Charles Thomas Connors, OC (February 9, 1936 – March 6, 2013) was a Canadian singer-songwriter. He was one of Canada's most well-known country and folk singers.

He received the nickname "Stompin' Tom" when Boyd MacDonald, a waiter at the King George Tavern introduced him as "Stompin' Tom Connors" and because he used to stomp the heel of his left boot to keep rhythm during his songs.

He spent a small time living with his mother in a low-security women's prison before he was taken by Children's Aid Society and he was later adopted by Cora and Russell Aylward of Skinners Pond, Prince Edward Island.

Some of Connors best known songs are "The Hockey Song" (also known as "The Good Old Hockey Game"), "Big Joe Mufferaw", "The Martin Hartwell Story", "Sudbury Saturday Night", "Bud the Spud", "The Black Donnellys", and "Reesor Crossing Tragedy". Connors also had a mini-series on CBC called "Stompin Tom's Canada" where he met people from all around Canada.

Connors was guest on Late Night with Conan O'Brien in 2004 when the show had taped a week's-worth of episodes. He performed a rendition of "The Hockey Song" along with the Toronto audience. This was one of the few times that Connors had performed on American television.

Connors died on March 6, 2013 at his home in Halton Hills, Ontario from kidney failure.

Discography

Albums
The Northlands' Own Tom Connors (1967)
On Tragedy Trail (1968)
Bud the Spud and Other Favourites (1969)
Stompin' Tom Meets Big Joe Mufferaw (1970)
Merry Christmas Everybody (1970)
Live at the Horseshoe (1971)
My Stompin' Grounds (1971)
Love & Laughter (1971)
Stompin' Tom and the Hockey Song (1972)
To It and at It (1973)
Northlands Zone (1973)
Stompin' Tom Meets Muk Tuk Annie (1974)
The North Atlantic Squadron (1975)
The Unpopular Stompin' Tom Connors (1976)
Stompin' Tom at the Gumboot Cloggeroo (1977)
Stompin' Tom Is Back to Assist Canadian Talent (1986)
Fiddle and Song (1988)
More of the Stompin' Tom Phenomenon (1991)
Believe in Your Country (1992)
Dr. Stompin' Tom Eh? (1993)
Long Gone to the Yukon (1995)
Move Along with Stompin' Tom (1999)
The Confederation Bridge (2000)
An Ode for the Road (2002)
Stompin' Tom and the Hockey Mom Tribute (2004)
The Ballad of Stompin Tom (2008)
Stompin' Tom And The Road's Of Life (2012)

References

Other websites
Official website

1936 births
2013 deaths
Canadian adoptees
Canadian singers
Country musicians
Disease-related deaths in Ontario
Folk musicians
Musicians from Ontario
Order of Canada
People from New Brunswick
People from Prince Edward Island

Stompin' Tom Connors


Callahan's Lady (1989) is a science fiction novel by American writer Spider Robinson, the fourth in his  Callahan's Crosstime Saloon series. It is made up of 11 vignettes, all revolving around a bar and brothel owned by Lady Sally McGee, wife of Mike Callahan. The stories are written in the same fast-paced, pun-laced prose Robinson is noted for.

Plot
The storyline focuses on Maureen, an underage streetwalker who is stabbed by her pimp in a dark alley one night. Fortunately for Maureen, Lady Sally is nearby: she had been walking her werebeagle. After defeating the pimp in hand-to-hand combat, Sally brings Maureen home. Her brothel has a fully functioning medical facility, where Maureen is treated and healed.

She falls in love with the place for its ambiance and safety but is rejected as an employee for many reasons. Most importantly, she is underage but she also has severe self-loathing issues. Lady Sally enjoys the fact that Maureen comes to accept and befriend the werebeagle and a talking German Shepherd but this is not enough let the main character stay.

Maureen's old pimp tracks down the brothel and puts many of the visitors in danger. Maureen uses her wits to help defeat the man; this convinces Sally to let her stay in a non-sexual context. The plot skips to Maureen becoming eighteen, she is allowed to take on sexual duties.

The rest of the plot focuses on three different subsequent incidents. There is 'Colt', a client with an unusual addiction that nobody seems to notice, one that presents various threats. Later, Maureen and her close friend Phillip swiftly realize that they are doing many things they do not wish to do over the course of their work-day. The concept of 'being forced into it' is something that Lady Callahan and her staff oppose in many, varied ways. Maureen and Phillip find that they are keeping quiet about this, even though they wish to tell everyone possible.

The last incident focuses on Maureen's old friend, the Professor, who needs fifty thousand quick or he will die horribly. A very specific, very counterfeit fifty thousand.

Like other books in the Callahan series, puns are a focus, sometimes seriously.

See also

Callahan's Crosstime Saloon

External links
 Callahan's Lady on Spider Robinson's website
 Short biography plus interviews

Reviews:
 Raymond's Reviews #25
 Jandy's Reading Room
 Callahan's Lady Reviews
 Callahan's Lady: A House of Healthy Repute
 The Callahan's Stories, Novels, and Books Contains a listing of the 11 stories in Callahan's Lady
 Callahan's Lady Review on Philip Jose Farmer's website

1989 novels
1989 science fiction novels
Novels about American prostitution
Ace Books books

Callahan's Lady


If Not Now, When? is a novel by the Italian author Primo Levi, first published in 1982 under the title Se non ora, quando?

Title
The title is taken from a well-known rabbinical saying attributed to Hillel the Elder: "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And when I am for myself, what am 'I'? And if not now, when?" (see also Pirkei Avot).

Plot

The story follows a number of Jewish partisans and resistance fighters as they struggle to survive and sabotage the German war machine behind Nazi lines during World War II, starting in the western Soviet Union (Byelorossiya) and ending in Milan.

The book's chief protagonist, Mendel Nachmanovich Dajcher, worked as a watch repairer before joining the Red Army, where he fought in the artillery.  While he is at war, his wife and shtetl are massacred by a German Einsatzgruppe. In the midst of battle, he loses his regiment, becomes disoriented and is overtaken by the front, separated from and unsupported by Soviet forces.

His life thereafter is an odyssey through the "partisanka", the motley partisan movement, which includes Russians, Jews, Lithuanians and Poles.  About halfway through the book, Mendel and his companion from the first chapter, Leonid, fall in with a group of Jewish resistance fighters called the gedalistas, after their leader: Gedale.

With them, Mendel traverses Poland and, overtaken by the victorious Soviets, enters defeated Germany.  From there, the group aims for Italy, dreaming of making the aliyah to Palestine to take part in the Zionist project of reclaiming a Jewish homeland.

Reception
If Not Now, When? won the Campiello and Viareggio prizes the year of its publication.

The critic Adam Kirsch rates Levi's Holocaust writing including If Not Now, When? as his primary literary contribution, but doesn't see the book as one of Levi's classics, like If This Is a Man, The Drowned and the Saved and The Periodic Table. He disagrees with the assessment of Ann Goldstein that "the label Holocaust writer does him a regrettable injustice". Kirsch's assessment is that Levi "had no real gift for inventing plot and character—a lack that comes across most clearly in his one real novel, If Not Now, When. Where he excelled was recording and reflecting on his own experience; and inevitably the experience that engrossed his imagination was Auschwitz."

Background
In his nonfiction, Levi described himself as a largely ineffectual partisan.  He joined a group of inexperienced resistance fighters near Turin, was captured shortly thereafter, and soon sent to Auschwitz.

References

Sources

1982 novels
Novels by Primo Levi
Novels set during World War II
Giulio Einaudi Editore books

If Not Now, When? (novel)


Lindy David Goetz (born December 5, 1947) is notable as the longtime manager of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

History

Lindy Goetz was a promotion person for record companies, who later became a talent manager in the Los Angeles area.  In 1972, Goetz, then a promotion person at MCA Records, was instrumental in forming the Stone Canyon Band for Ricky Nelson, within days after Nelson's original band members had resigned.  Goetz had also managed the Ohio Players, during his time as a promotion person with Mercury Records.

As an existing talent manager in the Los Angeles area, Goetz first heard the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1983, playing at the Kit Kat Club, a burlesque bar owned by Eddie Nash.  Band members Anthony Kiedis and Flea thereafter visited Goetz' offices and proposed that he manage the group, which he agreed to do. Goetz thereafter negotiated a seven-album contract for the band with EMI Records.  Goetz was also instrumental in negotiations when the band wished to change record labels, ultimately moving to Warner Bros. Records in 1990. Goetz remained as manager of the band until 1998, when he chose to leave music management and retire to Ojai, California.  His consistent loyalty to the band is considered to have been instrumental to its success.

In 1995, Goetz was the executive producer of Working Class Hero: A Tribute to John Lennon, featuring various Alternative rock and mainstream rock acts performing Lennon songs.

References

1947 births
American music managers
Living people
MCA Records
People from Los Angeles
Red Hot Chili Peppers

Lindy Goetz


The 1921 Open Championship was the 56th Open Championship, held 23–25 June at the Old Course in St Andrews, Scotland. Former local Jock Hutchison won his only Open Championship, in a 36-hole playoff over amateur Roger Wethered. It was Hutchison's second and final major title.

Qualification
Qualifying took place on 20–21 June, Monday and Tuesday, with 18 holes on the Eden Course and 18 holes on the Old Course; the top 80 and ties qualified. Jock Hutchison led the field on 146; the qualifying score was 161 and 85 players advanced.

The entries included an unusually large number of U.S.-based players following a funding-raising campaign by an American golf magazine. On 27 September 1920 Golf Illustrated wrote a letter to the Professional Golfers' Association of America with a suggestion that a team of twelve to twenty American professionals be chosen to play in the British Open, to be financed by popular subscription. At that time no American golfer had won the British Open. The idea was that of James D. Harnett, who worked for the magazine. The PGA of America made a positive reply and the idea was announced in the November 1920 issue. The fund was called the British Open Championship Fund. By the next spring the idea had been firmed-up. A team of 12 would be chosen, who would sail in time to play a warm-up tournament at Gleneagles (the Glasgow Herald 1000 Guinea Tournament) prior to the British Open at St Andrews, two weeks later. The team of 12 was chosen by PGA president George Sargent and PGA secretary Alec Pirie, with the assistance of USGA vice-president Robert Gardner. A team of 11 sailed from New York on the RMS Aquitania on 24 May, together with James Harnett, Harry Hampton deciding at the last minute that he could not travel. The American team was: Jim Barnes, Emmet French, Clarence Hackney, Walter Hagen, Charles Hoffner, Jock Hutchison, Tom Kerrigan, George McLean, Fred McLeod, Bill Mehlhorn, and Wilfrid Reid.

The day before the Glasgow Herald Tournament, a match was played between the Americans and a team of British professionals, the first match between American and British professionals. It was a forerunner of the Ryder Cup matches, which began six years later in 1927.

