PolyGram Video

Background
PolyGram Video was the home entertainment arm of the Dutch-German media conglomerate PolyGram N.V. Headquartered in Baarn, a town near Hilversum (which is often cited as the Netherlands' media centre), the company distributed a majority of the PolyGram Filmed Entertainment catalogue, music videos related to labels owned or distributed by PolyGram, and catalogues of other companies and brands. They also distributed BBC Video tapes in Australia until 1996, when distribution of the BBC catalogue in that country was taken over by ABC Video (the Australian "ABC") through Roadshow Entertainment. PolyGram Video also distributed much of the library of Island World before it acquired the company in 1994, and distributed Palm Pictures releases during the first year of the latter's existence.

On December 10, 1998, PolyGram was sold to Seagram & Sons (the former parent of Universal Studios, now part of NBCUniversal). The US division of PolyGram Video was sold to USA Networks, Inc. and renamed USA Home Entertainment. The European division of PolyGram Video was reorganized under the Universal Studios Home Video name.

1st Logo (1982-1991)
Logo: On a black background, yellow dust begins to form the PolyGram Video logo, which is the text "Arial" in metallic gold, above a line of stars, which drop down as the text begins forming. Like a roller-coaster (and the 1980s RKO logo), it zooms forward, dipping down, then flying back up again, also showing a dust effect as it does. The letters in “Arial” fly in from the right one-by-one, and a white bar of light passes through the logo twice.

Variants:
 * Releases from Spectrum had their own special variant of this logo including the German one, which can be found here.
 * An extended version of the regular variant has the logo shining four times.
 * International versions (bar the German version) may have the "presents" text in their native language, like "presenta" in Spain, "presenteert" in the Netherlands, and "presente" in France.

Technique: Traditional animation.

Music/Sounds:
 * A synthesized humming sound, complete with two "whooshes" at the end. Used mostly on Laserdiscs and American releases.
 * The Spectrum Video jingle. Used mostly on international releases.

Availability: Extremely rare in the USA, but rare in Europe.
 * It can be seen on the UK pre-cert release of An American Werewolf in London.
 * This logo was also seen on the Image DVD release of Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii, and PolyGram DVD of Magnum: On the Wings of Heaven, due to the source of the video being an old master.
 * The logo can also be seen on a few of RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video's Musicvision tapes featuring artists under the PolyGram umbrella (including Rush: Through the Camera's Eye), but other than that it hardly put in an appearance on American tapes.
 * This logo was discontinued around the time the company merged with its PolyGram Music Video subsidiary to expand beyond music titles.

2nd Logo (Germany custom variant) (1980s-199?)
Logo: On a black background, a white outline of the previous logo starts to fade in along with several copies expanding and rising up from the bottom, forming a tunnel effect going forwards as the stars appear below it as well. The tunnel effect than starts to "echo" a bit as the logo starts to change between different colors. Eventually, the tunnel effects and color-changing logo go away. Sometimes, the Spectrum logo zooms in below at a larger size than usual or The Arena Records logo appears below, which consists of a rectangular box in white as well as a swoosh shape inside of it, and "ARENA" wipes in below to form an arena-like shape to it.

Technique: Scanimation.

Music/Sounds: None or the Spectrum Video theme.

Availability: This can be seen on German PAL tapes such as The Vindicator.

3rd Logo (1986)


Logo: On a background, "PolyGram" in white moves from the top right corner of the screen to the left-hand side facing the left, then faces the right and move downwards, creating a rollercoaster effect. A line of stars moves up underneath the PolyGram text. "HOME OF THE STARS" appears going down, then going up, a la the Telepictures "Rollercoaster" logo. An anthropomorphic cartoon parrot smiling while pointing its finger in the air fades to the right.

Technique: All computer effects.

Music/Sounds: An excerpt of "Tonight" by Boytronic, but sped up, muffled, and played after 3 beeps.

Availability: Only known to appear on a Spanish VHS of Breeders (1986) (AKA: La Muerte Ataca New York).

4th Logo (May 1991-August 3, 1993)
Logo: On a white background with a heavy blue tint, 2 crosses appear send out 2 ripples each right before shrinking, with 2 striped grey discs forming along with a solid pair of them with 2 concentric rings on the outside of them. They then shrink and reveal 2 tape spools, which start to become more visible and sketches of the outer tape shell start to form as the video tape parts appears along the rollers set up. A black oval with a large white "P" wipes in and drops down, following by an outline of a oval as well and drops down with it, pressing like a button to reveal a upside-down triangle, representing a "V". All of these previously-mentioned actions are also happening at a extreme close-up as well. The text "PolyGram Video" appears one-by-one in sync with the music, and all of the blue tint and close-up action fades away, clearing the logo up.

Variants:
 * On several LaserDisc releases, the animation shows a LaserDisc being formed instead of a VHS tape, and even gains a realistic look and sits inside of a tray. At the end, the logo forms quicker and the disc fades out earlier, the text appears all at once and aligned to the left, and a LaserDisc logo (which is the LaserVision logo with "LASER DISC" below it) forms next to it. The closeups then fade out slower than usual.
 * A variant, where a and  version of the logo appears before its fully formed, was spotted on a French VHS of Cabaret.
 * A still version with the copyright notice below the logo saying "(C) POLYGRAM VIDEO 1992" also exists, which appears at the end of the 1992 UK VHS release of Newcastle United: Ten out of Ten.

