Magnetic Videography - Charlie Chaplin

After a successful start up with Fox films in 1977, Andre Blay had a very busy 1978 ahead of him. In addition to licensing material from Viacom, the estate of the late silent screen comedian Charlie Chaplin agreed to allow Mr. Blay to issue everything they owned of Chaplin as far as films went on home video. Among the seminal works of Chaplin issued by Magnetic were THE GOLD RUSH (which is technically a public domain film, but that hasn't stopped Chaplin's estate from sending C&D's over the film in recent years, and the version released by Magnetic is under copyright by Chaplin's estate), and such classics from the sound era as MODERN TIMES and THE GREAT DICTATOR. The Chaplin films were reissued on Playhouse Video and by CBS/Fox and Fox Video (the latter as part of the Charlie Chaplin Centennial Collection).

The titles had no ads on the back; these were the first Magnetic tapes with a product description. Interestingly, the tapes on the back also describe how the films were made:

Again, early Magnetic releases had a brown bar and a black band reading "Magnetic Video Corporation" at the bottom:

Later ones had the text "MAGNETIC VIDEO - A TWENTIETH CENTURY-FOX COMPANY" in between two red bars at the bottom:

All of the below films were released in the summer of 1978 and open with the voiceover "By special arrangement with the estate of Charles Chaplin, Magnetic Video Corporation is proud to offer the following classic motion picture on videocassette."

CL-3001 The Chaplin Revue (1959)
CL-3002 The Kid (1921) (1921) and The Idle Class (1921)
CL-3003 A Woman of Paris (1923) and Sunnyside (1919)
CL-3004 The Gold Rush (1925) and Pay Day (1922)
CL-3005 The Circus (1928) and A Days Pleasure (1919)
CL-3006 City Lights (1931)
CL-3007 Modern Times (1936)
CL-3008 The Great Dictator (1940)
CL-3009 Monsieur Verdoux (1947)
CL-3010 Limelight (1952)
CL-3011 A King in New York (1957)