Video Store Inventor George Atkinson Dies

The New York Times is reporting that George Atkinson, inventor of the video store, is dead at 69. We all owe this man a debt of gratitude because the studios wanted us to buy every movie (like music).

The story is fascinating. The first rentals were $10 per day, VCR's cost $1,000, he opened 600 stores, and his company went public on the idea. He was a visionary for the time:

Mr. Atkinson, a onetime stuntman and occasional actor, saw things differently. As he told The Los Angeles Times Magazine in 1987: "I said: 'You listen to Beethoven or the Beatles over and over again. You don't watch Burt Reynolds over and over.' "

Burt who? ;-)

A few interesting facts from the story:

There are 24,000 video stores in the U.S.

There were 2.6 billion rentals last year.

$8 billion was spent on rentals in 2004.

Via Seth Godin.

Comments

How much money did he have when he died? I would think the guy who invented the video store would have more money than Blockbuster. (Or did he own Blockbuster?)

[Ashleigh Atkinson]

he was living a very simple life before he passed away and had not much money and the few dollars that were supposed to go to me and my sisters are not because of an evil man named Sam that works at VINA DISTRIBUTORS in Garden Grove decided not to give us what he had promised our father he would when he passed away...........