This Rhino Charges Into Video World : The company that issues wacky, vintage records has branched out, with such offbeat titles as ‘Bambi Meet Godzilla’

Hip, funky Rhino Video is horning in on the lucrative, ever-expanding video market. In just five short years, the Santa Monica-based organization has released more than 140 titles and hopes to bring out 75 more this year. And Rhino is turning a profit.

What’s the secret of its success?

It has tapped into the yuppie audience, which is hungry for offbeat, bizarre, obscure fare. Thanks to the folks at Rhino, connoisseurs of camp classics can savor such schlock delights as “The Sadist” (“What fiendish passion twisted his mind--made him torment, torture, kill?”), or the tacky turkey, “Prehistoric Women,” filmed in “Sinscope and Gorgeous Cinecolor.”

While the majors, like Warner Home Video and Touchstone Home Video, clean up with record sales of “Batman,” “Bambi” and “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?,” Rhino hasn’t done too badly with “Wild World of Batwoman,” “Bambi Meet Godzilla” and “Nasty Rabbit,” a hair-raising tale about a contaminated bunny set loose in the United States by a Soviet saboteur.

“We’re probably the only company who has real-life Siamese twins (Daisy and Violet Hilton) starring in a film called ‘Chained for Life,’ ” said Judith Silinsky, publicity manager of the seven-person operation.

Rhino Video is the brainchild of Richard Foos, president of Rhino Records, the company that has had great success reissuing vintage rock albums. The video company began inauspiciously with compilation videos, such as “Sleazemania,” “Battle of the Bombs” and “Rhino’s Safe Guide to Sex.” Former ‘50s sex-kitten Mamie Van Doren was host on “Teen-age Theater”--a series of low-budget youth films from that decade, including “Naked Youth,” “Teen-age Devil Dolls” and “High School Caesar.”

Initially, these videos--90% of Rhino’s videos are under $30--sold well. But, Foos said, video stores were clamoring for any product: “Just because it was a video, it would sell.” Then the bottom dropped out of the video industry. Anything less than an “A” title became a hard sell, he said. “We needed a hook, hook, hook on less than ‘A’ titles. We needed instant identification--names people have heard of.”

Foos has high expectations for Rhino’s current release, “Elvis Stories,” a 30-minute spoof about supernatural encounters with the late Elvis Presley. “Hairdresser Possessed by Elvis,” “Wonder Chef Grills Elvis,” “It’s A Bird . . . It’s a Plane . . . It’s Elvis!” are just three of the wacky “Elvis Stories.”

“We have great packaging,” Foos said. “It looks like a National Enquirer cover. It’s a funny piece, and with the combination of Elvis, star John Cusack and a catchy title, it’s instantly recognizable.”

Arny Schorr, vice president and general manager of Rhino Video, has expanded the company’s horizons. An 11-year veteran of the video business, Schorr arrived at Rhino in 1987. “When I came on,” he explained, “we tried to get more mainstream, but stay left of center.”

Schorr has divided Rhino’s videos into four categories--cult, TV, music and special interest.

“We’ll always maintain a cult section for things like ‘The Slime People,’ ‘The Crawling Hand’ and ‘The Mask,’ which is a remarkable 3-D horror film,” Schorr said.

Rhino has just signed Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, to host a horror movie line. The first three titles--”Monster from Green Hell,” “Half-Human” and “Devil Girl From Mars”--are due out in July.

“We were one of the first companies to recognize the nostalgic interest in ‘50s TV,” Silinsky said.

The company, though, had a rocky start acquiring old TV series. No sooner had Rhino released episodes of the ‘50s kids’ show “Captain Midnight” than they deleted it from their catalogue.

“There were some questions about ownership, though we were clearly in the right to sell these because they were in the public domain,” Schorr explained. “But there was a major studio who intervened, and we took it off the market.”

Rhino has had no such troubles with “Death Valley Days,” “The Lone Ranger” and “Peter Gunn.”

“ ‘Death Valley Days’ is really fun,” Schorr said. “It’s really a unique experience to see someone like Clint Eastwood in one of his first roles.”

The eight “Lone Ranger” tapes on the market feature new introductions and Lone Ranger trivia by the Masked Man himself, Clayton Moore. “We wanted to make them for collectors,” Schorr said. “Instead of doing a standard four-color box, we did a five-color box with silver foil embossing. We made it a real collector’s item. We did red foil embossing with ‘Peter Gunn.’ ”

Reissues of classic ‘30s serials, like Gene Autry’s “The Phantom Empire,” also have attracted the attention of collectors. Last December, Rhino released two more vintage serials, “The Shadow of the Eagle,” starring a young John Wayne, and “The Return of Chandu,” with Bela Lugosi.

