Amvest Video

Amvest Video was a fly-by-night public domain video label founded in early 1988 by Dante Pugliese, whose bad business practices date back to 1962. Technically, the label dates its origins back to 1957 when Audiofidelity Records was founded.

Audiofidelity Records (1957-1987)
Audiofidelity Records was a record label that often released unauthorized The Beatles albums on vinyl and was the first record label to release oldies compilation CDs, dubbed from scratchy 45 RPM vinyls of various albums. Various copyright owners filed lawsuits against the label. The label was acquired by Dante Pugliese in the mid-1970s. In 1984, the label introduced a series of infamous chipmunk-like albums called "The Happy Chipmunks." One of the albums in the series was an infamous exploit of Michael Jackson, called "The Happy Chipmunks Sing Michael Jackson's Greatest Hits". Shortly after, Ross Bagdasarian Jr., who owned the Alvin and the Chipmunks franchise, filed yet another lawsuit against Audiofidelity Records. The series was later renamed "The Happy Hamsters." The label ceased operations sometime in late 1987, with most of its catalog sold to various other record companies.

Videofidelity (1986-1987)
Videofidelity was a video division of Audiofidelity Records. It was a public domain video label that mainly released animated titles, under the video lines Kid Pics and Christmas Classics. During the label's lifetime, it never had any on-screen logos and their video releases were often sourced from crappy quality 8mm or 16mm film prints. In late 1987, Pugliese acquired a similar public domain video label, called Vintage Video, which released live-action films and horror films. In early 1988, both labels were merged to form Amvest Video.

Amvest Video (1988-1990)
At the time of this label's foundation, a special video line of public domain horror films was introduced, called Grampa Presents. The line basically starred Al Lewis as Grandpa Munster, the host of the titles, who was named Grampa to avoid legal issues with Universal City Studios, who owns The Munsters franchise.