Guild Home Video

Guild Home Video (GHV) or Guild Film Distribution was one of the very first video distribution companies to start operating in the UK. Unlike other independent labels such as Intervision or Videoform, GHV not only survived for a very long time, but continued to grow, eventually becoming a video distributor for independent studios such as Carolco, New Line Cinema, Cannon, and Lorimar. The videos were released by Video Collection International and PolyGram Video.

Guild Home Video
Formerly
  • Legibus Thirty-Six Limited (1976)
  • Esselte Communications Limited (1976-1982)
  • The Guild Organization Limited (1982-1986)
Film distributor, home video
FateMerged with Pathé
Founded18 October 1976[1]
Defunct1998
17 December 2019 (Company itself)[1]
HeadquartersOundle Road, Peterborough, England

Origins
Guild Home Video advert for its release of successful products released by 1983.

Originally based in Oundle Road, Peterborough before moving to Church Street, Walton-on-Thames, Guild Home Video were one of the biggest of the early video companies, and responsible for distributing a large and varied catalogue of movies. The initial batch of releases came out in mid-1980 and were easily recognisable by the sky blue, stylised 'G' symbol that the company retained throughout its life (with only a colour change to gold in 1987) and the logo was redrawn for an updated, cleaner look in 1984. The original Guild catalogue included a large array of features ranging from creaky and dated British science-fiction/horror fare such as The Beast in the Cellar, The Body Stealers and Doomwatch, to documentary/non-fiction titles such as The Entertaining Electron and Reardon on Snooker as well as recent box office hits such as David Cronenberg's Scanners and Jack Nicholson's remake of The Postman Always Rings Twice. Many classic Australian movies such as My Brilliant Career, Breaker Morant and Money Movers were also released at that time too.

The original catalogue was uncommonly large by the standards of most labels at that time, with well over 100 titles released within the first two years of trading alone, and Guild became well known for the professionalism of its product. At a time when many of the independent labels were resorting to tacky and often distastefully lurid cover designs to get its products noticed (Go Video's Cannibal Holocaust/SS Experiment Camp and Vipco's The Driller Killer being prime examples), GHV adopted a much more subtle approach. Early Guild covers were colour-coded. Cassettes for "hire only" carried a Pink band round the base of the sleeve, while later Hire/Sale cassettes carried a sky blue band round the top. There were also a number of tapes with a yellow band as well, but these are all but extinct now and desirable when found.

Growth

Guild Home Video continued to grow steadily throughout the 1980s, notable especially as one of the very few independent labels to survive the 1984 Video Recordings Act (1). This ruinous and reactionary response to the "Video Nasties" crisis meant that any movie available on video had to carry a BBFC video certificate. As each film would cost hundreds of pounds to classify if re-submitted, many independent labels found it uneconomic to submit their entire back catalogues and several simply went out of business. GHV, by now exclusive distributors to the likes of Cannon, The Samuel Goldwyn Company and Lorimar were able to continue on the strength on their newer titles and the older back catalogue generally disappeared from view. More successful titles such as Straw Dogs and Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came were among the first budget "sell through" titles to appear when Video Collection began retailing cut-price movies in 1986. 1986 also saw the launch of Guild's short-lived Frontier brand. It apparently released just seven titles.[2] Between 1991 and 1992, Guild revived a brand but under the name Capital Home Video, which only released indie titles and a few known titles such as Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers.

Decline

By the early 1990s the home video industry was changing drastically as the video trade was being dominated more and more by the big studios. It was in this climate that GHV had its climax in major success. In 1988 they secured a distribution deal with Hollywood mini-major Carolco Pictures, which resulted in them gaining exclusive UK video rights for big budget blockbuster movies such as Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Total Recall, Cliffhanger, and Rambo III. GHV merged with Pathé in 1996, forming Guild Pathé Cinema Limited.

The Guild Pathé Cinema logo used in 1996.

Guild Home Video shut down all UK operations in 1998, when Guild Pathé Cinema, became Pathé Distribution. Guild also had rental distribution rights with 20th Century Fox, operating as Fox Guild Home Entertainment and after the Pathé merger, Fox Pathé Home Entertainment. The company itself remained as an in-name only dormant business of Pathé until folding in 2019.[1]

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See also

References
  1. "GUILD HOME VIDEO LIMITED - Overview (free company information from Companies House)". Beta.companieshouse.gov.uk. Retrieved 2020-03-20.
  2. "Home video listing". www.vivavhs.co.uk. Retrieved 2020-03-20.
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