Simitar Entertainment

History

In 1984, K-Tel, who had a successful video presence in Canada and Australia, launched its North American home video division under the K-Tel Video name. After K-Tel International filed for bankruptcy, two of its founders Mickey Elfenbien and Philip Kives started Simitar Entertainment and took over the North American arm from K-Tel.

They bought out Pickwick Records. The company also spawned imprints such as Simitar Motorsports Video for motorsports titles, New Family Movies for family films and Ani-Magine Anime for Japanese anime. Eventually, Simitar went onto its battle against GoodTimes Entertainment, United American Video Corporation and Anchor Bay Entertainment as one of the major budget video distributors.

In 1997, they became the first independent film producer to release their films on DVD. Simitar Entertainment would eventually go bankrupt and shut down in 2000 after losing a lawsuit filed by Titan Sports (dba World Wrestling Federation; now known as World Wrestling Entertainment) over a 1999 knock-off compilation CD entitled Slammin' Wrestling Hits, which contained covers of WWF entrance themes produced without their consent. Simitar's library would end up going to Brentwood Communications.

Releases

TBD

Duplicators

Occasionally, Simitar noted the duplicator's initials on the face label.

• Cassette Duplicators Incorporated, West Valley City, UT (CDI)
• Celebrity Duplicating Services, Inc., Canoga Park, CA (always uncredited)
• Cinram International Inc., Huntsville, AL (CIN)
• Downeast Duplicating, Inc., Biddeford, ME (ddi)
• High Speed Video, Malvern, PA (always uncredited)
• Technicolor Video Services, Livonia, MI (always uncredited)
• Osborn Video Productions, Orem, UT (OVP)
• Paragon Media, Inc., Wauconda, IL (PM)
• Precision Tapes Inc., Minneapolis, MN (PT)
• RSB Video, Montreal, QC (always uncredited)
• Vaughn Communications Inc., Minneapolis, MN (VCI)
• VCA-Teletronics, Leonia, NJ (always uncredited)
• West Coast Video Duplicating, Brisbane, CA (always uncredited)

DVD replicators

• AmericDisc, Bloomingtown, MN
• Nimbus Manufacturing, Provo, UT
• SF Video, Inc., San Francisco, CA

Trivia

• The label style often depended on where the tape was duplicated. Tapes duplicated at Cassette Duplicators Incorporated and Osborn Video Productions used the exact same label style, while Vaughn tapes used a label with different variations, one with the Simitar logo in the bottom left and one without. High Speed/Technicolor tapes had the "IF YOU EXPERIENCE PICTURE PROBLEMS…" tracking control disclaimer at the top of the label, below the title.