10 Fascinating Hollywood Stories You Didn't Know
6. Porn Helped Launch The VCR
The economics of the film industry were different back in the late 1970s, so when VCRs first became commercially available, the major studios initially resisted the new product, perceiving it as an unwelcome competitor.
As a result, the first videotapes to reach the market were distributed by independent outlets, including porn manufacturers. With no competition, and the novelty of watching explicit material in the home on their side, distributors of adult pictures cleaned up. By 1979, three-quarters of all tapes sold in the US were hard-core films.
The films were so successful that they led to the growth of an X-rated film industry located in the heart of San Fernando Valley, a few miles northwest of the Warner Bros lot. Known locally as “San Pornando” and “Silicone Valley”, this is where nearly 90% of the world’s legally distributed porn was created during the 80s and 90s.