After the Glasgow tournament, most of the American team travelled to St Andrews to practice, however, Walter Hagen and Jock Hutchison played in a tournament at Kinghorn on 14 and 15 June. Hagen had a poor first round and didn't turn up for the second day, while Hutchison scored 74 and 64 and took the £50 first prize. The American-based entry was augmented by two other professionals, Jack Burgess and James Douglas Edgar, and some amateurs, including Bobby Jones. All the American-based professionals qualified with the exception of Wilfrid Reid, who scored 163. Two of the amateurs qualified, Bobby Jones and Paul M. Hunter.

Venue

^ The 10th hole was posthumously named for Bobby Jones in 1972.

Details
During the first round on Thursday morning, Hutchison made a hole-in-one at the 8th and then drove the green at the par-4 9th, his ball settling inches from the hole. He finished with a round of 72 and a two-shot lead, and continued to lead after 36 holes at 147, a shot ahead of Jim Barnes and Ted Ray. In the two-day format, there was no cut after 36 holes.

After the third round on Friday morning, Hutchison trailed Barnes and Sandy Herd by four shots, but both co-leaders shot 80 in the final round and fell into a tie for sixth with five others. Wethered, a student at Oxford, carded 71 to finish at 296, while Hutchison shot 70 to tie and force a Saturday playoff.

Playoff
Wethered almost did not make it to the playoff, as he was scheduled to play for his cricket team that day and had to be persuaded to stay and play golf. In the playoff, the first two holes were halved before Hutchison gained two shots at the 3rd. However he played a poor 4th hole and took six to make the match all square again. Hutchison took a grip on the match by scoring four threes from the 7th to the 10th while Wethered took four fours. At lunch, Hutchison held a three shot lead.

In the afternoon, Hutchison struggled at the first three holes but managed to halve the holes with Wethered. The match then turned decisively with Wethered taking six at the 4th and Hutchison taking threes at the 5th and 6th. Wethered dropped another shot at the 7th and now Hutchison was nine strokes ahead. Hutchison was in trouble at the 11th and took five but Wethered three-putted and only gained one stroke. Thereafter, Hutchison's lead increased to twelve before his cautious play at the final holes reduced the lead to nine.

Although a native of St Andrews, Hutchison had become a U.S. citizen and was credited as being the Open's first American champion. The Times reported under the headline "Cup Goes to U.S.A." that "our Open Championship goes for the first time in its history to America." The following year, Hagen became the first U.S.-born winner. Bobby Jones, 19, played at St Andrews and the Open for the first time, and was the low amateur after 36 holes. He withdrew in the third round after taking four shots to get out of a bunker at the 11th.

Round summaries

First round
Thursday, 23 June 1921 (morning)

Source:

Second round
Thursday, 23 June 1921 (afternoon)

Source:

Third round
Friday, 24 June 1921 (morning)

Source:

Final round
Friday, 24 June 1921 (afternoon)

Source:

Amateurs: Wethered (296), Hunter (307), Kyle (309), Seymour (314),Armour (315), Murray (316), Harris (322), Quilter (327).

Playoff
Saturday, 25 June 1921

Source:

Scorecards
Morning round

Afternoon round

References

External links
St Andrews 1921 (Official site)

The Open Championship
Golf tournaments in Scotland
Open Championship
Open Championship
Open Championship

1921 Open Championship


Petri Ilari Walli (February 25, 1969 – June 28, 1995) was the founder, vocalist, guitar-player, songwriter and producer of the Finnish psychedelic rock-band Kingston Wall.

Petri was born in Finland, his brother is Aki Walli. He also have half-brother Hasse Walli who is a Finnish guitarist.

Petri (aka Pete) founded the band called Kingston Wall in 1987, and he was the spirit behind the whole band. They came out with three albums in 1992, 1993 and 1994, and broke up in December the same year as the last album was released. The break-up was Walli's idea, as he wanted Kingston Wall to be on a hiatus for an unspecified time. After the break-up Petri travelled to Goa, India, where he had been many times before with his friend Ior Bock. (There is not much written text about Petri's and Ior's friendship, so nobody knows exactly how good friends they were). Petri ended his life by jumping off the balcony of the Töölö Church in Töölö, Helsinki the following summer. Walli was later buried in the Hietaniemi Cemetery, only about one kilometer away from his place of death.

Petri was a mysterious person who loved the eastern culture, philosophy, Scandinavian mythologies and most of all, playing guitar.
There have been numerous rumours and speculation about the reasons of his suicide. Some say that he committed suicide because of his failed relationship with a Finnish girl called Tanja or Tanya, others say that he was in a spiritual turmoil which reflected on the lyrics and themes on Kingston Wall's last album, Tri-Logy. The song "For All Mankind" from Tri-Logy is considered by many to be Walli's suicide note.

Petri's co-musicians in Kingston Wall were Jukka Jylli (bass) and Sami Kuoppamäki (drums). Sometimes they had guest musicians  performing on their albums and live shows, such as Sakari Kukko (saxophone) and Kimmo Kajasto (synth). Drummers Petteri Ståhl and Timo "Tinde" Joutsimäki played drums in Kingston Wall before Kuoppamäki joined the group.

References

1969 births
1995 suicides
20th-century Finnish male singers
Finnish male guitarists
Suicides by jumping in Finland
20th-century guitarists
Burials at Hietaniemi Cemetery
1995 deaths

Petri Walli


Cunigunde of Swabia ( – 7 February after 918), a member of the Ahalolfing noble family, was Margravine of Bavaria until 907 by her first marriage with Margrave Luitpold and German queen (Queen of the Franks) from 913 to 918 by her second marriage with King Conrad I, the first and sole ruler of the Conradine dynasty.

Life
Cunigunde was the daughter of the Swabian count palatine Berchthold I. Her mother possibly was Gisela, a daughter of the Carolingian king Louis the German and his consort Emma of Altdorf. Cunigunde's brother Erchanger became Duke of Swabia in 915.

Very little is known of her. She married first the Bavarian margrave Luitpold who became the ancestor of the Luitpolding dynasty. Her sons by him were Arnulf the Bad and Berthold, both ruling as Dukes of Bavaria later on. Luitpold was killed in the 907 Battle of Pressburg fighting against the Hungarian forces.

According to the Annales Alamannici, Cunigunde married in 913 King Conrad I of Germany who was striving to strengthen the ties with the Bavarian stem duchy. The marriage left no male heirs; two children are assumed, both born 913: Herman, who died young, and Cunigunda, who married Werner of Worms and was possibly the mother of Conrad the Red, the founder of the Salian dynasty. First mentioned as queen consort in June 914, Cunigunde apparently did not play a significant political role while her son Arnulf remained in constant conflict with the king. In 915 she chose Lorsch Abbey as her burial place.

King Conrad died in December 918 after a long illness, possibly by a heavy injury during a campaign against Arnulf of Bavaria. He was succeeded by the Saxon duke Henry the Fowler.

References

Sources

Frankish queens consort
Queens consort of East Francia
10th-century German women
Conradines
870s births
10th-century deaths
Year of birth uncertain
Year of death uncertain
Remarried royal consorts
Burials at Lorsch Abbey
Mothers of monarchs

Cunigunde of Swabia


Gareth Risbridger (16 April 1982) is an English footballer manager and former semi-professional player, who was most recently the assistant manager to Danny Gordon at Aylesbury after the pair were appointed in May 2016. They departed the club in January 2017.

He started his career as a youth player at Marlow, before joining Yeovil Town in 1998. Risbridger then signed for Third Division club Southend United following his former Yeovil manager David Webb, however he only made one appearance and was sent on loan to Conference National club Dover Athletic. He was released from Southend in January 2002, and dropped back into non-League football spending a month at Salisbury City before joining Aylesbury United. In December 2003, he joined former Aylesbury manager, Steve Cordery at Staines Town. After a number of injuries that kept him sidelined for two-and-a-half years, Risbridger joined Bracknell Town on a short loan spell, regaining his fitness. He went on to join Boreham Wood in November 2010. After a period out of the game due to injury, he joined Slough Town in March 2014.

Playing career
Risbridger started his career as a youth player at Marlow, playing the 1997–98 season in their under-18 team. In summer 1998, he joined Conference National side Yeovil Town, where he made six appearances.

He signed for Third Division team Southend United in May 2001, after former Yeovil Town manager David Webb took charge at Southend. Risbridger was the first of three players who Webb signed from his former club, Barrington Belgrave and Ben Smith joined later. Risbridger commented on playing under Webb saying, "I worked with him at Yeovil and he gave me my chance there last year. Now I'm looking forward to playing under him again and establishing myself with Southend." During the 2001–02 season, he made one appearance for Southend. On 11 August, Risbridger made his debut for Southend in their 1–0 home win over Darlington, replacing Mark Rawle as a substitute in the 89th minute, who had previously replaced Dean Holness. He joined Dover Athletic on loan in October, where he made three appearances in the Conference National. Risbridger was not allowed to play in Dover Athletic's FA Cup fourth qualifying round match against Hereford United, as Southend did not want him to become cup-tied. He was released from Southend in January 2002, by new manager Rob Newman along with Shane Wardley and Ed Chibogu.

Following his release from Southend United, Risbridger dropped back into non-League football and signed for Southern Football League Premier Division club, Salisbury City in February. A month later, he joined Aylesbury United, for who he went on to make 44 appearances in all competitions, scoring one goal. In December 2003, Risbridger signed for Isthmian League Division One South side Staines Town, joining former Aylesbury manager Steve Cordery. He made his debut against Horsham in their 0–0 on 6 December. Between January 2004 and July 2006, Risbridger suffered a series of injuries, that put him out of the game for two-and-a-half years. He had a spell with Bracknell Town on loan in October 2006, to help regain his fitness. At the end of the 2006–07 season he was awarded the "Clubman of the Year" award.

Risbridger played in Staines 2007–08 FA Cup first round giant-killing match, when they defeated Stockport County over two legs, eventually winning in a penalty shootout. Staines were defeated in the following round 5–0 at home to Peterborough United, on 1 December, in which Risbridger played.

He went on to join Conference South club Boreham Wood in November 2010.

Coaching and refereeing career
Risbridger holds a UEFA 'B' Pro Licence coaching badge and is also a qualified referee.

In December 2014, Risbridger was appointed joint-manager, alongside Danny Gordon, at Burnham as the replacements for Gary Meakin. However the pair departed the club in May 2015 after proving unsuccessful in their bid to prevent Burnham's relegation from the Premier Division.

Risbridger returned to football as the assistant manager to Danny Gordon at Aylesbury in May 2016. The pair resigned from their positions in January 2017.

