Camelot Enterprises
History
[edit]Camelot Enterprises, also known as Camelot Corporation, was originally founded in 1981 as Bolyard Oil & Gas Ltd. In October 1988, the company was acquired by former UK motorcycle parts dealer Danny Wettreich, who moved to Dallas, Texas in 1983, and in January 1989, it officially became Camelot Enterprises.
Home video department
[edit]Goldstar Video Corporation (sometimes referred to as Gold Star Video), not to be confused with Korean-based manufacturer and distributor Lucky-Goldstar (currently known as LG Corporation), was an American video distributor located in the East Coast. The company was formed sometime in 1988 by Ronald J. Goldsmith and had sub-licensing deals and duplication contracts with several companies, while sometimes duplicating some of their own releases in-house. Sometime in 1992, Goldstar formed a children's imprint called The Little Red Schoolhouse Learning Center, or simply The Little Red Schoolhouse.
Tapes released by this company were often duplicated in EP/SLP mode, sometimes with only a linear audio track, although some tapes may be in SP mode, including those duplicated by Agincourt Productions, or in some rare cases, LP mode. On releases sub-licensed from Random House Home Video, the Random House UPC prefix and check digit are replaced with Goldstar’s own, with the Random House stock number and ISBN prefix and check digit left intact. The face labels of certain releases from this company often said "ADJUST TRACKING IF NECESSARY", while the face labels of releases sub-licensed from Random House Home Video said "ADJUST TRACKING FOR CLEARER PICTURE".
Between 1991 and 1992, the company released a series of public domain horror films under the Tales of Horror umbrella. In the latter year, they also released other public domain movies under the Goldstar Feature Films umbrella; such tapes mistakenly used the Little Red Schoolhouse logo on the face label.
Troubles started brewing in 1993, with a lawsuit filed by Matrix Video, followed by Random House, its most prominent sub-licensor, terminating its deal by the middle of September. The termination of the deal was a result of violations on Goldstar's part dating back to May 1993. These troubles resulted in Goldstar Video filing for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection before the end of the year. Furthermore, in July 1993, Camelot Enterprises acquired 40% of Goldstar Video. Wettreich was unaware of the fate of the deal between it and Random House until he saw the 'effective immediately' advertisement for the deal from Random House on the September 18, 1993 issue of Billboard Magazine.
Subsequently, Camelot formed a wholly owned subsidiary, Goldstar Entertainment, which later became Camelot Entertainment (not to be confused with the ad sales division of King World Productions) by the very end of the year, and this new subsidiary even secured a sub-licensing deal with Turner Home Entertainment. Coincidentally, the 40%-owned Goldstar Video was no more, with the Little Red Schoolhouse imprint transferred to the wholly owned Goldstar Entertainment. Additionally, Camelot formed a subsidiary that released compilations of public domain cartoons; Goldrix Entertainment, a joint venture with duplicator Matrix Video Duplication Corporation. Similarly, much like Colex Enterprises (for Columbia Pictures Television and Lexington Broadcast Services Company, the latter which later became LBS Communications), the name of this subsidiary was a portmanteau of the names Goldstar and Matrix, the former of the two aforementioned Goldstar entities.
Camelot Entertainment lingered on for little more than another year before filing for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy protection in January 1995. Additionally, despite the termination of the deal between Goldstar Video and Random House, some titles remained in print at this time, albeit with photocopied covers.
The prefix of Goldstar Video's UPC codes was "054342", also on Goldrix Entertainment releases as well as some Goldstar Entertainment/Camelot Entertainment releases. Camelot Entertainment eventually adopted the prefix "785476" by the very beginning of 1994.
List of Subsidiaries
[edit]- Camelot Entertainment (formerly known as Goldstar Entertainment)
- Goldrix Entertainment (a joint venture with Matrix Video)
- Goldstar Video Corporation (40% interest only)
- Mr. CD-ROM (retail store chain)
List of Imprints
[edit]- Goldstar Feature Films
- Tales of Horror
- The Little Red Schoolhouse Learning Center
- The Little Red Schoolhouse (shorthand form)
List of Known Sub-Licensors
[edit]NOTE #1: *These titles were released under the Little Red Schoolhouse imprint.
NOTE #2: -These titles were released by Goldstar Video.
NOTE #3: ^Promotional copy.
- Family Home Entertainment (1994) (Strawberry Shortcake videos, as well as The Selfish Giant^ and The Remarkable Rocket^)
- J2 Communications (1992-1993) (The Mother Goose Treasury videos)*-
- Random House Home Video (1992-1993) (The Berenstain Bears, Dr. Seuss Beginner Book Video and Sesame Street Start-to-Read videos)*-
- Starmaker Entertainment (1993)*- (possibly cancelled)
- Strand Home Video (1993) (The Jungle Book videos)*-
- Turner Home Entertainment (1993) (The Greatest Adventure Stories From The Bible videos)*
Trivia
[edit]- This company's subsidiaries are contemporary family-oriented boutique labels, like Feature Films for Families. Thus, they duplicated their product at multiple facilities over the years.
- This is probably the only home video distributor to have a joint venture with one of its duplicators.
- Some tapes released by Camelot Entertainment under the Christmas Collection line had the Little Red Schoolhouse logo on-screen at the beginning and end, despite no mentions of that imprint on neither the covers nor face labels.
Duplicators
[edit]On some tapes, the duplicator's initials were noted (in bold) on the face label.
- Agincourt Productions, Toronto, ON (Canadian; SP mode tapes; tapes sub-licensed from Random House Home Video only; inked/silkscreened face labels) (uncredited)
- Alpha Video Distributors, Inc., South Plainfield, NJ (tapes sub-licensed from Random House Home Video only) (uncredited)
- Cassette Productions, Salt Lake City, UT (uncredited)
- Goldstar Video Corporation, Freehold, NJ (self-duplicated) (uncredited)
- HMG Digital Technologies Corporation, Hauppauge, NY (HMG)
- Matrix Video Duplication Corporation, Los Angeles, CA (as indicated by the joint venture mentioned above, MTX)
- Rank Video Services America, Calexico, CA (tapes sub-licensed from Random House Home Video only, including two known copies of Hop on Pop) (uncredited)
Locations
[edit]- Brentwood, New York (1988-1991)
- Hauppauge, New York (1991)
- Freehold, New Jersey (1991-1993)
- Tinton Falls, New Jersey (1993-1994)