Founded 1985 | ||
Celebrity home entertainment
Celebrity Home Entertainment (also known as simply "Celebrity Video"), founded by Noel C. Bloom in 1985, was a home video distributor specializing in mostly obscure material from around the world, as well as B-grade action films and soft-core adult fare, although they also released some material that was very famous at the time of its original release (such as BraveStarr, Filmation's Ghostbusters, C.O.P.S. and the G.I. Joe movie). They were perhaps best known (such as they were) for their "Just For Kids" imprint, featuring animated material broadcast in the United States, as well as original acquisitions such as the French animated series Clémentine, and the BBC's Postman Pat. The imprint also distributed various English-dubbed versions of foreign material; their offerings included Japanese anime such as the RAI/TMS joint production, Sherlock Hound and Tottoi (The Secret of the Seal), as well as European productions such as Jannik Hastrup's Samson & Sally, Vuk (The Little Fox), Bibifoc (Seabert), some Russian cartoons like The Adventures of Buratino (released as "The All New Adventures of Pinocchio") and Maria, Mirabela (released as "Maria & Marabella") and the Dutch-produced The Bluffers. In addition to anime, the company licensed a share of Japanese Tokusatsu productions from Japan (all dubbed by Sandy Frank), most notably five of the eight entries of Daiei's Gamera films from the Showa era.
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However, most of these productions reflected the times, being edited to reflect U.S. broadcast standards. Further, some, though not all TV series releases were edited into 1 or 2 compilation films (ex: the aforementioned Clémentine, plus Wee Wendy (Tongari Boushi no Memoru). Some series were never even finished, and the videos themselves usually only contained select episodes. The Just for Kids videos were hosted by Noel C. Bloom's son.
Celebrity Home Entertainment filed for bankruptcy protection in 1991, and it closed down completely in 2001. All of their releases are now out of print (although some can still be bought new).