Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 6, 1990 TAG: 9006060101
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL RUEHLMAN LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
You command Warren Beatty. He's for hire, on the cheap, at any local video store. So are Katherine Hepburn, Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep, right now, no waiting.
But John Jowdy is harder to come by.
That's John Jowdy, the Bowling Doctor.
John Jowdy, designer of the sure-fire five-point program to "Maximize Your Bowling," as demonstrated by two-time Firestone championship winner Marshall Holman, also hard to come by.
But they're both behind a brand-new 44-minute videotape produced by Summit for $9.95. Orbit Video, "Your Guide to Video Entertainment," gives these guys two and a half stars. "This," reports Orbit, "is for serious bowlers."
You won't find it at Blockbuster.
Over the past 10 years, more than 10,000 special interest videotapes have been produced on just about everything you can name, from aerobics to zookeeping. There's "Barter for Fun and Profit," "Facercise," "Emergency First Aid for Your Horse." There's "Bread Dough Folk Art," "Running a Movie Theater," "Confessions of a Car Dealer."
There's even "Solving Simultaneous Equations and Inequalities Geometrically."
And the list grows daily.
The most recent video advice tells you "What You Can Do to Save the Planet" and features Bob Saget on conserving water, eliminating toxic substances and recyling. Coming later this month: "Save the Earth: A How-to Video," hosted by Jere Burns of "Dear John."
But most video stores carry only current movie hits and little special interest material.
Libraries are a better bet. The Roanoke Country main library has about 600 titles, about a third of which are instructional. Cheryl Childress, the county's head librarian said most of the instructional tapes are about home repair and renovation.
There's even a tape about how to play soccer better.
But no Bowling Doctor.
Not to worry.
An alternative now exists for 70 million American owners of videocassette recorders waiting for something besides Warren Beatty:
The mail-order market.
You can find out what's up-to-date and available by following trade magazines like Orbit Video ($2.95 monthly) and Video Review ($2.50 monthly).
The most comprehensive listing remains Variety's Complete Home Video Directory, 40,000 cross-indexed titles. Cost: $129. The price includes free quarterly updates for one year.
It ought to.
But various mail-order video operations offer a more reasonable run-down, and service besides.
Among them:
Facets Multimedia. Rents and sells tapes of all descriptions. Call 1-800-331-6197 or write 1517 West Fullerton Ave., Chicago, Ill., 60614. Catalog $6.40.
Listening Library. Sells videos based on books. Call 1-800-243-4504 or write 1 Park Avenue, Old Greenwich, Conn., 06870. Catalog free.
Video Learning Library. Rents and sells how-to and special interest videos. Call 1-800-383-8811 or write 7201 Haven Avenue, Suite E-310, Alta Loma, Calif., 91701. Catalog $9.95.
Terms and prices vary.
Video Learning Library requires an annual membership fee of $6 to $17 a tape, depending on its retail purchase price. (Average videocassette purchase price: a little less than $30.)
A video library card entitles the customer to rent up to three video tapes at a time; the tapes can be kept for seven days at a rental charge of $6 per tape plus $6 per order for shipping to and from your mailing address.
Says Video Learning Library founder James Spencer, "We're different than a video store, because a video store rents entertainment, whereas we rent knowledge and training."
Also quantities of kitsch.
"Bizarre Sports and Incredible Feats" features competition cockroaches, elephants playing soccer and Eskimos racing on their knuckles.
Ball park prices: "Just Call Me Kitty," the "purr-fectly charming video about cats" (1 hour), retails at $14.95; "An Invitation to Fly," dubbed "the definitive video reference work for professional pilots as well as the first complete basic course for private pilots on home videocassette" (15 hours), sells for $399.95.
Armchair classroom
"The whole market is growing," affirms George Vos, vice president for Special Interest Video, a specialist in nonfiction titles (call 1-800-522-0502 or write 475 Oberlin Ave. South, Lakewood, N.J., 08701, catalog free).
His firm started in 1987 with sales of half a million; Vos reports this year's sales at "close to 15 million."
"It's a good business, because retailers don't concentrate so heavily on this type of material. They carry `Batman,' the big titles that turn very quickly. But we've found there's a great deal of interest in special interest."
If you have [an interest], chances are there's a videocassette about it.
Exercise. Jane Fonda's but one in a hungry legion of hyperkinetic drill instructors. "Get Started" with Richard Simmons, "Tone Up" with Kathy Smith, "Shape Up" with Arnold Schwarzenegger (terminate that flab now!). Bill Walton has a "Family Fitness Program," Bob Mann has an "Isometric Stretch," Bruce Jenner has a "Winning Workout."
Most assertive new title: "Buns of Steel" (improve your bottom line).
Cooking. "Wok on the Wild Side," "The Short Order Gourmet," "Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers."