Personal life
Born in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, Risbridger lives in Marlow. He works as a greenkeeper at Wycombe Heights Golf Club.

References

External links

1982 births
Living people
Footballers from High Wycombe
English men's footballers
English football referees
English Football League players
National League (English football) players
Southern Football League players
Marlow F.C. players
Yeovil Town F.C. players
Southend United F.C. players
Dover Athletic F.C. players
Salisbury City F.C. players
Aylesbury United F.C. players
Staines Town F.C. players
Bracknell Town F.C. players
Boreham Wood F.C. players
Slough Town F.C. players
English football managers
Burnham F.C. managers
Aylesbury Vale Dynamos F.C. managers
Men's association football midfielders

Gareth Risbridger


Johnson v. United States, 529 U.S. 694 (2000), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the rights of those serving federal probation and supervised release were more clearly defined. The court ruled that "Although such violations often lead to reimprisonment, the violative conduct need not be criminal and need only be found by a judge under a preponderance of the evidence standard, not by a jury beyond a reasonable doubt."

An earlier case of the same name, 333 U.S. 10 (1948), held that a search warrant is always required unless there are exceptional circumstances.

References

United States Supreme Court cases
2000 in United States case law
United States Supreme Court cases of the Rehnquist Court
United States criminal procedure case law

Johnson v. United States (2000)


Gleaming the Cube (also known as A Brother's Justice and Skate or Die; released in the Philippines as Challenge to Win Again) is a 1989 American film directed by Graeme Clifford and starring Christian Slater as Brian Kelly, a 16-year-old skateboarder investigating the death of his adopted Vietnamese brother.

The skating technical advisor for the film was original Z-Boy Stacy Peralta. Among the skateboarders who appear in the film as stunt skaters are Mike McGill, Mark "Gator" Rogowski, Rodney Mullen, Rich Dunlop, Eric Dressen, Lance Mountain, Mike Vallely, Chris Black, Ted Ehr, Natas Kaupas, Chris Borst, and Steve Saiz. Tony Hawk (Buddy) and Tommy Guerrero (Sam), then members of the Bones Brigade, appear in the film as members of Brian's skate crew. Christian Jacobs, future lead singer of The Aquabats and creator of Yo Gabba Gabba!, also appears in the film as Gremic.

The film received a moderate release in the United States from 20th Century Fox (in 469 theaters). Although the film had a relatively low box office turnout, it garnered a significant cult following after its theatrical release, through basic cable replays on networks such as USA and the burgeoning VHS (and later DVD) market, as well as among skateboarders.

The title of the film refers to the cryptic question "Have you ever gleemed [sic] inside a cube?" that Garry Scott Davis (GSD) asked Neil Blender in an interview in the December 1983 issue of Thrasher magazine. In the film, Christian Slater's character defines "gleaming the cube" as "pushing your limits to the edge". The DVD contains an easter egg; by highlighting the skateboard on the main menu, viewers can watch a short featurette entitled "What Does Gleaming the Cube Mean?".

Plot
Brian Kelly is an unmotivated high school student in Orange County, California. An avid skateboarder, Brian is frequently at odds with his parents for his increasingly reckless behavior, which has landed him in jail on more than one occasion. The only person in the family Brian can relate to is his adopted Vietnamese brother Vinh, who works as a shipping clerk for the Vietnamese Anti-Communist Relief Fund (VACRF), an organization which sends medical supplies to Vietnam.

When Vinh discovers a suspicious inaccuracy in VACRF's shipping records, he brings it to his boss Colonel Trac, who fires Vinh when he tries to investigate. Undeterred, Vinh sneaks into Westpac Medical Supplies, the warehouse handling VACRF's shipping, but is apprehended by owner Ed Lawndale. Vinh is interrogated by Lawndale and Bobby Nguyen, another of Colonel Trac's employees, at a motel. When Colonel Trac arrives, it is revealed that he and Lawndale are conspirators in a scheme to smuggle illegal weapons to Vietnam. Convinced that Vinh poses no threat to their operation, Trac intends to set him free, but Vinh is accidentally strangled to death by Nguyen. They hang Vinh's body from a noose, so the police deem it a suicide.

After the funeral, Brian finds the list of medical supplies Vinh was investigating, written in Vietnamese. Looking for someone to translate it, he encounters Bobby Nguyen who starts to follow him. Brian sneaks into the backseat of Nguyen's car and witnesses a meeting with Trac and Lawndale, in which Nguyen demands $50,000 and a ticket to Bangkok at gunpoint, but a struggle ensues and Lawndale kills Nguyen. Brian flees to notify the police, but they find no trace of the crime and later learn that Nguyen supposedly arrived in Thailand. Brian tries to convince Detective Al Lucero that his brother did not commit suicide. While skeptical, Lucero offers to look into it.

Suspicious of Colonel Trac, Brian reaches out to Trac's daughter Tina, a fellow high school student and Vinh's ex-girlfriend. After an image makeover, Brian asks her out on a date and the two become closer. He attends one of VACRF's social functions, where he notices Lawndale and learns of his connection to Trac and Westpac. Following in his brother's footsteps, Brian sneaks into Lawndale's warehouse and uncovers a shipping crate full of weapons.

Brian causes an explosion at the warehouse and plants evidence to incriminate Trac, but Lucero immediately suspects Brian and admonishes him for the act. However, the incident causes Trac to panic and send his wife and daughter away to his brother's house. A distressed Tina spends the night with Brian instead and discovers a lighter belonging to her father in Brian's room, leading Brian to explain all his suspicions to her. Tina angrily confronts her father about the conspiracy, who is shamed by his involvement and contacts Lawndale to end the operation. In response, Lawndale sends a group of Vietnamese motorcyclists to run Brian down on the street. The police manage to apprehend the bikers and, with the aid of an interpreter, Lucero is able to confirm Lawndale's role in the attack.

Brian visits his friend Yabbo, who builds a newer, faster skateboard for Brian and rallies the rest of the skateboarding clique. Brian and the police both converge upon Colonel Trac's house, where Lawndale holds Tina at gunpoint. When Trac tries to wrestle the gun away, Brian crashes into the room through the window, but Lawndale shoots and kills Trac then escapes in a police car. Brian, Lucero, and the entire skateboarding crew eventually corner Lawndale. As Lawndale prepares to shoot Brian, he soars into the air on his skateboard and knocks out Lawndale, who is subsequently arrested by Lucero.

Brian comforts Tina about her father's death and suggests that they return to school together, implying that their relationship will continue. Afterwards, Brian and Lucero visit Vinh's grave before driving away.

Cast
 Christian Slater as Brian Kelly
 Steven Bauer as Al Lucero
 Richard Herd as Ed Lawndale
 Le Tuan as Colonel Trac
 Min Luong as Tina Trac
 Art Chudabala as Vinh Kelly
 Ed Lauter as Mr. Kelly
 Micole Mercurio as Mrs. Kelly
 Charles Cyphers as Harvey McGill
 Peter Kwong as Bobby Nguyen
 Max Perlich as "Yabbo"
 Tony Hawk as Buddy
 Christian Jacobs as Gremic
 Renowned stuntman Buddy Joe Hooker makes a cameo at the start of the chase scene's freeway segment as the driver whose Corvette gets sideswiped

Locations
According to Peralta, locations for the movie were scouted from the sky:

I got to survey Orange County in a helicopter scouting for pools that we might be able to use. Hills. Different street situations that might work for skating locations. And then we'd land and approach the people for permission.

Sites selected for filming included:
 The Anaheim motel in the movie, the "Atomic Age Lodge", was in reality the Stovall's Cosmic Age Lodge on Katella Avenue, across the street from the then-Disneyland parking lot. It was one of a group of Stovall's hotels in the area with a "Space Age" theme (the others being Stovall's Apollo Inn and Stovall's Space Age Lodge and the Inn Of Tomorrow). The Cosmic Age was demolished in the late 1990s to make room for Disney California Adventure. The others have been remodeled and no longer have the space theme.
 Most of the school scenes were filmed at Woodbridge High in Irvine, California.
The video store, pool hall, and Brian trying to find a translator scenes were filmed along Bolsa Avenue between Magnolia St. and Ward St. in Westminster, California.
 The Pizza Hut where Tony Hawk's character works is now a Taco Bell, still standing at 2941 West Imperial Highway in the city of Inglewood.
 Some introductory scenes were filmed at John Wayne Airport (Orange County, California) before major renovation work on the terminal.
 The hill scene was filmed on 17th Street between Patton and Leland in San Pedro, California.
 The car chase scene near the end of the movie was filmed on West Seaside Way between the 500 to 700 block in Long Beach, California.
 Brian's ferry ride was from Balboa Island to the Balboa Peninsula where on his bike he met his skateboarding friends at the Balboa Fun Zone in Newport Beach.

Release
Gleaming the Cube was released in the United States on January 13, 1989. In the Philippines, the film was released as Challenge to Win Again in mid-1990.

Critical response
The film gained mostly negative reviews from critics; only 29% of critics cited on the site Rotten Tomatoes offer a positive review.

Legacy
Professional skateboarder Stevie Williams has stated in an online interview that Slater's character in the film was his first skateboarding influence.

Skateboarding figure Tony Hawk, in a 2008 interview with Slater, revealed that he is continually asked if Slater actually skated in the film. Hawk has remained in contact with Slater well beyond the production of the film.

References

External links

 Origin of Gleaming the Cube film title in the December 1983 issue of Thrasher

1989 films
1989 action films
1980s teen films
20th Century Fox films
American independent films
American teen films
Films directed by Graeme Clifford
Films produced by Lawrence Turman
Films set in Orange County, California
Films with screenplays by Michael Tolkin
Punk films
Skateboarding films
1980s English-language films
1980s American films

Gleaming the Cube


Blockbuster Video was an American video rental store chain. It was founded by David Cook in 1985 as a stand-alone mom-and-pop home video rental shop, but later grew into a national store chain featuring video game rentals, DVD-by-mail, streaming, video on demand, and cinema theater. The company expanded internationally throughout the 1990s. At its peak in 2004, Blockbuster employed 84,420 people worldwide and operated 9,095 stores.

Poor leadership and the impact of the Great Recession were major factors leading to Blockbuster's decline, as was the growing competition from Netflix's mail-order service, video on demand, and Redbox automated kiosks. Significant loss of revenue occurred during the late 2000s, and the company filed for bankruptcy protection in 2010. The next year, its remaining 1,700 stores were bought by satellite television provider Dish Network, and by 2014, the last 300 company-owned stores were closed. Although corporate support for the brand ended, Dish retained a small number of franchise agreements, enabling some privately owned franchises to remain open. Following a series of further closures in 2019, only one franchised store remains open, located in Bend, Oregon, United States.

