Magnetic Videography - United Artists and everyone else.

Poor UA. TransAmerica entered United Artists into the video market through a deal made with VidAmerica in 1980 (the title list was the same as the one given to England's Intervision label). Problem: VidAmerica was originally set up to pioneer the concept of renting videocassettes through mail, and this led to failure; every week, tapes kept disappearing somewhere in the postal system, much to the chagrin of VidAmerica executives as they considered stamping the packages a "nuclear waste" before giving up on long-distance retail.

United Artists was understandably upset about how the deal with VidAmerica went, and turned their attention to Magnetic. Magnetic was very receptive to the offer about distributing UA's back catalogue, including films that were previously distributed by Warner Bros. and owned by then-UA subsidiary Associated Artists Productions. Earlier UA releases from Magnetic Video featured Transamerica references to the company. The sale to MGM wouldn't be finalized until August 1981, and following that, Transamerica then ordered UA to remove their name from the logos of all their films. Transamerica references were also seen on early RCA CED and LaserDisc releases of United Artists films, earlier in 1981. Transamerica logos are also rumored to appear on UK Intervision Video releases of UA films from December 1980.

The rights to the pre-1950 Warner Bros. films were acquired by Time Warner when they bought Turner Entertainment in 1996. The rights to everything else Magnetic issued of UA are owned by MGM.

CL-4501 The Jazz Singer (1927)
CL-4502 42nd Street (1933)
CL-4503 The Black Stallion (1979)
CL-4504 Apache (1954)
CL-4505 The Barefoot Contessa (1954)
CL-4506 La Cage aux folles (1978)
CL-4507 Last Tango in Paris (1972)
CL-4508 Let It Be (1970)
CL-4509 The Pink Panther (1963)
CL-4510 The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)
CL-4511 Tom Jones (1963)
CL-4512 Either Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) or Carrie (1976); reassigned to Killer Party, released several years later by Key Video
CL-4513 Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)
CL-4514 Casablanca (1942)
CL-4515 Carrie (1976)
CL-4516 Coming Home (1978)
CL-4517 Semi Tough (1977)
CL-4518 Annie Hall (1977)
CL-4519 West Side Story (1961)
CL-4520 F.I.S.T. (1978)
CL-4521
CL-4522
CL-4523 Raging Bull (1980)
CL-4524 Fiddler on the Roof (1971)
CL-4525 Dr. No (1962)
CL-4526
CL-4527 Gentleman Jim (1942)
CL-4528 A Shot in the Dark (1964)
CL-4529 King Of Hearts (1966)
CL-4530 The Maltese Falcon (1941)
CL-4531 The Great Train Robbery (1979)
CL-4532
CL-4533 A Bridge Too Far (1977)
CL-4534 It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)
CL-4535 The Hound of the Baskervilles (1958)
CL-4536
CL-4537
CL-4538
CL-4539 The Dogs of War (1980)
CL-4540 The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
CL-4541
CL-4542
CL-4543 Caveman (1981)
CL-4544
CL-4545 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
CL-4546
CL-4547
CL-4548 Irma La Douce (1963)
CL-4549 Hawai'i (1966)
CL-4550 Thief (1980)
CL-4551
CL-4552
CL-4553 The Magnificent Seven (1960)
CL-4554 Stardust Memories (1980)
CL-4555 Bananas (1971)
CL-4556 A Fistful of Dollars (1964)
CL-4557 Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)
CL-4558 The Great Escape (1963)
CL-4559 Rollerball (1975)
CL-4560 White Lightning (1973)
CL-4561 The Alamo (1960)
CL-4562 Brannigan (1975)
CL-4563
CL-4564
CL-4565
CL-4566
CL-4567
CL-4568
CL-4569 The Fortune Cookie (1966)
CL-4570
CL-4571
CL-4572 Now, Voyager (1942)
CL-4573 The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1966)
CL-4574 A Thousand Clowns (1965)
CL-4575 Man of La Mancha (1972)
CL-4576 Women in Love (1969)
CL-4577
CL-4578
CL-4579
[Here, the company morphs into 20th Century-Fox Video]
CL-4580 Sergeant York (1941)

---

Dealer Demonstration Videocassette series: Not numbered; these were used only for the promotion of videocassettes sold by Magnetic Video.

