Fire damages a summer camp Paul Newman founded for sick children.... Let's take a look...

[MercurysBall2]

Noel C. Bloom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noel_C._Bloom

Noel Christopher Bloom Sr. (born November 5, 1942) is an American businessman from Los Angeles. He is notable for founding the entertainment and home video companies Artisan Entertainment, Family Home Entertainment, Celebrity Home Entertainment, Live Entertainment, Caballero Home Video,[1] and Monterey Home Video.[2][3] Four of those companies of which he founded are now owned by Lionsgate, the exceptions being Caballero (which remains self-owned) and Monterey (which was purchased by Bayview Entertainment in 2019).

Lionsgate > Frank Giustra

Artisan Entertainment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artisan_Entertainment

Artisan Entertainment (formerly known as U.S.A. Home Video, International Video Entertainment (IVE) and LIVE Entertainment) was an American film studio and home video company. It was considered one of the largest mini-major film studios[1] until it was purchased by later mini-major film studio Lions Gate Entertainment in 2003...

Filmography
As LIVE Entertainment

September 4, 1992 Bob Roberts[32] co-production with Paramount Pictures, Miramax Films, StudioCanal and Working
October 23, 1992 Reservoir Dogs[32] co-production with Miramax Films

https://allisonveneziowrites.com/2020/0 ... ome-video/

From Soft Core To “Just For Kids!”

Businessman Noel C. Bloom founded several home video distribution companies during the course of the booming 1980s home video market. Some of them are likely familiar to you – Artisan Home Entertainment (starting as U.S.A. Home Video in 1983, then International Video Entertainment in 1985, then LIVE Entertainment beginning in 1988), Family Home Entertainment (1980-2005), and Celebrity Home Entertainment. Celebrity had soft core adult films in its catalog, which was nothing compared to Bloom’s Caballero

It was this company through which a sub-label was created to distribute children’s films, both of the obscure and well-known kind. You could say that Family Home Entertainment had the children’s market covered, but this was a market saturated with competition. And besides, Celebrity was good for distributing obscure content, so there was a need for a children’s company to do the same.

Celebrity’s Just for Kids label was established in 1985, and distributed children’s programs and films, many of obscure nature, some international movies (including the Gamera movies, and many European and Japanese cartoons), and some very well-known content at the time, including Bravestarr, GI Joe: The Movie, COPS, and Filmation’s Ghostbusters. the animated series capitalized on the live action show from the 1970s, which has nothing to do with the 1980s films and cartoons that are more commonly known and embraced.

The “Just For Kids” videos were book-ended with segments featured Noel Bloom Jr., the son of Noel Bloom. Beginning about 1987 or 1988, Little Noel (and his braces) introduced the video and reminded kids about how to adjust the tracking on their VCR for the best picture quality, and to stick around for the end of the program, so you – yes you – could find out how to receive a free “Just For Kids” videocassette!..

Enter Just For Kids!

[MercurysBall2]

Another article from that blog: THE STORY OF CHILDREN’S VIDEO LIBRARY https://allisonveneziowrites.com/2020/0 ... o-library/

The growing home video market in the 1980s came from more than just the major studios. Smaller companies jumped into this lucrative business, vying for the dollars of people looking to not only rent, but also purchase home videos for their families. This included the children’s genre.

Last week, we looked at the story of Media Home Entertainment, whose children’s sub-label, Hi-Tops Video, released educational and entertaining content from 1986 until 1992, when its parent company was nearing its end. The vibrant logo and fun logo jingle made the company a popular choice for kids’ home media, but there was another company, itself a sub-label, that was a direct competitor for those dollars. It also had an impressive library, and a logo that was memorable, perhaps not always for the same reasons Hi-Tops logo was, but it was certainly memorable. That logo was Children’s Video Library, and it wanted to lure you in with its own wholesome entertainment.

But first, we have to look at the parent company that unleashed the logo’s balloons on the home video market in the 1980s.

The Cheesy “V”
Children’s Video Library was a sub-label of Vestron Video, a company established in Stamford, Connecticut in 1981. Its founder, Austin Owen Furst Jr., was an executive at HBO hired to dismantle the assets of Time-Life Films. Furst, obviously wanting in on the growing home video market, purchased the library himself, and opened his own entertainment company with said assets. The name “Vestron” came at his daughter’s suggestion – combining the Roman Goddess Vesta with “Tron,” meaning instrument in Greek.

So no, this video company’s name has nothing to do with the Disney movie...

As tastes in home video and movies matured, Vestron’s committed production of twenty “B” to “low A” films was the beginning of their undoing. The company’s financing fell through, and in 1990, Vestron declared Chapter 11. In January 1991, Vestron was bought out of bankruptcy by Los Angeles-based LIVE Entertainment, another home video company, and titles continued under Vestron until 1992.

These days, Vestron releases are under Lions Gate Entertainment, which acquired Vestron’s library’s original successor, Artisan Entertainment (LIVE’s forerunner company) in 2003.

In 2016, something interesting happened in a world of “everything always comes back.” That applied to the Vestron name as well. Lionsgate Home Entertainment resurrected the name Vestron Video as a Blu-Ray and DVD reissue label for Vestron and Lionsgate horror movies. The “Vestron Video Collector’s Series” is branded with an updated version of the first Vestron logo (1982-1986, though I have no idea why – the later logo is much nicer), and the first releases, Chopping Mall and Blood Diner (which I saw with my friends Amie and Ron) were released in September 27, 1986. Reissues were done so between 2016 and 2018 (complete list).

THE LOGO THAT WRITES ITS OWN NAME: THE STORY OF FAMILY HOME ENTERTAINMENT https://allisonveneziowrites.com/2020/0 ... rtainment/

We’ve been talking about the booming home video industry of the 1980s, and the various companies vying for those oh-so-lucrative children’s home video market dollars. The options were plentiful, but there were several leaders of the time. We’ve covered Hi-Tops Video and Children’s Video Library and their cutesy, child-friendly production logos, as well as their histories as part of larger home video companies Media and Vestron, respectively. Last week, we looked at Celebrity Home Entertainment’s “Just For Kids” videos, especially the spokeschild for that company, Noel Bloom Jr.

All of these companies popped up about the same time in the early-to-mid 1980s, all of them had a large catalog of children’s entertainment, including well-known cartoons and live action children’s programming. There was another company out there that was just like the rest – it started before them, and went far longer than the rest did, but also boasts an impressive catalog.

Heck, it even has a connection to Just For Kids...

Family Home Entertainment was established in 1980 by Noel C. Bloom, he of Celebrity Home Entertainment (and its own sub-label, Just For Kids). In its earliest days, F.H.E. produced videos that were not geared at the kids and family market, but shifted its entire focus to that group in 1981.

The label was notable for its own catalog of releases, which included all of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles videos from the original animated series, as well as the live action movie in 1990, It’s A Wonderful Life, Hoosiers, Drop Dead Fred, The Last Unicorn, Transformers: The Movie, the Barbie animated movies from the early 2000s, Thundercats, and a fairly extensive list of other movies, cartoons, and television specials (IMDb list). Their output, like the other kiddie companies of the 80s, had licensed characters intermingled with classic cartoons. ..

Family Home Entertainment was acquired by Lions Gate Entertainment in 2003, when they folded Artisan into their company. By 2005, Family Home Entertainment was also folded, and its catalog is now owned by Lions Gate. Though at this point, probably much of their pre-Artisan catalog is likely out of print of distributed by other companies...
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