History

1985–1996: David Cook era and early growth

Blockbuster's beginnings can be traced back to another company, Cook Data Services, founded by David Cook in 1978. The company's primary goal was to supply software services to the oil and gas industries throughout Texas, but it was very unsuccessful. Sandy Cook,  David's wife, wanted to get into the video business, and her husband would soon study the industry and future prospects. Using profit he made from the sale of David P. Cook & Associates, the subsidiary of his company, he decided to buy into a video store franchise in Dallas known as Video Works. When Video Works would not allow him to decorate the interior of his store with a blue-and-yellow design, he departed the franchise and opened the first Blockbuster Video in 1985 under his own company Blockbuster Video Inc. When he realized the potential in video rentals, Cook abandoned the oil industry and began franchising the Blockbuster store.

The first Blockbuster store opened on October 19, 1985, in Dallas, Texas, with an inventory of 8,000 VHS and 2,000 Beta tapes. The chain's name is derived from the term blockbuster, a Hollywood term for a successful film. Cook's experience with managing huge databases proved helpful in driving innovation within the industry. Following early success from the company's first stores, Cook built a $6-million warehouse in Garland, Texas, to help sustain and support future growth that allowed new stores to open quickly. Blockbuster would often custom-tailor a store's inventory to its neighborhood, based on local demographics.

In 1987, Waste Management co-founder Wayne Huizenga, who originally had reservations about entering the video rental industry, agreed to acquire several Blockbuster stores. At that time, there were 19 stores, attracting Huizenga's associate John Melk's attention due to its efficiency, family-friendly no porn image and business model. Huizenga and Melk utilized techniques from their waste business and Ray Kroc's model of expansion to rapidly expand Blockbuster, and soon they were opening a new store every 24 hours. They took over many of the existing Blockbuster franchise stores, and Huizenga spent much of the late 1980s acquiring several of Blockbuster's rivals, including Major Video. In 1989, Nintendo attempted to halt Blockbuster's ability to rent video games, filing multiple lawsuits and lobbying the U.S. Congress to ban the practice. Nintendo ultimately lost the battle, which paved the way for future video game rental.

Blockbuster sponsored the Blockbuster Bowl in American football, which began in 1990 and was played at Joe Robbie Stadium outside Miami. The first three editions were played under that name before Blockbuster withdrew its sponsorship.

In 1990, Blockbuster bought mid-Atlantic rival Erol's which had more than 250 stores. In 1992, Blockbuster acquired the Sound Warehouse and Music Plus music retail chains and created Blockbuster Music. In October 1993, Blockbuster took a controlling interest in Spelling Entertainment Group, a media company run by television producer Aaron Spelling. Blockbuster purchased Super Club Retail Entertainment Corp. on November 22, 1993, from Philips Electronics, N.V. for 5.2 million shares of Blockbuster stock. This brought approximately 270 Record Bar, Tracks, Turtles and Rhythm and Views music stores and approximately 160 video retail superstores into the corporation. It also owned 35% of Republic Pictures; that company merged with Spelling in April 1994.

Blockbuster became a multibillion-dollar company, but Huizenga was worried about how new technology could threaten their business, such as video on demand and the growth of cable television. In 1991, just three days after Time Warner had announced it would upgrade its cable system, Blockbuster's shares dropped more than 10 percent. In 1993, he made an attempt to expand into other areas by investing in Viacom. Huizenga also considered buying a cable company, but this was unknown territory for Blockbuster and he decided not to take the risk. He also had the idea of a 2,500-acre Blockbuster sports and amusement park in Florida, something Blockbuster was still considering as late as August 1994. Unable to come up with a proper solution about how to face the growing threats to the traditional videostore, he made the decision to sell Blockbuster to Viacom and pull out. Viacom acquired Blockbuster in 1994 for $8.4 billion to help finance its bid for Paramount in the bidding war with QVC Network Inc. Blockbuster's stock trade had been dropping steadily the months before the merger, with a small rise after the deal was announced, and by the latter part of the decade, its worth was estimated to have fallen to just $4.6 billion.

The Blockbuster Block Party concept was test-marketed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1994. It was an "entertainment complex" aimed at adults, containing eight themed areas housing a restaurant, games, laser tag arena, and motion simulator rides, and was housed in a windowless building the size of a city block.

During the 1990s Blockbuster expanded in the United Kingdom, purchasing that country's Ritz Video chain. The stores were rebranded to Blockbuster.

The original Blockbuster company, Blockbuster Video Inc., was merged into the parent company Blockbuster Entertainment Inc. which had earlier replaced the Blockbuster Entertainment Company. In 1996, Blockbuster Entertainment Inc. merged into a new Blockbuster Entertainment Corporation and the retail stores, then called Blockbuster Video, were renamed Blockbuster. The logo changed slightly, but retained the ITC Machine font. In November 1996 Blockbuster confirmed that it was moving its headquarters from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to the Renaissance Tower in downtown Dallas. Most of the workers at the Florida headquarters did not want to relocate, so Blockbuster planned to hire around 500 to 600 new employees for its Dallas headquarters. The company had offered various relocation packages to all of its Fort Lauderdale staff. The second Blockbuster Entertainment Corporation was later merged into Blockbuster, Inc.

1997–2006: John Antioco era, Netflix sale turndown, and financial peak
In June 1997, Taco Bell president John Antioco resigned from the company to become CEO of Blockbuster. Also that year, Warner Bros. offered Antioco an exclusive rental deal, seeing as DVDs were emerging as the new home video medium. Blockbuster was to have rights to rent new DVD releases for a period of time before they went on sale to the general public. The studio was to receive 40% of rental revenues in return, which was the same deal already in place for VHS rentals. Blockbuster turned the offer down, and the studio responded by lowering its DVD wholesale price in order to compete with the rental industry. Walmart seized the opportunity and in a few years surpassed Blockbuster as the studios' single largest source of revenue. Other mass retailers soon followed suit, selling DVDs below wholesale price as a loss leader in hopes of drawing more customers to their stores and selling them more profitable items. Unable to match prices, Blockbuster's business model was severely affected.

In 1998, Blockbuster created DEJ Productions, which acquired 225 films primarily to provide exclusive content to its Blockbuster stores prior to being sold off to First Look Studios in 2005. During that same year, Blockbuster bought the Irish video rental store Xtra-vision, with over 200 stores in Ireland and the United Kingdom. In 2009, Blockbuster sold off its Irish operations to Birchall Investments, with the few Xtra-vision stores in the United Kingdom being rebranded as Blockbuster.

In late 1998, Blockbuster launched a loyalty program called Blockbuster Rewards that allowed customers to earn free rentals, including one older title each month from the category of Blockbuster Favorites. After the 1998 test launch, the chain went nationwide with the program in 1999.

In August the same year, Viacom sold the Blockbuster Music chain to Wherehouse Entertainment, which was subsequently purchased by Trans World Entertainment in 2003.

In mid-2000, the company partnered with Enron in an attempt to create a video-on-demand service. The agreement was supposed to last for 20 years; however, Enron terminated the deal in March 2001 over fears that Blockbuster would not be able to provide sufficient films for the service (Enron also filed for bankruptcy that year). Also in 2000, Blockbuster turned down a chance to purchase the fledgling Netflix for $50 million (~$ in ).

In 2002, Blockbuster acquired Movie Trading Company, a Dallas chain that buys, sells, and trades movies and games, to study potential business models for DVD and game trading. Also that year, it acquired Gamestation, a 64-store UK computer and console games retailer chain, and purchased DVD Rental Central for $1 million, an Arizona father-and-son online DVD-rental company with about ten thousand subscribers. DVD Rental Central would eventually become Blockbuster Online.

On or around October 14, 2004, Blockbuster was spun-off from Viacom. Online DVD subscriptions were introduced on Blockbuster.com, also known as Blockbuster Online. Blockbuster also rolled out its "Game Rush" store-in-store concept to approximately 450 domestic company-operated stores. Blockbuster began game and DVD trading in selected U.S. stores.

At its peak in 2004, Blockbuster had more than 9,000 stores worldwide. In December 2004, Blockbuster announced its intention to pursue a hostile takeover of Hollywood Video, its major U.S. competitor. After several extensions of the tender offer, Blockbuster withdrew due to FTC opposition. To counter the Blockbuster offer, Hollywood Video agreed to a buyout in January 2005 by a smaller competitor, the Dothan, Alabama-based Movie Gallery. Since then, Movie Gallery has filed for bankruptcy twice and its entire chain of stores has been liquidated.

In May 2005, financier Carl Icahn waged a successful proxy fight to add himself and two other members to the board. Icahn accused Blockbuster of overpaying chairman and CEO John F. Antioco, who had served in that capacity since 1997, receiving $51.6 million in compensation for 2004. Icahn was also at odds with Antioco on how to revive profit at Blockbuster. Antioco scrapped late fees in January, started an internet service, and decided to keep the company independent, while Icahn wanted to sell out to a private equity firm. Also in 2005, Blockbuster began a campaign promoting its "No more late fees" policy. The campaign proved controversial, with Associated Press reporting that the new policy actually charged users the full price of the movie or game after eight days which they could cancel by returning the product in question and paying a fee. More than 40 states filed suit against the company for false advertising. Blockbuster later settled the suit by agreeing to refunds, as well as promising to better explain the policy.

Vintage Stock acquired the Movie Trading Company name from Blockbuster in 2006, and continues to use the name for Dallas-area stores.

2007–2011: James Keyes era, financial decline, and bankruptcy

A billion-dollar campaign called "Total Access" was introduced in 2007 as a strategy against Netflix. Through Blockbuster Online, customers could rent a DVD online and receive a new movie for free when they returned it to a Blockbuster store. While it was a major success every free movie cost the company two dollars, but the hope was that it would attract enough new subscribers to cover the loss. Netflix felt threatened, and Netflix CEO Reed Hastings approached Antioco with a suggestion to buy Blockbuster's online business. In return, a new system would be introduced where customers could return their movies to a Blockbuster store. Before the deal could be realized, board member Carl Icahn intervened, refusing to let the company lose more money through Total Access. Antioco was pushed out in July and replaced with James Keyes, who rejected Hastings' proposal, raised the price of online DVD rentals and put an end to the free movie deal. As a consequence, Blockbuster Online's previously massive growth quickly stopped. Antioco's departure reportedly also involved continued controversy over his compensation. He left with a $24.7 million severance package.

On June 19, 2007, after a pilot program launched in late 2006, Blockbuster announced that it had chosen Blu-ray over HD DVD format to rent in a majority of its stores. In the pilot program, Blockbuster offered selected titles for rental and sale in 250 stores. Blockbuster stocked Blu-ray titles in almost 5,000 stores across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Mexico, and Australia.

