George Atkinson (businessman)

[1] When VCRs first went on sale in 1975, studios thought they would be a luxury item and that customers would want to buy films to own.

[2] However, the company he was working for, Home Theater Systems, was not doing well, and himself had gone through a difficult divorce that cost him his house and a struggle with alcoholism.

[3] In December 1977, George Atkinson spent approximately $3000 to buy one Betamax and one VHS copy of each of the 50 available movie titles from Magnetic Video, which were then being sold to the public by direct mail.

[1][4] Atkinson turned his shop into the first professionally managed video rental store and renamed it Video Station, a 600 square foot (56 m2) storefront on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles.

His company went public in 1983 but Atkinson resigned and sold his stake a few years later.