Self help. "Three Happy People," "Eight Minute Makeovers," "Ten Keys to a More Powerful Personality."
To deal with the special complications of military divorce, a veteran matrimonial and tax lawyer, Jan Warner, has produced a new 30-minute videotape, "How to Successfully Manage Military Divorce," for members of the armed forces, their spouses, and lawyers who handle these cases.
Least promising entry: "The Joy of Stress."
Home improvement. "Basic Bricklaying," "Basic Carpentry," "Basic Home Repair."
"Principles of Paneling."
"How to Hang a Door." This step-by-step tape purports to "save the estimated $125 cost of hiring a contractor," but crank in $19.95 for the instruction.
Travel. "National Geographic's Jerusalem," "Fodor's Hawaii," "Suzanne Reyto's Plan 'n' Pack."
"Vidal in Venice": author Gore Vidal traces his root canals.
"Voyage to the Outer Planets": blast off with Isaac Asimov.
Sports. "The Baseball Bunch" series with Johnny Bench features drills for skills (Ted Williams himself talks on hitting).
"The Best of Football Follies" - slapstick action.
"Golf My Way" with Jack Nicklaus.
"Horse Race Handicapping, a College Course."
"The Art of Goalkeeping" (soccer), "The Attacking Game" (tennis), "Solo" (climbing).
"Maltese Flamingo": how to become a ski bum.
You can even hypnotize yourself watching videos.
Ad man-turned-video-hypnosis-entrepreneur Richard Sutphen offers more than 43 self-help titles through his company, Valley of the Sun Video of Agoura Hills, Calif., the largest manufacturer and distributor of hypnosis videotapes in the United States, with more than 100,000 mail-order customers.
The company's most popular titles address weight loss, smoking cessation and healing acceleration. There are also tapes for stress management, self-confidence building and accelerated learning. All combine hypnosis with subliminal messages.
Instead of Nintendo
Current kidvid ranges from traditional soft and sweet to modern fast and flip. Aesop's fables are still big, as are the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm.
But such troubadours of today as Big Bird, Bill Cosby and Michael "Bad Hair" Williams account for their full share of the fickle attention youngsters allot to the contemporary tube.
Try these for entertainment:
Barry Louis Polisar Sings "My Brother Threw Up on My Stuffed Toy Bunny." Older elementary schoolchildren will identify. "I've Got a Teacher, She's So Mean," "When the House Is Dark and QUIET," others.
Flight of the Navigator. One kid, one flying saucer, one heck of a ride. Disney offers up this special-effects dandy for the entire family.
Gregory the Terrible Eater & Monsters Meet You at the Airport. Marilyn Michaels narrates and LeVar Burton visits the San Diego Zoo to find out about stuff animals eat.
Lamb Chop's Sing-Along, Play-Along. Puppeteer Shari Lewis demonstrates finger plays and repetition games that "turn viewers into doers." First prize in the games and magic category of the 1988 American Film Institute Video Conference.
Storybook Classics: Pecos Bill. Robin Williams narrates. Yes, he ad libs. But don't worry, the performance won a Parents' Choice Award.
Try these for instruction:
Squiggles, Dots and Lines. Author-illustrator Ed Emberley provides a drawing alphabet for preteens 5 to 12 that enables them to "draw anything in the universe." The American Film Institute Video Conference, the National Education Film and Video Festival and the American Hospital Association liked this one.
Strong Kids, Safe Kids. Henry Winkler enlists Scooby-Doo, Yogi Bear and the Flintstones in a family guide to protecting youngsters from sexual abuse and other bad situations.
Toys at Your Fingertips. Ideas for ages 6 to 12 on how to make playthings out of everyday household materials. Boxes, cylinders, play clay, floats.
Any of the above beats "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles."
Beyond bowling
Offbeat, we also got.
Lonely?
Unaffiliated?
Rent a Friend. Guy named Sam asks you questions, waits for your answers, shows you snapshots of his family.
Plot too complex on "Twin Peaks"?
Looking for non-threatening entertainment?
Video Fireplace. "No logs to haul! No ashes to clean! A real fire burning in real time, from roaring flames to glowing embers."
A corollary:
Video Aquarium. Wet Video Fireplace.
And, for the "full rich experience of owning your own pet without the mess and incontinence of the real thing":
Video Dog. Fetches video bones.
That's for you.
For your canine:
Doggie Adventure. Filmed from a camera height of 2 feet. Car ride, duck chase in the park, inevitable prowl past a fireplug.
And, coming to your supermarket soon, video magazines. Witness Loretta Swit fight back tears as she accepts her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in "Persona." The two-hour monthly will sell for $4.95.
But the package includes 20 minutes of advertising.
Read any good books lately?
by CNB