On July 2, 2007, the company named James W. Keyes, former president and CEO of 7-Eleven, as the new chairman and CEO. He introduced a new business strategy that included enhancements to existing stores. The following month in August, Blockbuster acquired Movielink for $6.6 million, forecasting a shift to streaming video. Movielink was an online video service that allowed customers to download movie rentals from a library of over 6,000 films, created in 2002 by five major studios including Warner Bros, MGM Studios, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, and Universal Studios. The move gave Blockbuster the opportunity to move away from the unprofitable Total Access (DVD-by-mail) service in favor of online streaming. Despite growing competition from Netflix and Redbox, the company downplayed the threat, choosing instead to focus on Apple and Walmart as their primary competition.

On September 14, 2007, Blockbuster GB Ltd bought a number of retail stores from ChoicesUK plc. ChoicesUK is an AIM-listed multi-channel distributor and retailer of DVDs, computer games, and CDs. The sale secured employment for approximately 450 employees across 59 stores in the UK. As part of the transaction, Blockbuster GB rebranded the stores as Blockbuster.

On February 17, 2008, Blockbuster proposed a buyout of struggling Circuit City. However, following a due diligence review of Circuit City's financial books, Blockbuster withdrew its offer in July 2008. Analysts were not favorable to the proposed deal, viewing it as a desperate effort to save two struggling retailers rather than a bold turnaround initiative. Subsequently, Circuit City filed for bankruptcy on November 10, 2008, and, after liquidating all of its stores, ceased operations on March 8, 2009.

At the beginning of 2010, Blockbuster had over 6,500 stores, of which 4,000 were in the U.S.— a number that fell to 3,425 in late October the same year. In the United States it planned to close between 810 and 960 retail stores, and instead launch as many as 10,000 "Blockbuster Express" video rental kiosks by the middle of 2010. It has been claimed that more than 43 million U.S. households had Blockbuster memberships.

On February 10, 2010, Blockbuster announced that it would cease all its operations in Portugal, closing down 17 outlets and leaving over 100 workers unemployed. Blockbuster representatives in Portugal blamed internet piracy and the lack of government response to it as the key factors to the company's failure in the country.

In March 2010, Blockbuster began "Additional Daily Rates", or "ADRs", for rentals not returned by their due date in the United States, having already used this procedure in other countries such as the UK for many years. An ADR was charged for each day a member kept the rental beyond the rental terms. On March 12, 2010, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Blockbuster's independent registered public accounting firm, issued its audit opinion disclosing substantial doubt about Blockbuster's ability to continue as a going concern. This report was included in Blockbusters's 10-K SEC filing. On March 17, 2010, Blockbuster issued a bankruptcy warning after continued drops in revenue threatened its ability to service its nearly $1 billion (~$ in ) debt load. By April 1, 2010, Carl Icahn had resigned from Blockbuster's board of directors and sold nearly all his remaining Blockbuster stock. Blockbuster paired up with Time Warner to have Warner Bros. movies made available in Blockbuster stores on the DVD release date and not be subject to a four-week delay. Similar agreements were also made with Universal and 20th Century Fox.

The liquidation of Movie Gallery began in May 2010, eliminating Blockbuster's primary competitor. During the same month a dissident shareholder, Gregory S. Meyer, in an effort to be elected to Blockbuster's board of directors, engaged in a proxy battle with Blockbuster's board, alleging that the board had been responsible for significant destruction of value to shareholders. Meyer was elected to the board at Blockbuster's shareholder meeting in Dallas on June 24, 2010.

On July 1, 2010, the company was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) after its shareholders failed to pass a reverse stock split plan aimed at heading off involuntary delisting because of the stock's trading at well below $1 (~$ in ) per share. The stock was then traded on the OTCBB (over-the-counter bulletin board).

Blockbuster was unable to make a $42.4 million(~$ in ) interest payment to bondholders and was given until August 13, 2010, to pay off the debt. The company hired Jeff Stegenga to be its chief restructuring officer (CRO) in an effort to satisfy bondholder demands and recapitalize the company. After failing to pay on August 13, bondholders gave Blockbuster until September 30, 2010.

On August 26, 2010, news media reported that Blockbuster was planning to file a pre-packaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy in mid-September. In light of this news, the company's chief financial officer (CFO), Tom Casey, resigned on September 11. He was replaced by Dennis McGill, formerly CFO of Safety-Kleen Systems, Inc. On September 23, 2010, Blockbuster filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection due to challenging losses, $900 million (~$ in ) in debt, and strong competition from Netflix, Redbox, and video on-demand services. Movie Gallery/Hollywood Video had filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation earlier in 2010 for similar reasons.

At the time of its Chapter 11 filing, Blockbuster said it would keep its 3,300 stores open; however, that December it announced it would close an additional 182 stores by the end of April 2011 in attempts to emerge from bankruptcy. It was reported in February 2011 that Blockbuster and its creditors had not come up with a Chapter 11 exit plan and that the company would be sold for $300 million (~$ in ) or more, along with taking over debts and leases. Blockbuster admitted that it might not be able to meet financial obligations required under its Chapter 11 filing, a circumstance which could mandate conversion of the bankruptcy filing to Chapter 7 (liquidation). On March 1, 2011, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a claim disclosing that Blockbuster did not have the funds to continue reorganizing and should liquidate.

On March 28, 2011, South Korean telecommunications company SK Telecom made a surprise bid to buy Blockbuster. Dish Network had also expressed interest in bidding, as did Carl Icahn, despite calling Blockbuster "the worst investment I ever made". Dish eventually won the auction on April 6, 2011, agreeing to buy Blockbuster for $320 million and the assumption of $87 million in liabilities and other obligations. On April 19, 2011, it was announced that Dish would keep only 500 Blockbuster stores open. The acquisition was completed on April 26, 2011. In April 2011, Dish Network told the U.S. Bankruptcy Court that it needed more time to negotiate with landlords in an effort to keep more than 600 Blockbuster stores open.

In April 2011, Blockbuster's landlords objected to its assumption of leases that it sought to assign to soon-to-be-owner Dish Network Corp., claiming that they did not have adequate assurance that the new owner would honor those leases. Blockbuster signed a deal with ITV Studios Global Entertainment to launch ITV Programmes released on DVDs, Blu-rays, etc. On May 6, 2011, Keyes resigned as Blockbuster's CEO.

2011–2015: Michael Kelly era
Keyes was replaced by Michael Kelly under the new title of Blockbuster's president. On August 31, 2011, the liquidators announced the closure of the remaining 253 Canadian stores and shutting of the entire Canadian unit. In September 2011, it was announced that Blockbuster and Dish Network would launch a new service called Blockbuster Movie Pass that would compete with Netflix. For US$10 per month the members would have access to both a streaming service and movies and games-by-mail. The package was only available for subscribers of Dish Network's pay-TV service, and it eventually folded.

On January 13, 2012, Dish CEO Joe Clayton announced that while Dish had planned to keep 90% of the stores in operation, meaning around 15,000 employees would remain employed, because of market factors "there are ones that aren't going to make it. We will close unprofitable stores. We will close additional stores." Clayton did not say when these additional closings would happen and only remarked that some stores were unprofitable. The Dish chief would not say which stores the company was planning to close, but that each potential closing was to be assessed on a "case by case basis".

On October 4, 2012, Dish Network announced that it was scrapping plans to make Blockbuster into a Netflix competitor. On January 16, 2013, Blockbuster UK entered into administration and Deloitte was appointed to run the business while trying to find a buyer while some of the stores remained open. Between November 6, 2013, and January 12, 2014, all 300 remaining corporate-owned Blockbuster stores in the U.S. were closed and the DVD-by-mail program was shut down. The Blockbuster official website identified 51 franchise locations remaining in operation in the U.S. in 2014. Dish maintained its video streaming services, Blockbuster on Demand and Blockbuster@Home, until they were replaced by a new subscription service in April 2015 called "DISH Movie Pack". In May 2015, Michael Kelly retired from Dish.

Blockbuster's decline was attributed to poor leadership according to others in the industry. Franchise owner Ken Tisher said in 2015, "Blockbuster, if it isn't already, is going to go into the Harvard Business Review for how not to run a business, or how to run a business into the ground." Keith Hoogland, owner of Family Video, attributed poor decision-making as a primary reason the company did not survive. Jonathan Salem Baskin, a former Blockbuster marketing communications executive, stated, "Digital would have changed Blockbuster's business, for sure, but it wasn't its killer. That credit belongs to Blockbuster itself." Commentators view Blockbuster as a main example of failing to change with the times.

2015–present: Post-Kelly era and continual decline

Although Blockbuster stores had the option of remaining open by paying a licensing fee to Dish, a corporate entity was no longer available to provide supplies of branded products, forcing franchisees to design and produce their own. Additional store closures continued. By January 2018, the company's website listed nine remaining franchise-owned stores in the U.S., including six in Alaska, two in Oregon, and one in Texas. Eight of those nine had closed by August 2018, leaving only one store in Bend, Oregon.

In March 2019, the last remaining store outside of the United States, located in Morley, Western Australia, closed its doors. The Bend location became the last remaining Blockbuster in the world; it serves as a tourist destination, housing Blockbuster memorabilia and Russell Crowe film props which John Oliver had donated to an Alaska store. In August 2020, the location was listed as an Airbnb rental for a 1990s-themed sleepover on three separate nights in September; each were limited to guests from the area in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The entity that operated Blockbuster prior to the sale to Dish remains nominally active under the name BB Liquidating Inc., and trades as a penny stock. However, it no longer has any assets or ties to the Blockbuster brand or its remaining franchise location. In activity related to the GameStop short squeeze of January 2021, the BB Liquidating stock surged, despite there being "no value for the common shareholders in the bankruptcy liquidation process, even under the most optimistic of scenarios."

On September 21, 2022, the Blockbuster Twitter account revealed the Blockbuster World Video Game Championship 3. The event was held during the Portland Retro Gaming Expo 2022. On March 23, 2023, the Blockbuster web page was re-activated, with the message "We are working on rewinding your movie".

Business model
The standard business model for video rental stores had traditionally been to pay a large flat fee per video, approximately $65, and offer unlimited rentals for the lifetime of the medium itself. Sumner Redstone, whose Viacom conglomerate then owned Blockbuster, personally pioneered a new revenue-sharing arrangement for video in the mid-1980s. Blockbuster obtained videos for little cost and kept 60% of the rental fee, paying the other 40% to the studio, and reporting rental information through the global media measurement and research company Rentrak. In addition to benefiting from a lower initial price, Blockbuster also capitalized on the fact that movies were generally not available for purchase at affordable price points during initial release periods. Thus customers had a choice to rent, wait, or buy the film on tape at the much higher manufacturer's suggested retail price targeted at other rental chains and film enthusiasts, which at that time ranged between $70–$100 per title.