---

Brut Productions was the film production division of then-cosmetics company Fabergé, Inc. from George Barrie. They were involved with no fewer than 17 films from 1972 to 1979, and 13 of them were released on Magnetic Video; an additional title was released later on by CBS/Fox Video. The first title they licensed to Magnetic Video, 1973's A Touch of Class, was the only box office hit Brut ever had.
CL-5001 A Touch Of Class (1973)
CL-5002 Fingers (1978)
CL-5003 Nasty Habits (1976)
CL-5004 Whiffs (1975)
CL-5005 Night Watch (1973)
CL-5006 Book Of Numbers (1973)
CL-5007
CL-5008 Welcome To Arrow Beach (1973)
CL-5009 Sweet Hostage (1975)
CL-5010 Miracles Still Happen (1974)
CL-5011 I Will, I Will, For Now (1975)
CL-5012 Hedda (1975)
CL-5013 Cry For Me Billy (1972)

---

Blay/Fox also released at least 4 wildlife documentaries produced by wildlife expert Bill Burrud in 1979. All have specially-patterned marquees reflecting nature itself, and even most of the normally white parts of the slipcover use this pattern as well.

CL-6001 The Great American Wilderness (1977)
CL-6002 The Secret World of Reptiles (1976)
CL-6003
CL-6004 Predators of the Sea (1977)
CL-6005
CL-6006 The Amazing Apes (1977)

---

At least 4 different collections of public domain newsreels from the French company Pathe were released by Magnetic Video in 1979; as with the Chaplin titles, there were no ads on the back.

CL-7001 Milestones of the Century 1 (1979)
CL-7002 Milestones of the Century 2 (1979)
CL-7003 Men of Destiny 1 (1979)
CL-7004 Men of Destiny 2 (1979)

---

ABC Video Enterprises, Inc. was a home video and cable television unit of the ABC Television Network, formed in July 1979. The group bought a controlling stake in ESPN in the early 1980s, as well as being partners in Lifetime, A&E, and a joint venture with Westinghouse to form the Satellite News Channel (SNC), which was later bought by Ted Turner to cut the competition with his CNN network. In 1993, it was re-purposed as "Capital Cities/ABC Cable and International Broadcasting, Inc.", which later became Disney-ABC International Television.

ABC's association with Magnetic Video dates to 1980. Some films either had the ABC Pictures logo, or the ABC Pictures International logo. Most films that had the latter on the tape originally had the domestic 1968 version. ABC Pictures films were originally distributed by Cinerama Releasing, but such logo was removed on most Magnetic Video releases.

CL-8003 The Miracle Of Lake Placid (1980)
CL-8004 They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969)
CL-8005 Straw Dogs (1971)
CL-8006 The Killing Of Sister George (1968)
CL-8007 Take the Money and Run (1969)
CL-8008 Kotch (1971)
CL-8009 Lovers And Other Strangers (1970)
CL-8010 Song Of Norway (1970)
CL-8011 Notorious (1946)
CL-8012 Rebecca (1939)
CL-8013
CL-8014 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938)
CL-8015 Huckleberry Finn (1975)
CL-8016 Jenny (1970)
CL-8017 The Nightstalker (1972)
CL-8018
CL-8019 Junior Bonner (1972)
CL-8020 Charly (1968)
CL-8021 The Touch (1971)
CL-8022 Ring Of Bright Water (1969)
CL-8023 Zachariah: The First Electric Western (1970)
CL-8024 Suppose They Gave A War And Nobody Came (1969)
CL-8025 The Last Valley (1971)
CL-8026 For Love Of Ivy (1968)
CL-8027 Whatever Happened To Aunt Alice (1969)
CL-8028 Hell In The Pacific (1968)
CL-8029 The Garden Of Allah (1936)
CL-8030 The Spiral Staircase (1945)

---

These tapes don't have a voiceover at the beginning:

CL-6101 The Man With The Golden Arm (1955) - Public Domain film.
CL-6102 The Moon Is Blue (1953) - Public Domain film?

CL-6110 Odyssey: Ron Hays' Music Image (1979) - from Music Image Workshop
CL-6111
CL-6112 Dot and the Kangaroo (1977) - Cartoon, from Satori Films

CL-6125 Black Emanuelle (1975) - 1982 release, from Satori Films

---

Magnetic Video Sports Programming

CL-3801 Jack Nicklaus: Sports Clinic (1980)
CL-3701 A Golden Decade of College Football (1980)
CL-3702 Willie Mosconi's World of Pocket Billiards (1980)

---

The American Film Theatre specialized in film adaptations of stage plays, produced by Ely Landau. 14 were produced for Motion Picture Theaters from 1973 to 1975, and all of them were released by Magnetic Video in 1980. They came in large leather black bookcases. On the front was the words "Video Playhouse" written in script on the top, and on the bottom was a small picture from the film, and the title in script font.

CL-5504 A Delicate Balance (1973)
CL-5505 Luther (1974)
CL-5509 The Maids (1974)
CL-5513 Philadelphia, Here I Come (1975)
CL-5514 Jacques Brel Is Alive And Well And Living In Paris (1975)

---

The National Center for Cinema Arts only licensed one film to Blay/Fox: a film that was originally released as THE NURSE in Italy. The film got the standard American treatment (which the OP will probably see is a bastardized English dub) and this is the result:

CL-5701 The Sensuous Nurse (1975)