Simitar Entertainment: Difference between revisions
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===Background=== | ===Background=== | ||
Simitar Entertainment, Inc. was a Minnesota-based company founded in 1980 that released content on VHS, DVD, CD and CD-ROM. It was founded by Mickey Elfenbien and Philip Kives, who were the CEO and founder of K-Tel, respectively. They bought out Pickwick Records and began releasing music. Eventually, they became one of the leading names in budget VHS. They also released many tapes of sports footage, and spun off Simitar Motorsports Video for this purpose. They also had a short-lived Japanese animation distributor known as Ani-Magine Anime, started by John Litton. In 1997, they became the first independent film producer to release their films on DVD. Simitar Entertainment was torpedoed by a lawsuit filed by Titan Sports (former owner of WWF, now known as WWE); they sued them over a 1999 knock-off compilation entitled ''Slammin' Wrestling Hits'', which contained covers of WWF entrance themes produced without their consent. Simitar lost the case, and the resulting debts forced them into bankruptcy, ultimately shutting down in 2000. Their film library ended up being sold to [[Brentwood Communications]] (later BCI Eclipse). | '''Simitar Entertainment, Inc.''' was a Minnesota-based company founded in 1980 that released content on VHS, DVD, CD and CD-ROM. It was founded by Mickey Elfenbien and Philip Kives, who were the CEO and founder of K-Tel, respectively. They bought out Pickwick Records and began releasing music. Eventually, they became one of the leading names in budget VHS. They also released many tapes of sports footage, and spun off Simitar Motorsports Video for this purpose. They also had a short-lived Japanese animation distributor known as Ani-Magine Anime, started by John Litton. In 1997, they became the first independent film producer to release their films on DVD. Simitar Entertainment was torpedoed by a lawsuit filed by Titan Sports (former owner of WWF, now known as WWE); they sued them over a 1999 knock-off compilation entitled ''Slammin' Wrestling Hits'', which contained covers of WWF entrance themes produced without their consent. Simitar lost the case, and the resulting debts forced them into bankruptcy, ultimately shutting down in 2000. Their film library ended up being sold to [[Brentwood Communications]] (later BCI Eclipse). | ||
===1st Logo (1984-1986)=== | ===1st Logo (1984-1986)=== | ||
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'''Availability:''' Rare. Seen on special interest videos released by Simitar in the 1980s, such as ''Vitsie'' and ''Baseball'' tapes. Some early releases that used this logo also used the previous logo above. | '''Availability:''' Rare. Seen on special interest videos released by Simitar in the 1980s, such as ''Vitsie'' and ''Baseball'' tapes. Some early releases that used this logo also used the previous logo above. | ||
'''Editor's Note:''' Very much a product of its time, this was the first logo by Simitar to use their "S" logo, which would be used until the company shut down. The logo is also notorious among the logo community due to its creepy content. | '''Editor's Note:''' Very much a product of its time, this was the first logo by Simitar to use their "S" logo, which would be used until the company shut down. The logo is also notorious among the logo community due to its creepy content, though some people don't find it scary and love the music. | ||
===3rd Logo (1990-2000)=== | ===3rd Logo (1990-2000)=== | ||