Quantity and selection of titles
Blockbuster stores followed a strategy of emphasizing access to the most popular new releases, obtaining early access and stocking many copies of the new-release titles, with a relatively narrower range of selections than traditional independent video stores. Much of the shelf space in the stores was devoted to popular titles that were placed relatively sparsely on the shelves with the entire front cover visible, so customers could browse casually and quickly, rather than having a more diverse selection with fewer copies of each title. Blockbuster sometimes contracted with studios to obtain earlier access to new titles than other companies could achieve. Examples of such contracts were those in which Blockbuster became the exclusive rental chain for new releases from WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment, formally WWF, World Wrestling Federation), Funimation, Rhino, Paramount, DreamWorks, DWA, Universal, Lionsgate, Summit, Anchor Bay, Manga, The Weinstein Company, Dimension, Miramax, Hollywood, Touchstone, Disney, Buena Vista, 20th Century Fox, MGM/UA, Orion, Sony, Columbia, Tristar, Image, Shout! Factory, Warner Bros., HBO, New Line Cinema and Allumination FilmWorks. As one commentator complained: Blockbuster was once an unstoppable giant whose franchises swept across the country putting mom and pop video stores out of business left and right by offering a larger selection of new releases, pricing them at a lower point due to the volume they worked in... Gone were the fragmented, independently owned shops that were often unorganized treasure troves of VHS discoveries. In their place were walls of new releases: hundreds of copies of a small handful of films. Everyone watching the same thing, everyone developing the same limited set of expectations... They put focus entirely on what was new rather than on discovering film history ...

When a title was no longer a new release, each store would retain a few copies of it and typically sell off the rest as "previously viewed" for discounted prices. Older movies would be re-categorized as "Blockbuster Favorite" titles and placed in a different area of the store. Most Blockbuster locations also accepted trade-ins of used movies, TV shows, and games.

Since Blockbuster's founding in 1985, the chain refused to stock adult films in order to portray the brand as family-friendly. However, the company did carry R-rated and unrated films.

Other ventures

Blockbuster Entertainment Awards

Blockbuster Entertainment Inc. ran an awards show annually from 1995 to 2001 called the Blockbuster Entertainment Awards. In November 2001, Blockbuster announced that it would cancel the 2002 award show following concerns about viewership and celebrity attendance following the September 11 attacks.

Blockbuster Express
Blockbuster Express was a movie-rental kiosk brand sublicensed for use by licensee NCR Corporation. In 2011, nearly 10,000 Blockbuster Express kiosks were in operation. Apart from the license to use the Blockbuster brand name, Blockbuster Express kiosks are unrelated to Blockbuster LLC, its stores, its DVD-by-mail service, or its online streaming service.

The names Blockbuster Express and Blockbuster Video Express had also been used for smaller Blockbuster retail stores in the United Kingdom.

GameRush

In 2004, Blockbuster opened store-within-a-store video game rental and sales stores called GameRush inside Blockbuster locations in limited markets. Blockbuster also acquired Rhino Video Games, a chain of video game stores in the Southwest, and operated it alongside GameRush. These stores sold and bought DVDs, games, game consoles, and accessories. GameRush was positioned as a direct competitor to stores such as GameStop and GameCrazy. Blockbuster used its location status to get instant coverage; it also promoted these stores by hosting video-game tournaments, special trade-in offers, and a more 'hip' look to the selection and staff. However, when Blockbuster introduced the discontinuation of late fees, GameRush was put on the chopping block. In January 2007, Blockbuster sold Rhino Video Games to GameStop Corp. According to the Blockbuster Twitter account, GameRush was to be part of the "new Blockbuster" in 2016 and even had its own Twitter profile, however the GameRush Twitter account has not been active since January 2017.

Discovery Zone
In 1993, Blockbuster invested in the indoor kids' play restaurant Discovery Zone. In 1995, Blockbuster bought more stock to take control of the company. Discovery Zone filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on March 26, 1996, after changes in management & aggressive expansion put them in heavy debt. DZ was emerged a year later under Wellspring Associates ownership, with Blockbuster no longer have control of the chain. Discovery Zone abruptly closed half of its locations in 1999 and sold thirteen others to the parent company of Chuck E. Cheese's. The rest of the Discovery Zone locations closed in December 2001. The chain was revived as a single location in Cincinnati, Ohio, on February 7, 2020. It remains in operation, but it is not owned by Blockbuster.

International operations

Australia

In Australia, the first Blockbuster store was opened in 1991 in Melbourne. In 1992, the Virgin Group and Blockbuster Inc entered into a joint venture to set up Australia's first Virgin Megastores in Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide. This lasted until Virgin sold its interest in the six stores to Blockbuster, which promptly rebranded them in 1993 as Blockbuster Music. In 1994, Australian store numbers rose to 54 with the acquisition of Major Video and Focus chains in both Victoria and South Australia. In 1995, the growth continued with the opening of the 100th video store in the country. By the end of 1998, Blockbuster Australia opened over 125 stores. In July 1998, Blockbuster Australia launched into franchising with the conversion of the former Video Flicks franchise group in Queensland, and the former Movieland group in Western Australia six months later. Also in 1998, the company sold its last two Australian Blockbuster Music stores in Pitt Street, Sydney, and Chapel Street, Melbourne to Brazin Limited, which incorporated them under its Sanity Entertainment brand. Throughout 1999 and 2000, Blockbuster Australia quickly expanded its franchise store network through the conversion of smaller groups and the granting of individual franchises. Before 2005, this was done through the acquisition of the Movies Plus Group and the conversion of some individual Movies 4U and Movieland outlets.

In February 2007, Blockbuster sold its entire Australian store network to Video Ezy. At the time, Blockbuster Australia comprised 370 outlets nationwide—29 owned by the company and 341 owned by franchisees. Video Ezy had 518 Australian outlets, all of them being owned by franchisees, pushing the combined group's market share to 40% of the country's video rental sector. Video Ezy committed to the master franchise agreement with Blockbuster for 10 years operating the brand with the possibility of renewal for a further 10 years after that. As a consequence of the deal, the company changed its name from Video Ezy to Franchise Entertainment Group (FEG).

In October 2010, FEG transferred control of the Video Ezy Australia and Blockbuster Australia online businesses to its newly acquired and reorganized company, Elan Media Partners, leaving FEG to manage the franchise relationships with individual Video Ezy and Blockbuster outlets. However, since the two brands came together, the network has shrunk, reflected in Video Ezy and Blockbuster franchises closing 270 stores across Australia in the four years to August 2011.

Additional store closings would go on for several years, until all the stores in Australia had closed, although vending kiosks with the Blockbuster logo were still in operation until early 2021. Australia's last Blockbuster store, in Morley, Western Australia, was closed at the end of March 2019.

Brazil
Blockbuster was the largest video rental chain in the country, but finances were not good enough due to high rental prices. Lojas Americanas, the largest Brazilian department store, acquired half of the shares and now it is named under "Americanas Express Blockbuster". The store layout was similar to a regular American store with a Game Rush, but instead of games it offers electronics goods like computers and DVD players, groceries like candies and microwave popcorn, and even toys from Mattel and Hasbro's board games. In January 2007, when Blockbuster had 127 stores across Brazil, it sold its Brazilian stake for $87.4 million (~$ in ) and gave Lojas Americanas exclusive rights to the Blockbuster brand in the country for 20 years. The average store has an interior on about 400 m2, where 80-100 m2 is dedicated to movies.

Canada

In Canada, Blockbuster Canada (established in 1990) had operated independently, and it initially remained financially stable. It began a partnership with Wind Mobile in December 2009, selling mobile phones at all stores in cities where Wind's service was available. Phone sales began in Toronto and Calgary, later expanding to other cities with Wind coverage. Some stores even featured a full Wind "store-in-a-store" for postpaid activations and a larger selection of devices. However, on May 3, 2011, it was announced that the company had gone into receivership. On May 25, 2011, it was announced that 146 stores, accounting for approximately 35% of the company's stores in Canada, would be shut down effective June 18, 2011. On August 31, 2011, Blockbuster Canada announced that no buyer could be found for its remaining stores that were acceptable to the court-appointed bankruptcy receiver, and that it would wind down operations and close all stores by December 31, 2011. The company had acted as a guarantor towards Blockbuster's remaining debt. A small chain called Megahit Video began in Canada in 1986. It appropriated a similar colour scheme to Blockbuster and grew to a chain of 50 stores in smaller towns not serviced by a Blockbuster. The chain was financially stable with 49 corporately owned stores and one franchise until a lawsuit filed by Blockbuster LLC in 1994 forced the closure of all of the Megahit stores. One Megahit Video, the sole franchise, survived and is still in operation in Newfoundland as a video store and collectible shop.

Denmark
Blockbuster came to Denmark in 1996 with the acquisition of the 29 Christianshavn video stores. In 2009 they were on its peak with 72 stores across the country. Blockbuster Video Denmark sold the rights for the Blockbuster brand to the Danish telecommunications corporation TDC in 2013, excluding the 46 remaining brick and mortar stores which continued as RecycleIT A/S, diversifying in refurbishing and reselling consumer electronics in addition sale and rental of games and movies. The original goal was to rename all the stores before July 1, 2014, when TDC would get the exclusive rights to the brand name in Denmark, but only 12 of them had been renamed at the end of June and RecycleIT A/S filed for bankruptcy the same year. The 12 RecycleIT stores were bought by the company Blue City. The new owners planned to gradually phase out game and movie sales and rental within 2016, but due to the fast changes in the market it happened almost immediately after the takeover, and seven of the stores, therefore, closed in 2015. In 2017, the five remaining ones had started to make some profit, and focus exclusively on second-hand consumer electronics

However, the Blockbuster On Demand service is still active in Nordic Countries, offering both unlimited streaming and 48-hour rental of films online. Several Smart TVs have the Blockbuster app pre-installed out-of-the-box, and it is available on a variety of streaming devices such as Google's Chromecast. The rights to the Blockbuster brand are now in hands of Nuuday.

Germany
Blockbuster opened 20 stores in Berlin and Munich and announced plans to open 250 more. The chain presented itself as family-friendly by not renting pornographic films. However, that decision adversely affected the profitability of the stores. Blockbuster left the German market in 1997.

Hong Kong
In 1998, after the closure of KPS Video Express, Blockbuster saw an opportunity to enter into the Hong Kong market, and entered into negotiations with KPS's receivers Ernst & Young to buy the KPS operations. Blockbuster re-opened 15 of 38 former KPS stores by February 16, 1998,
 and re-employed 145 former KPS staff. KPS members were given special offers to join Blockbuster, but the video pre-paid coupon system was not retained.

Blockbuster pulled out of the market in 2004 after high operating costs and losses to copyright infringement.

