Rewinding Time

Jim’s Video: movies and nostalgia

By Liv Stecker 

  Janice Weaver never planned on a career in video rentals, but sometimes, the job just picks you. In 1984, she and her partner, Jim Haynes, took over an appliance shop where he could finally get away from the toll that logging was taking on him and his oldest son. The appliance shop happened to be located in the old lobby of the historic Keller Hotel in Kettle Falls.  Appliances didn’t end up being Jim’s thing, but somewhere along the way they decided to start renting out VHS tapes, when the home VCR craze took off in the early 80s. The men never quite got away from the logging industry, but the video rentals were a hit.

 

  Living in the renovated portion of the old hotel that had once been the office and a small kitchenette with booths for patrons, Janice has become a fixture in the community during the 30 years that she has rented movies to local residents. What began as a supplement to the appliance business is now a landmark. Jim’s Video, is a spot that Kettle Falls and the surrounding area know and love as a great place to get a movie as well as the lowdown on what to watch. On a random Tuesday morning, visitors can find themselves engrossed in a detailed conversation about vampire verses zombie genres, and how they just don’t make actors like they used to. Janice knows her customers, as she should - multiple generations of them. She says that her favorite part of running Jim’s Video is the customers that she gets to know and watch grow up. Her glass covered front counter showcases the many faces of movie lovers from all around the area. School photos, family portraits, military pictures… they all share a piece of their history with Janice and her little nook.

  Janice started out renting VHS tapes for her store from a video place in Deer Park called Alpine Video. After badgering Jim to start buying her own videos for years, she finally worked her way into a buying account when she put her foot down about the purchase of a favorite movie.  She can’t remember the title of the movie now, but she says it was worth the fight.  Even with the advent of Redbox and Netflix and her hardest competitor – the DVR, Janice says business is good. She offers customer service that you can’t find in a vending machine or a website. People rent her movies, and if it won’t play, “they slap it on the counter and say ‘hey Janice, this don’t work!’ and I fix it.” She says when her customers have tried Redbox: “takes one time and it doesn’t work,” and they’re out their rental money with no compensation. DVRs have impacted her business since now families can pre-record anything they want to see for later viewing. It isn’t hindered by the limited selections of Redbox or Netflix, and it’s completely customizable. She says that people used to stop and grab a movie or a show to watch after dinner. Now they just record it during the day and it’s waiting for them at home. Even so, the difference in rentals hasn’t been enough to worry her. Her biggest pet peeve in the video store is unreturned rentals. Janice hails from a generation where “I forgot” isn’t an excuse for anything. Sheepish renters returning movies past their due date know that they can stick some change for the late fees into the case and Janice will donate it to the food bank.  For all of her motherly scolding, the movies still come in late, or sometimes not at all, a cost that hits the small business hard.

  Jim’s Video offers over 1500 movie titles, and that’s not including holiday movies or the VHS collection in the basement. Janice also stocks entire seasons of TV shows and video games for XBOX 360 and PS3. She keeps things simple by charging the same rental price for every movie. No new release prices or bargain bins, just one fee. It seems like a reasonable price to pay for the piece of nostalgia you’re buying into at Jim’s Video. One of the few remaining rental stores, Janice’s place is not just a nod to ever-changing technology: the store itself is a living history book that tells the story of our cultural evolution.

  The Keller Hotel was opened in 1934 by Margaret “Grandma” Keller. She ran the cozy 15-room inn with a tiny restaurant until 1952 when it was bought by Guy Hunter. In 1957 it was sold again, and the hotel closed in 1958, marking the end of an era in Kettle Falls. The hotel watched the boom as the small community of Meyer’s Falls was merged with the town of Kettle Falls when the latter was relocated during the flooding of Lake Roosevelt in 1940. The old hotel sat proudly along the new main street that delineated the two towns. Next to a new movie theater and playing host to the ebb and flow of tourist traffic and a burgeoning logging economy, it met the lodging needs of the community for more than 20 years. After closing, the hotel was eventually converted to an appliance store and repair shop, owned by Orville “Clem” Clemens, who rented the rooms upstairs to students just out of high school. When Jim and Janice took over, the second story was in need of some serious repair and attention, which Jim provided, renovating several of the rooms into a livable apartment space, where Janice’s daughter lived for a time. Jim had started work on the rest of the hotel when he passed away unexpectedly five years ago. Since then, Janice has kept the story of the hotel, and Jim’s Video, alive and well.

  Kettle Falls has changed almost as much as video technology in the years since Grandma Keller ran her hotel, but some things remain constant. Jim’s Video is a piece of that nostalgic stability that communities require to survive, and Janice’s faithful customers understand that. While she’s the first one to tell you that she can’t stand to use her credit card machine and that there’s nothing wrong with a good old VHS tape, she keeps current with all of the new releases and can talk you right through the latest Academy Award Winners.  Beyond a video store, it’s a network of friends and family and a reminder of the things that bring us together: History, customer service, and a good movie.