Video Library

Ken, a passionate movie enthusiast and still working for IBM, opened Video Library in 1980, the first VHS-only home videocassette rental store in the United States, at a time when other stores carried only Beta-Max home videos. Ken's decision to choose VHS over Beta seemed risky because most people owned Beta VCRs (Video Cassette Recorders), and he rented no videos for 5 months. With funds depleted, Ken was just sixteen days from closing his video store.   

Unexpectedly, Ken’s business was saved by rock and roll legend Chuck Berry, who owned a compound 26 miles west of St. Charles and had just bought a $1900 VHS VCR. Ken's store in St. Charles, Missouri, was the only VHS store in the St. Louis area, and it happened to be on the way to Chuck’s home at “Berrytown” in Wentzville, Missouri. Chuck rented 30 movies for 30 days and became a regular customer, which helped keep Ken's business afloat. Luckily, Ken's perseverance paid off when hundreds of people bought new VHS VCRs that Christmas.  

With hard work, Video Library grew into a multi-million-dollar company consisting of video stores, franchises, and stand-alone robotic video kiosks called “Movie Machines”. The Movie Machines were the first-ever videocassette vending machines, invented by Ken and his partners. The kiosks offered video movie rentals 24/7 with no employees and were sold in many states. Ken added pizza operations to his stores, including pickup and delivery, as well as video delivery through his Movies-to-Go service. Decades before Uber Eats, DoorDash, or Grubhub, Ken added pickup and delivery of food from local restaurants and grocery stores.

Other businesses Ken owned were Paintball Wargames and Bushwackers Paintball, which were very popular with corporations that used the game as a team-building exercise. They operated out of the now-closed St. Charles Speedway and in Wentzville, Missouri, where they were constantly booked because the nearest paintball field was over 70 miles away in Illinois. 

Fight Against Censorship: Ken lost his multi-million-dollar video chain, Movie Machines, and paintball parks after he was bankrupted and divorced for refusing to comply with Rev. Donald Wildmon’s religious censorship group, the National Federation for Decency. The NFD demanded that Ken remove Martin Scorsese’s controversial film “The Last Temptation of Christ” from his stores.  

When Ken stood firm, the religious group blackmailed the St. Louis prosecutor into ruining Ken. He fought hard against the censorship, winning two court cases, but still the legal fees and negative publicity cost him everything. In a surprising twist, Ken learned about the prosecutor's blackmail. With the help of a TV reporter, Herb Humphries, they successfully brought down the corrupt politician. 

Family: In 1993, St. Louis faced the "flood of the century." Ken volunteered to help build sandbag flood walls, as he had done many times before. Although his children were too young to help directly, Ken started an entrepreneurial project for them to make flood souvenirs, which they gave to the flood volunteers. A CNN reporter saw Ken and his kids collecting Missouri River floodwater in small glass jars and did a news report that gained worldwide attention. 

The flood souvenirs gained notable exposure when they were personally presented to Vice President Al Gore and Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan during their tour of the flood-affected areas. This attention resulted in orders from around the world, prompting the kids to begin mass production. Over six months, they sold and shipped more than 1300 souvenirs at $19.95 each, operating out of Ken's two-bedroom apartment.

After the flood and publicity subsided, the kids were allowed to keep $100 each, with the remaining funds split between the Red Cross and the Salvation Army.  

Additionally, the CNN reporter referred Ken to a movie producer who optioned Ken's life story for a TV film about the downfall of his businesses. He then moved to Los Angeles to live with his brother Kyle and worked as an armed bodyguard for high-profile clients.