Ireland

In March 2010, Blockbuster announced that it intended to sell all operations in Europe. The company once had an Irish subsidiary, Xtravision, which did not operate under the Blockbuster brand name. Blockbuster sold Xtravision at a loss in August 2009 to Birchhall Investments Limited. All remaining stores were closed in 2016, leaving only its online business and vending machines. In June 2021, xtravision xpress was placed into voluntary receivership

Israel
In the late 2000s at its peak, Blockbuster Israel had 40 branches and more than 260 automated video rentals. In December 2011, Blockbuster closed off its last branch store, and had only 80 automated video rentals left.

Japan
In March 1991, Fujita Den Trading (which was the master franchise owner of McDonald's in Japan) and Blockbuster Inc. entered into a joint venture to establish Japan's first Blockbuster Video stores. By October 1992, Fujita and Blockbuster opened 15 stores in the country – four of them next to McDonald's outlets and most being located in the greater Tokyo area. Unlike Blockbuster's U.S. stores, each Japanese outlet only occupied about half the floor space at 5,000 square feet due to the country's more limited available real estate. By June 1996, 32 stores were in operation with a public aim for 150 by 1998. Blockbuster Japan faced heavy competition from Osaka-based video rental chain, Tsutaya, with its 817 outlets, but the company saw opportunity in the population having high VCR ownership levels (at around 75%), low satellite TV penetration (at around 27%), and well-ordered store layouts (unique for most local video stores). However, Blockbuster's business strategy of "wholesome home entertainment" saw it refuse to stock adult entertainment, which accounted for 35% of the Japanese video market, or the extreme horror films that were also popular. All of which meant Blockbuster was unable to fit adequately into the Japanese market, and was immediately put at a disadvantage compared to competitors that had no such ethical stance. Blockbuster handed its remaining shares over to Fujita Den Trading in 1999, and exited the Japanese market.

Mexico
In September 2015, all remaining Blockbuster retail stores (263 in total) in Mexico had been converted to "The B Store", and the floor space dedicated to video rentals reduced from 70% to 20%, the remaining space being used for general technology and electronics sales. The re-branding occurred with the owners not renewing their license with Blockbuster and the imminent expiry of the existing license. All remaining B-stores closed by July 2016.

New Zealand
The chain also operated for many years in New Zealand, but over the years lost customers to other retailers like United Video and Video Ezy, as well as the rise of streaming services. While the store in Bend, Oregon was generally regarded as the last Blockbuster store, there was one in Dargaville, north of Auckland, that managed to stay open until finally closing at the end of January 2020.

Norway
In December 2002 the first Blockbuster store opened in Norway, and was followed by another store some months later in 2003, both located in Oslo. The hope was to acquire an already existing video chain. When that failed, it was made an attempt to build a Norwegian blockbuster chain from scratch. But both stores closed in the spring of 2004.

Peru
Blockbuster opened its first store in Peru in 1995, and by 2002 it had ten stores in Lima. However, in 2006, Blockbuster announced that it plans to shut down its stores in Peru due to poor revenues, which it blamed on the effect of movie piracy. The last store in Peru was closed on January 3, 2007. The company had already closed down its stores in Ecuador, Portugal and Costa Rica. El Salvador followed in 2010, and Argentina in 2011.

United Kingdom

In March 1989, Blockbuster opened their first store in the United Kingdom on Walworth Road, London. In February 1992, Blockbuster purchased Citivision PLC, the biggest home-video company in Britain, for $81 million (~$ in ). At the time, Citivision operated about 775 stores in Britain branded as Ritz.

Blockbuster UK operated trade functions in all their stores, buying and selling pre-owned DVDs, console games, and gaming accessories. Stores offered either store credit or cash for trade-ins, and would price-match with competitors. At its height in 2002, Blockbuster UK operated out of over 800 stores.

In early 2013, the company had 528 locations in the United Kingdom. On January 16, 2013, Blockbuster placed its United Kingdom subsidiaries in administration, putting over 4,000 jobs at risk. Non-UK stores were unaffected by the administration, and continued to trade as normal. On February 1, 2013, a large number of Blockbuster stores in the UK were closed, and the UK business was purchased out of administration by restructuring firm Gordon Brothers Europe on March 23, 2013.

Blockbuster UK then traded as TS Operations, with only 264 branches retained. On October 29, 2013, Blockbuster UK announced it was to go into administration for a second time. On November 14, 2013, 72 store closures were announced, with another 62 made on December 5. A week later, with no success in finding a buyer, it was announced by Moorfields Corporate Recovery that all remaining stores in the country would cease operation on December 16, 2013, with stock to be cleared the day before this.

In September 2018, to coincide with the digital release of Deadpool 2, a pop-up retail store in the style of an original 1989 Blockbuster outlet was opened for two days in Shoreditch in East London. The store gave away 1,989 copies of the film in reference to Blockbuster's entry year into the UK market.

Online rentals

Brazil
In January 2006, Blockbuster Brazil also introduced an online rental service now featuring both DVD and Blu-ray plans. There were four Block plans available with prices ranging from R$34.90 to R$79.90. The 3-disc plan with unlimited exchanges was R$49.90/month. Unlike the U.S. service, there was no in-store disk exchange.

Movielink acquisition
On August 8, 2007, Blockbuster announced that it had reached an agreement to purchase Movielink. According to the 8-K filing by Blockbuster, the total purchase price was $6.6 million.

The Nordics
Blockbuster streaming service is still active in Nordic Countries, offering both unlimited streaming and 48-hour rental of films online. Several Smart TVs have the Blockbuster app pre-installed out-of-the-box, and it is available on a variety of streaming devices such as Google's Chromecast. The rights to the Blockbuster brand are now in hands of Nuuday.

United Kingdom
Rentals cost £3.50 to £4.50 and lasted for five nights, usually from Monday to Friday due to the postal service. Late fees of £0.70 to £0.90 per disc applied if a disc was not returned on time.

In May 2004, Blockbuster also introduced an online subscription service. The unlimited three-disc plan cost £14.99/month but did not allow in-store exchange, contrary to the U.S. service. Partial support for in-store exchange was added in April 2005 with the launch of an "OnlineXtra" service. This service cost £2 per month, required an online subscription to a disc plan, and added two extra discs sent by mail. The OnlineXtra discs could be exchanged in store, but the non-OnlineXtra discs could not. The program was discontinued in 2006 with no grandfathering, but an in-store-only variant of it resurfaced in early 2008. A "Click & Collect" service launched in September 2010 allowed the reservation of Blockbuster movies in store, but the store's regular rental fees applied until the company added in-store exchanges in May 2012. Support for game reservations was added in November 2011.

In 2008, Blockbuster UK's website underwent an overhaul, with an online store; a retail store stock checker; improved search functionality; and a critically acclaimed layout. In-store pickup and exclusive titled were added in 2009. Some of the titles which had an exclusivity period at Blockbuster include Gran Torino, Changeling, Taken, and Knowing. Additionally, online rental downloads of Universal Pictures in the United Kingdom remains exclusive to Blockbuster. This provides an advantage to the rental company compared to its competitors HMV, Play, and LoveFilm.

In January 2010, Blockbuster UK launched an online blog. Improved search algorithms, product pages, and social network links were added to the site in April 2010. Blockbuster UK aired a monthly BB Insider online video show from May 2010 to January 2011 and launched an iPhone App in September 2010. Throughout the year 2011, Blockbuster UK announced several price cuts along with a new Blockbuster loyalty card program.

These price drops were followed by a price drop of the Blockbuster UK online pay per rent service. Although some Blockbuster UK advertisements claim that the company no longer charges late fees, the fine print and/or voiceover clarifies that rentals will be charged an extra pound for every additional night. A "Top Ticket" feature was added in April 2011, allowing monthly subscription customers to rent an additional movie at no extra charge and to receive it before other movies they request. Support for online sales of used movie and game discs was added in July 2011. The Blockbuster UK website was enhanced in September 2011. During the following month, a new TV section was added to the website.

3D Blu-rays were added to Blockbuster UK in February 2012. In May 2012, Blockbuster UK partnered with IGN to launch a new Blockbuster VIP Gamer loyalty program.

On January 16, 2013, Blockbuster UK entered administration, appointing Deloitte as company administrators, casting doubt over the future of their 528 stores in the country. An announcement was then made by Deloitte that 160 UK stores would close.

On February 13, 2013, Deloitte announced a further 164 store closures, leaving 204 stores trading in the UK. The business was sold to restructuring firm the Gordon Brothers Group on March 23, 2013. On October 29, 2013, Gordon Brothers filed notice of intention to appoint an administrator. On November 28, 2013, Blockbuster UK officially entered administration for the second time, and by December 2013, all stores were closed, as no buyer for the chain was found.

United States
In 1997, Enron Corporation had entered the broadband market, constructing and purchasing thousands of miles of fiber optic cables throughout the United States. In 2001, Enron and Blockbuster Inc. attempted to create a 20-year deal to stream movies on demand over Enron's fiber optic network. However, the "heavily promoted" deal fell through, with Enron's shares dropping following the announcement.

On August 11, 2004, Blockbuster introduced a DVD-by-mail service in the US to compete with the established market leader, Netflix.

Blockbuster's US online operation started with around 10 warehouses; further expansions every year brought that number to 41, plus more than 1400 stores in the Blockbuster Online network. Most Blockbuster independent franchises did not honor the Total Access program. The company had 1.5 million subscribers at the end of the third quarter of 2006. Blockbuster's move to follow the business pattern with its online rentals as was established by Netflix prompted Netflix to sue Blockbuster for patent infringement. Blockbuster counter sued with a counterclaim alleging deceptive practices with its patent which it alleged was designed to maintain an illegal monopoly. The suits were eventually settled, and while the terms were not disclosed it was later reported that Netflix recorded a settlement payment from Blockbuster of $4.1 million (~$ in ) in the second quarter of 2007.

Blockbuster offered several online movie rental plans. In some cities customers could add games to their movie rental queue as if they were included in their plan, but game rentals resulted in a separate additional fee which was not displayed or charged until the end of the billing cycle. Until July 26, 2007, Blockbuster offered and advertised unlimited free in-store exchanges of online rentals with all plans. Since then there were several changes back and forth with regard to this policy; in March 2010 customers were allowed a limited number of in-store exchanges.

At the end of 2006, Blockbuster Total Access had 2.2 million customers, exceeding their original goal of 2 million, according to its website. After an aggressive media campaign that accounted for much of Blockbuster's $46.4 million (~$ in ) net loss in the first quarter of 2007, the Total Access subscriber base surpassed 3 million customers in total, marking the company's highest subscriber growth quarter ever. By 2009, however, the company was declining to provide figures when asked by The Wall Street Journal.

