Mondo Logo
Mondo Logo! (part 2)
A second round of Cinefamily’s favorite opening logos from the secret history of fly-by-night ’80s VHS companies. Below are a few ol’ standbys, and a few headscratchers:
EMBASSY HOME ENTERTAINMENT
Short ‘n sweet, one of the all-time classics. The first time I was aware of the Embassy logo, with its perplexing-yet-soothing faux trumpet-and-flutes fanfare, was from the very first time I watched the VHS release of This Is Spinal Tap, back when I was a kid. Somebody should set this one to a beat, and have an MC spit rhymes all over it.
HERMES VIDEO
We caught this one rather recently; it’s on the opening of the sleazy ’80s NYC-shot mondo film Mondo Sexualis USA. Hermes was a Greek VHS label; the copy of Mondo Sexualis USA we obtained has Greek subtitles running through the whole thing — although I’m not sure why the phrase “Home Entertainment” is in English. The theme song is aces — reminds me of Vangelis. Everyone in the office is a big fan of the echoey “handclap in space” that drops every few seconds.
Mondo Logo! (part 1)
Since childhood, the opening logos accompanying VHS presentations have transfixed all of us in the Cinefamily office. As much as we look forward to checking out movie previews before the main feature, we love these cheapo swooshy nuggets of video detritus before whatever weird film about to watch that we’ve plucked off some dusty shelf. Individually, they can be as idiosyncratic and mysterious as a lone album by a legendary folk-rock nutter, or a velvet painting found in a dark corner of a thrift store. Let’s go back to the beginning of the home video medium, and check out a few of our faves:
MAGNETIC VIDEO
The very first home video label, created at a time when there were no video stores! Started in 1977 by a duo of businessmen who ran a video duplication service in Michigan, Magnetic Video originally licensed 50 titles from 20th Century Fox. Their cover boxes are still highly distinctive from most other labels of the early VHS days; check out a sweet gallery of some of their covers here. Love the voiceover on this logo here; in a rich baritone, the VO proclaims: “By special arrangement with 20th Century Fox, Magnetic Video Corporation is proud to offer the following major motion picture on videocassette.” Also, the background music conjures up images of an elderly couple enjoying a breezy summer day at the beach.
VIDAMERICA
The disco fanfare sounds incredibly urgent on this one, as if to scream “Grab your snacks, settle in, and shut yer trap, ‘cuz the movie starts NNNNNNOW!!!!” The early Scanimation-looking graphic totally kills. Also of interest here is that the logo was created early on enough that the concept of having home video tapes was still a novelty: note the “Special Interest Video Software” tag. A gallery of mainly exploitation/horror VidAmerica VHS covers can be found here.
