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Revisiting Howard Hughes Video Store
A 3-Part Essay Exploring the History and Impact of Moscow, Idaho’s Downtown Video Store Our video store was known for most of its life as Howard Hughes Video Store and for its final years as Main Street Video.
by Milo Muise
In the recent Netflix documentary White Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch (2022), an interviewee attempts to describe a shopping mall: Click a spine below to jump to another interconnected subsections of this essay.
Imagine a search engine that you could walk through. Or an online catalog that's an actual place.
While comical to those of us who grew up in the time when malls were the hub of economic and social transactions alike, it’s telling that we’ve reached a new era where this once-pervasive cultural site now requires definition.
The same might be said for the video rental store. Once a frequent destination for family outings, slumber parties, and date nights, video stores have largely been replaced by RedBox and streaming platforms.
For those who have never been:
Imagine Netflix as a tangible store. There are shelves and shelves full of movies separated by genre and other quirky categories. You walk through the aisles, scanning the movie covers for one that grabs your attention. A chalkboard hangs by the counter, listing new and upcoming releases. Instead of algorithmic suggestions, employees offer personalized recommendations according to your taste. You pay a flat fee per rental, promising to return them by their due date or pay a late fine. You head home, maybe picking up a pizza on the way.
In short, imagine Howard Hughes Video Store.
A gem of Moscow, Idaho, from 1978 to 2020, Howard Hughes (later Main Street Video Co-op) grew from a section in an appliance shop into a full-fledged business of its own. Not only a place to rent a vast array of films, it was a place for the local film community to gather and grow. “People walked in, and they were comfortable,” customer and accountant Andrea Beckett said of the store.
In addition to traditional sections like Drama, Science Fiction, and Comedy, Howard Hughes also had sections for award winners, critics’ choice picks, the Criterion collection, and cult classics, chosen by employees with no formal criteria .
There was the “Director Wall” and the “Actor Wall” which displayed prominent directors and actors’ discographies, not unlike an in-person IMDB page, encouraging customers to experience the trajectory of a filmmaker’s career or discover an underrated role in their favorite actor’s catalog. Customer and eventual board member Monique Lillard would often tell friends, “I love how things are organized here. For some reason, it matched my mood, it matched my personality.”
Despite its closure, the spirit and impact of Howard Hughes Video Store lives on. Let’s take one last trip to the video store and reexperience why customers and staff alike agree, “I’ve never really found a video store like Howard Hughes.”
This essay continues in three themed explorations of Howard Hughes and Main Street Video. Click a spine below to continue:
Cult Classics: The Video Store as Cultural Artifact
Horror: The Nail in the Video Store’s Coffin (…or is it?)
Westerns: The Rural Video Store