Just before VCRs came out, most families in the late 60s and early 70s owned 8mm and Super 8mm movie projectors and you could buy movies that way. They were shorter in running time than a VHS tape and usually only had the key or best scenes from a movie. Our first two 8mm and Super 8mm porjectors were silent but then one year for Christmas my Dad got me a sound Super 8mm projector and I began collecting films seriously. Then just a few years later we got our first VCR, a Betamax and a year after that a VHS and I started getting VHS tapes in 1979 (and have done so ever since. I'm in the book and movie business so I have THOUSANDS OF VHS MOVIES and DVDs these days, LOL.