing does not bother me. Same with blockbuster, although that would be more surprising, who wants to rent a movie for 6 bucks?
Speaking of Rosewood video, Eddie is on the Facebook.
What’s Eddie’s last name? Cuz I don’t think it’s Rosewood…
Eddie Blake
http://www.facebook.com/search/?q=Eddie+Blake&init=quick#!/eddieblake77?ref=search&sid=111500028.2778359865..1