Scarecrow Video History:
The story of Scarecrow Video starts in 1983 when Rebecca and George Latsios
moved from Allentown, PA. to Seattle, WA. George always had
a fondness for movies and started playing with the idea of
starting his own video store. Try as they might, the lack
of capital made the initial creation of a store impossible.
In 1986, George put about 200 of his own personal tapes out
to be rented at Backtrack Records and Video, replanting the
seed. In 1988, while working as a general manager for Kamon
of Lake Union Restaurant, George became frustrated with making
money for other people -- so he quit. He convinced Rebecca
that the time was right to open a video store of their own,
and on December 8, 1988 (promptly at noon) Scarecrow Video
was born. Containing a huge inventory of 600 titles, the Latona
store was but a ripple in the lake that would become Scarecrow.
Five customers signed up that day (four of whom we’re
pleased to still have with us), and the store’s first
$36 was made.
Rebecca continued to work two jobs to help fund George’s
project, not to mention build the shelves for the new store.
In 1990, the store continued to morph, adding computer kiosks
to help customers find videos, all the while increasing the
number of titles available. That same year, a second Scarecrow
was created for the sole purpose of renting Laserdiscs. Scarecrow
Laser was closed down in 1995, but it was the seed of Scarecrow’s
desire to keep growing in new directions of cinema.
In 1992, Scarecrow encountered the first of what would become
a recurring theme for the store: It ran out of space. The
adjoining retail space was rented, and Scarecrow nearly doubled
in size from 1,000 to 1,900 square feet. At this time, the
first PAL tapes began to enter the store -- letting people
see things from far away places or items that were simply
never released in the U.S.
It only took a year before those 1,900 square feet just wasn’t
enough. On November 19, 1993, Scarecrow moved down the street
to its current location at 5030 Roosevelt Way. With 8,600
square feet, there was plenty of room for the 18,000 titles
that came along. There was enough space that in 1995 Scarecrow
opened the Sanctuary Cinema on the second floor: One of Seattle’s
smaller movie houses, seating about 18; but it had a loyal
following (not to mention, it was simply cool to have a theater
inside a video store!)
In 1997, reaching in even more cinematic directions, Scarecrow
was one of the first video stores in Seattle to add a major
DVD section.
However, in this rosy world of Scarecrow, bad things were
catching up with the store. George loves movies, but he’ll
be the first to admit, he’s a movie guy, not a businessman.
In a series of bad news events (that are too much of a bummer
to put here), the foundation of Scarecrow began to crack.
Enter D’Oh!, Inc. In 1998, Carl Tostevin and John Dauphiny
found out about Scarecrow’s problems. Being movie lovers
themselves, they couldn’t bare the thought of the Seattle
institution closing down. It was an evening, much like any
other. Two guys were sitting in a large room, during a party,
drinking wine. Ideas flowed, as often do when wine is involved...
"What do you want to do later in life?"
"I don't know. Why?"
"Imagine owning a video store." Talk continued.
"Imagine being involved with a store like Scarecrow."
"Would you like a partner," was heard said.
"This could never happen, but it sure sounds cool."
They began to push numbers and talk to lawyers, but kept saying
to themselves “It’ll never happen.” One
day, while talking to the store’s lawyer about a potential
offer, the lawyer said, “As far as I’m concerned,
it’s a done deal.” The name of the corporation
comes from the ride back across the bridge, with the questions
of “What have we done?” and “What will we
tell our girlfriends?”. "D'oh!" was heard
echoing across the Puget Sound and along the shores of Lake
Washington.
Today, Scarecrow continues to grow. With over 60,000 titles
for rent, and thousands of titles for sale, Scarecrow has
some of the most varied inventory in the industry. Space continues
to be an issue, as the sheer volume of titles push the store
into new shapes. The Sanctuary Cinema had to close in 1998,
though if you look carefully, you will find pieces of it in
some rooms now holding tapes. Scarecrow continues to look
for new cinematic directions to grow, but we maintain an important
vision:
George is no longer with the store, but his vision of movies
for movie lovers (and movies for those who don’t yet
know they’re movie lovers) lives on. Our core is movies,
and finding the best and the rare and those that people really
should see is still our motivation. Scarecrow is staffed by
those who love movies -- and connecting people with what they’ve
never seen or with what they’ve searched for over the
years is why we exist.
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