Houdini was released on VHS on April 8, 1991. If you think that seems late, you're right. VCRs had been around since 1976, and movies on VHS were ubiquitous throughout the 1980s. I remember waiting and wondering why Houdini had yet to appear. But to understand why Houdini took so long, we need to review the history of Home Video and, especially, pricing.
In these rental days, studios primarily focused on providing video stores with new releases, recent hits, and classic films. Paramount Home Video was one of the best for classics, releasing Houdini producer George Pal's War of the Worlds (1953) in their first year of operation. You could find older and more obscure movies on independent labels at lower prices, but many of these were movies that had fallen into the public domain and were offered in poor EP mode quality.
Houdini (1953) did not fall into either category. It was not in the public domain, and while I consider it a classic, it appears Paramount did not. So, year after year, there was no Houdini in video stores. There could also be reasons that I don't know. Houdini was still shown often on television, so maybe it was part of a television package that prevented a VHS release at the time?
Disney was the first studio to offer movies on quality tapes at a consumer-friendly price. This would come to be called the "sell-through" market. But it was the sell-through releases of E.T. in 1988, and especially Batman in 1989, that proved the viability of this market. Turns out people did want to own movies! Suddenly, the average price of a movie came down to $29.95, and studios began reissuing new sell-through versions of their most popular rental titles. (Guess who bought the Bond series...again.)
With the rental market becoming "sluggish" and the rise of new stores devoted to just selling videos, such as Suncoast (a Paramount and Musicland joint venture), studios began to mine their archives for older movies and, slowly but surely, began releasing those to the hot sell-through market.
Hence, on April 8, 1991, Houdini appeared alongside Lil Abner (1959), Waterloo (1970), The Klansman (1974), and Is Paris Burning (1966). It was priced at $14.95, recorded in good quality SP mode, and used the original poster art on the box. It was also released on Beta, Paramount Home Video being one of the last companies to offer movies on that format.
Houdini's release on VHS was extra exciting as it was the first time one could be assured they were seeing the entire film. When Houdini aired on television, it was always edited for time, and whole scenes would be missing. But here was Houdini exactly as it appeared in theaters in 1953. The quality of the movie is, and has always been, surprisingly excellent. We've never had to wish for a better quality Houdini. Thank you, Paramount!
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| The Plain Dealer, June 17, 1991. |
Looking back on the original newspapers, it's nice to see how much attention Houdini received. It was certainly the star title of its bundle. And it would remain so. In 1994, Paramount released the movie on the premium LaserDisc format (I snapped that up, too). When DVD and Blu-ray took over from VHS in the 2000s, it did not take long for Houdini to appear on both formats. And when streaming emerged, Houdini was there at a click.
Houdini may have been a little slow in coming to home video, but it has never left our living rooms. Hopefully, people are still discovering the story of Houdini via what I consider to be the best biopic.
Want more? You can see more advertisements for the Houdini VHS, along with other Houdini gems from the 1990s, as a member of my Patreon. It was a good decade for Harry!
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