One of my favorite places to visit when I visited family in Anderson, Indiana was Lee’s Video. This business closed recently, prompting me to write a small tribute to it.First, a little background. In the area where I grew up, there wasn’t a great deal of selection as far as movie rental businesses. There was Magicland Video, Entertainment Tonight, and the local gas stations. These were very typical in their catalog of movies — nothing special. Still, I thought that this was the case all over the country. Little did I know…
When I would visit my cousin in Indiana, there were times when there wasn’t a lot to do. We had played all of the Colecovision and Nintendo that we could stand, and we weren’t about to go outside. The next logical choice was to go rent some entertainment, usually either a movie (or three) or rent some more Nintendo games (or even a game system!). So we would go to Lee’s Video.
The first thing that struck me as a child when driving up to Lee’s Video was the size of the building. Lee’s Video wasn’t just a typical movie rental store like Blockbuster or the like. Oh no. This behemoth of a video rental store was TWO stories. Lee’s Video had a huge mural on the side of the building, showing classic movie characters such as Superman, Roger Rabbit, and the like. Seeing this mural would fill me with excitement of the movie and video game entertainment awaiting him.
I remember the first time I went into this place, my eyes just popped from the size of the store and the variety of the offerings. Scads of Nintendo games (some I had never seen before), and a cornucopia of movie selections. These trips would inevitably last about an hour, with my extremely patient aunt waiting for us to pick out some movies and games. I would have a difficult time settling on just a few items, especially since I knew that I was on vacation, so I wouldn’t have another chance to rent these items for a long time. Eventually we would settle on our entertainment and check them out for return in a few days.
As I mentioned, Lee’s had a huge selection, but they also had the mysterious “Adult” room. It was upstairs, guarded by swinging doors you might expect when entering a Wild West saloon. However, though the doors were not enough to keep out an intrepid youth, the knowledge that there was also a camera in the room was enough to deter all but the most adventurous. I will admit I was curious about what was housed behind those doors, but I never dared enter the area due to my youth and fear of prosecution / embarrassment.
Sadly, with the age of Netflix, Blockbuster, and Video On Demand, Lee’s recently shuttered its doors for good. I must admit that I didn’t help matters. Since moving to Indiana, I never walked in to Lee’s Video. They were having a liquidation sale recently, trying to sell off their vast collection of movies, but I kept telling myself I would go later, and now I have lost the chance. Goodbye, Lees! You were…a big movie rental shop.