It’s Rhino’s music videos, such as “Alice Cooper: Welcome to My Nightmare,” “Jimi Hendrix: Rainbow Bridge” and “The Monkees: Heart & Soul” that have been the biggest sellers, Schorr said.

He won’t say exactly how many videos have been sold, however. “They’ve been in the five figures,” he said. “We’re profitable.”

Schorr said video stores often don’t know what to do with their special-interest videos, which run the gamut from histories of the Rose Bowl to a documentary on Ernie Kovacs. One of Rhino’s own productions, “Minute Movie Masterpieces,” a Cliff’s Notes version of 30 classic films, has received a lot of press but hasn’t performed as well as expected.

“I found for me that was one of the easier titles to get publicity for, because it was so different,” Silinsky said. “NPR radio and major magazines were interested in it. Unfortunately, the people they aim sell-through titles at don’t listen to NPR or read the New York Times,” she said, referring to the videos which are priced low for sale only. “Where do you put it in a store? It would easily get lost on the shelves.”

Foos said they hope to do more original videos, in any case.

Because Rhino’s products are offbeat and reasonably priced, a lot of video stores don’t carry them--especially those stores that focus on rentals. “Video retailers have a finite number of money to spend,” says Schorr. “The perception is that at $19.95, the tape is a sell-through. And if it’s a sell-through, they don’t want the tapes. Our tapes would rent if they were put in a place where people could see them and have access to them.”

Rhino does a big business through mail order catalogues, like Publisher’s Central Bureau and the RCA Video Club, he said. “There’s a huge, passive audience of people who love this kind of programming.”

The bigger video and specialty stores in the area apparently have no trouble selling the videos. “We get them in only occasionally because they’re a small company,” said Wayne DeSelle, shift manager of Tower Video in Westwood. “They’re relatively obscure films--that’s why they sell.”

The Suncoast Motion Picture Co. in the Glendale Galleria carries Rhino’s “music videos, the weird movies, weird cartoons and horror films,” Manager Richard Lever said. “They’re doing well.”

Even Golden Apple Comics in Hollywood has started to stock Rhino videos. “We just started getting them a few weeks ago,” said clerk Nathan Long. “We have the music stuff and ‘50s teen-exploitation films. They’re selling. We hope to get ‘The Masters of Comic Book Art’ in soon.”

“We’re trying to sell our videos in nontraditional markets,” Foos said.

“There’s lots of avenues of distribution,” Schorr points out.

Rhino further enhanced its marketability in February when it entered into an agreement with MCA Distributing Corp. for exclusive distribution rights in the U.S. and Canada. The entire Rhino video catalogue and all future releases will be distributed by MCA, servicing both video and music outlets. Rhino has retained the rights for mail-order, video clubs, premiums and sponsorships.

Though Rhino is targeting baby boomers, it has discovered that younger people are buying their music videos. “With non-musical programming,” Schorr said, “people who grew up with ‘The Lone Ranger’ are buying them for their children. A lot of people who are in their 60s, who used to listen to ‘The Lone Ranger’ on the radio, are buying them.”

Filmmakers are taking their product to Rhino.

“People come to us because they know we put out a certain kind of programming,” Schorr said. “We put a lot of effort into the way it looks--the production quality, the packaging, merchandising and marketing support.”

However, Silinsky said, “we’re forced to look at a lot of homemade tapes.” Rhino also is reluctant to release films that other companies previously issued. “I remember when someone offered us ‘Glen or Glenda?’,” she said, referring to the Edward D. Wood Jr. film about a transvestite with a penchant for Angora sweaters. “These guys claimed to have a 35mm print, and it was in good shape. Everybody who loves that movie would want a good print. But we passed on it, because it was already out.”

Rhino didn’t pass on a 1964 Roy Orbison concert that was shot in England. The video will be released sometime this year. “It’s a marvelous piece,” Schorr said. “The producers came to us. There’ll be some other things that will come from them. Now we’re looking for a definite feel for the cover which will let people know it’s the definitive Roy Orbison.”

“We’re going to continue in the areas we’ve been successful in,” Foos said. “We’re in negotiations for programming we’re extremely excited about--great music videos from the ‘60s, which have been unavailable forever.”

Foos said he hopes “something happens within the industry where something like ‘Sleazemania’ or ‘Minute Movie Masterpieces’ can get mass exposure.

“Because,” he added, “they’re really a lot of fun.”