On January 5, 2007, Southern Stores Inc., one of Blockbuster's largest franchise operators in the United States, filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging that, by introducing Blockbuster Online and Blockbuster Total Access, the rental chain has undercut the group's franchise agreement.

On August 6, 2010, Blockbuster By Mail subscribers gained access to Blockbuster's library of console games, in addition to movies and television shows.

On March 31, 2012, Blockbuster On Demand removed support from set-top box media players, including Vudu, WDTV, and Roku. Supported devices now only included computers, Blu-ray players, select television sets, and cellular phones.

On February 26, 2013, Roku, Inc. announced that Blockbuster On Demand was being launched on Roku's channel store. Supported devices now included computers, Blu-ray players, select television sets, cellular phones, and the Roku set-top box.

In November 2013, Dish Network said its DVD-by-mail service would shut down by mid-December.

Advertising

Super Bowl
One of Blockbuster's most well-known advertising campaigns was launched in 2002 during Super Bowl XXXVI. It starred the voices of James Woods and Jim Belushi as Carl and Ray, a rabbit and a guinea pig in a pet shop located across the road from a Blockbuster store. The first campaign ended in 2003. The Carl and Ray campaign started again in 2007 starting with a commercial in the first quarter of Super Bowl XLI.

Misleading advertising
In 2005, Blockbuster launched a marketing campaign describing changes in its late fees policy and offering "No Late Fees" on rentals. The program sparked investigations and charges of misrepresentation in 48 states and the District of Columbia: state attorneys general including Bill Lockyer of California, Greg Abbott of Texas, and Eliot Spitzer of New York argued that customers were being automatically charged the full purchase price of late rentals and a restocking fee for rentals returned after 30 days. In a settlement, Blockbuster agreed to reimburse the states the cost of their investigation, clarify communication to customers on the terms of the program, and offer reimbursement to customers charged fees prior to the clarification. New Jersey filed a separate lawsuit and was not a party to the settlement.

The 2005 controversy came after a related lawsuit settled in 2002 in Texas. That lawsuit, alleging exorbitant late fees, led the company to pay $9.25 million in attorney fees and offer $450 million in late fee refund coupons (which were rent-one get-one-free coupons, and thus required the customer to make an initial expenditure). The company estimated that the coupons would ultimately cost about $45 million depending on the redemption rate; an attorney for the plaintiffs estimated the final cost at closer to $100 million at a redemption rate of about 20% (calculated based on a similar case in Michigan).

Such corrections were also sent to international stores such as those in Canada to prevent further lawsuits.

Blockbuster reintroduced late fees in the United States in 2010 under the name of "Additional Daily Rates". With this pricing scheme, rentals were once again limited to a certain number of days and accrued pay-per-day rates after the days allocated are exceeded.

Senior management history
 Michael Kelly, president: 2011–2015
 Dennis McGill, executive vice president and chief financial officer: 2010–2013
 Kevin Lewis, senior vice president and chief marketing officer: 2008–2012
 John F. Antioco, CEO: 1997–2007
 James W. Keyes, CEO: 2007–2011
 Karen H. Jolles, chief marketing officer: 1993–1997
 Mark Allen Stuart, Vice President Studio Relations/Acquisition/Retail Strategy Officer: 1989–1993

See also

 Dish Network
 Family Video
 Gamerang
 Hollywood Video
 Movie Gallery
 Netflix
 Retail apocalypse
 List of retailers affected by the retail apocalypse

References
Informational notes

Citations

External links

Franchises
Home video companies of the United States
Video rental services
Defunct retail companies of the United States
Defunct retail companies of Canada
Defunct companies based in Texas
Companies based in Dallas
American companies established in 1985
Canadian companies established in 1990
Retail companies established in 1985
Retail companies disestablished in 2014
2014 disestablishments in Canada
Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange
Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2010
Companies that have entered administration in the United Kingdom
Companies that have filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy
Dish Network
Former Viacom subsidiaries
1994 mergers and acquisitions
2012 mergers and acquisitions

Blockbuster (retailer)


Spartacus () is a ballet by Aram Khachaturian (1903–1978). The work follows the exploits of Spartacus, the leader of the slave uprising against the Romans known as the Third Servile War, although the ballet's storyline takes considerable liberties with the historical record. Khachaturian composed Spartacus in 1954, and was awarded a Lenin Prize for the composition that same year. It was first staged in Leningrad on 27 December 1956, as choreographed by Leonid Yakobson, for the Kirov Theatre of Opera and Ballet (Mariinsky Theatre), where it stayed in repertory for many years, but only with qualified success since Yakobson abandoned conventional pointe in his choreography. Yakobson restaged his version for the Bolshoi in 1962 and it was part of the Bolshoi's 1962 tour to New York. The ballet received its first staging at the Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow in 1958, choreographed by Igor Moiseyev; however it was the 1968 production, choreographed by Yury Grigorovich, which achieved the greatest acclaim for the ballet.

Spartacus remains one of Khachaturian's best known works and is prominent within the repertoires of the Bolshoi Theatre and other ballet companies in Russia and the former Soviet Union.

Synopsis
Principal characters:

Crassus, Roman consul
Spartacus, captive king of Thrace
Phrygia, wife of Spartacus
Aegina, concubine to Crassus

Act I

The Roman consul Crassus returns to Rome from his latest conquests in a triumphal procession. Among his captives are the Thracian king Spartacus and his wife Phrygia. Spartacus laments his captivity and bids a bitter farewell to Phrygia, who is taken off to join Crassus's harem of concubines. To entertain Crassus and his entourage, Spartacus is sent into the gladiatorial ring and is forced to kill a close friend. Horrified at his deed, Spartacus incites his fellow captives to rebellion.

Act II
The escaped captives celebrate their freedom. Meanwhile, Crassus entertains the Roman patricians with lavish entertainment. Spartacus and the other escaped captives disrupt the orgy and rescue the slave women, including Phrygia. Aegina insists that Crassus pursue the slave army immediately. The lovers celebrate their escape to the "Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia".

Act III
Aegina discovers Spartacus's camp and observes the lovers emerging from their tent the next morning. Aegina sends word to Crassus, who sends his army in pursuit. Internecine struggles break out among Spartacus's forces. Finally, Crassus's forces discover Spartacus and impale him upon their spears. Spartacus's closest followers recover his body and carry it off while Phrygia mourns her loss.

Orchestral adaptation
Khachaturian extracted and arranged music from the ballet in 1955 for four orchestral suites:
Spartacus Suite No.1
Introduction – Dance of the Nymphs
Adagio of Aegina and Harmodius
Variation of Aegina and Bacchanalia
Scene and Dance with Crotala
Dance of the Gaditanae – Victory of Spartacus
Spartacus Suite No.2
Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia
Entrance of the Merchants – Dance of a Roman Courtesan –
General Dance
Entrance of Spartacus – Quarrel –
Treachery of Harmodius
Dance of the Pirates
Spartacus Suite No.3
Dance of a Greek Slave
Dance of an Egyptian Girl
Night Incident
Dance of Phrygia – Parting Scene
At the Circus
Spartacus Suite No.4
Bacchante's Melancholy Dance
Spartacus Procession
Death of the Gladiator
Call to Arms – Spartacus' Uprising

Instrumentation: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons; 4 horns, 4 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba; timpani, percussion; strings.

In popular culture
 Part of the "Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia" (the opening piece in Suite No. 2), was used as the main love theme in the 1968 film Mayerling; as the opening theme for the British television series The Onedin Line (1971–1980); in advertisements for Philips television sets in Australia in the late 1970s; and in The Hudsucker Proxy (1994).
 Part of the "Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia" was used in the film Caligula (1979). A disco version of this theme with lyrics by the artist Lydia was released as a single from the soundtrack.
 Spartakus, a 1977 Soviet musical/ballet film directed by Vadim Derbenyov and Yuri Grigorovich, which is also a remake of the Bolshoi Theater's 1968 production also choreographed by Grigorovich.
 The adagio had several plays during the James Bond film Thunderball.
 Portions of the ballet were performed by the Phantom Regiment Drum and Bugle Corps in 1981, 1982, and 2008 – with the Corps winning the 2008 DCI World Championship title, performing their interpretation of the ballet.
 In 1984, with words by Tony Hiller and Nicky Graham, it became a popular song, "Journey's End", recorded by Andy Williams on Capitol.
 In 1990, Mexican rock band Caifanes used "Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia" for their hit song "Antes de que nos olviden" (Before We're Forgotten) from their album El Diablito.
 In 2004, Ukrainian rhythmic gymnast Anna Bessonova performed her bronze medal ball routine at the Athens Olympics to an excerpt of the adagio.
 Michelle Kwan used "Adagio of Sparticus and Phrygia" for her short program in the 2004–2005 season, winning the 2005 US. Figure Skating Championships.
 The adagio is featured toward the ending of 20th Century Fox's 2006 computer-animated film Ice Age: The Meltdown.
 Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin won the 2009 World Figure Skating Championships Ice Dance competition with their free dance to the adagio.
 Ashley Wagner won the 2015 U.S. Figure Skating Championships with her short program to the adagio.

See also
 List of historical ballet characters

References

Ballets by Aram Khachaturian
Ballets by Yury Grigorovich
Ballets by Leonid Jacobson
1956 ballet premieres
1956 in the Soviet Union
Ballets based on actual events
Cultural depictions of Spartacus
Cultural depictions of Marcus Licinius Crassus
Orchestral suites
Ballets based on literature
Ballets set in ancient Rome
Ballets set during the Third Servile War

Spartacus (ballet)


Pankration was a sport in Ancient Greece. Eight of Pindar's odes were written in honor of pankratiasts. The pankration was a form of wrestling with one difference: the athletes were allowed to use their fists. They did not wear boxing thongs however. Kicking and hitting were allowed but biting and gouging an eye or soft spot with a thumb or finger were forbidden. Umpires flogged athletes who violated these rules. In spite of this punishment, violations often occurred.

A Greek wrestler aimed to throw his opponent; a pankratiast however aimed to force his opponent to concede defeat. This might be done by getting an opponent in a hold that, if he did not yield (give up), a bone would be broken or a joint dislocated. Size and weight did not matter as much in the pankration as they did in boxing and wrestling because pankratiasts spent most of their time rolling around on the ground.

The Greeks loved the pankration. They considered it the greatest test of an athlete's skill and strength. The pankration was also a favorite sport in Roman imperial times. The most famous ancient pankratiast was Arrichon of Philageia in the 6th century BC. He won the pankration in two Olympics, but died of a stranglehold in the Olympics of 564 BC. He was awarded the victor's wreath. Both Philostratus and Pausanias told the story of his final bout. A statue in the Olympia Museum may be his.

Gallery: Pankrationiasts on Greek pottery

Sources

Ancient Greek wrestling

Pankration