Technique: Impressive CGI for the time.

Music/Sounds: A mellow synth-rock theme combined with a whirring sound, with 2 final notes that echo out at the end.

Music/Sounds Variants:
 * On several LaserDisc releases as well as some UK VHS tapes, the theme is slightly rearranged.
 * None for the still variant.

Availability: Very rare, but more common in the UK.
 * NFL Crunch Course and the Buffalo Bills 1993 Video Yearbook are 2 tapes that have this, along with international Mighty Morphin Power Rangers tapes (though the next logo was used on the box and tape label).
 * Also seen on PolyGram's first three known rental releases in the UK (The Crying Game, Dust Devil, and Braindead); don't expect to see this on the rental tape of what would have been its fourth UK rental release, Reservoir Dogs, as that ended up being delayed until 1995 due to the lengthy pass through the Parliament of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Bill, which was drafted in 1993 as a response to the murder of James Bulger and was designed partially as an amendment to the Video Recordings Act 1984.
 * Its first appearance was on a trailer tape for PolyGram's June 1991 releases, and its last appearance was on a series of pre-season NFL videos from 1993, including 100 Greatest Touchdowns.
 * This also plasters the PolyGram Music Video logo on later prints of The Moody Blues: Legend of a Band.
 * Also appears on 1991 Laserdisc releases of Two Rooms: Celebrating the Songs of Elton John & Bernie Taupin, Genesis: A History, and the 1993 Laserdisc of NFL Rocks.
 * This logo also appears on UK VHS releases of Thunderbirds, Stingray, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, Joe 90 and Space: 1999, among others.

5th Logo (July 20, 1993-1997)
Logo: Against a black background, the words "PolyGram Video" quickly unfold letter-by-letter. Then, a line appears underneath, zooming out. The line appears to glow as it zooms out.

Variants:
 * On rental-priced releases, there is a version with a blue wallpaper with PolyGram Video logos in the background. The PolyGram logo also leaves a small shadow.
 * There is also a version with "Coming Soon From" on the screen before the logo plays as normal, with the finished logo under it. So far, this has only been spotted on Posse, Snow White: A Tale of Terror, and Fargo with the black background, and on The Basketball Diaries, The Portrait of a Lady, The Usual Suspects and Candyman: Farewell To The Flesh with the blue wallpaper background.
 * A still version (depicting the logo mid-animation) was used for The Crayon Box.
 * On the 1996 US VHS release of The Best of NFL Follies, the NFL Films logo fades in below the logo.

Technique: 2D animation.

Music/Sounds: A series of loud "scratching" sounds as the letters appear, a "whoosh" as the line appears and shrinks, and a bang.

Music/Sounds Variant: Sometimes, it's silent.

Availability: Common.
 * Found on PolyGram releases of the period such as Mr. Bean tapes, A Gnome Named Gnorm, Gridlock'd, Jason's Lyric, Fargo, Canadian Bacon, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh, Posse, Snow White: A Tale of Terror, When We Were Kings, Barb Wire, Home for the Holidays, The Usual Suspects and their releases of The Adventures of Tintin and The Busy World of Richard Scarry, among many others.
 * This also appears on the original PolyGram DVD releases of Portrait of a Lady and Kalifornia, among others.
 * Also shows up on mid-'90s releases of Atlantic Releasing Corporation films, including a 1995 VHS of 1984 and a 1996 VHS of Teen Wolf.
 * The "priced for rental" variant appears on The Basketball Diaries and Fargo, as well as PolyGram's early DVD releases.
 * It also appears on the UK VHS releases such as the 1993 UK VHS releases of King Kong: Director's Cut (1933) and The Beano Video, the 1994 UK VHS releases of The Beano Videostars and The Busy World of Richard Scarry, the 1996 UK VHS release of The 3 Little Pigs, The Smurfs: Big Mouth's Room Mate and The Smurfs: 'Tis The Season to Be Smurfy and the 1997 UK VHS releases of The Treacle People: Treacle Trouble, Mr. Holland's Opus and The Adventures of Pinocchio (1996), respectively, among many others.
 * Sometimes, at the end of UK VHS releases such as the 1996 UK VHS release of The Smurfs: Big Mouth's Room Mate and the 1997 UK VHS release of The Adventures of Pinocchio (1996), the logo is shown before the warning screen.
 * Its first appearance was on KISS: Konfidential.
 * It also makes an surprise appearance on the 1998 Image/Polygram Video Laserdiscs of The Game and Bean: The Movie (both 1997), even though both were released the same year during the 7th logo’s lifespan.
 * It's unknown if this also appeared on Australian BBC video tapes they distributed from 1993-1996.

6th Logo (1996-1997)


Logo: On a background with what appears to be dark clouds, we see the usual "PolyGram" text with the line below it. Below that is "VIDEO", aligned to the right of the line. The text zooms in at the beginning, and the entire logo fades out at the end.

Technique: Simple 2D effects.

Music/Sounds: A male announcer saying "Only from PolyGram Video."

Availability: Extremely rare. Seen at the end of a PolyGram DVD promo, which can be seen on the very first DVDs released from the company, one example being the 1997 DVD of Ghost in the Shell.

7th Logo (1997-September 14, 1999)
Logo: Essentially the short videotaped version of its movie and television counterparts, but with "V I D E O" underneath.

Variants:
 * There is a long version of this which is the same as its movie counterpart which appears on PAL VHS releases in the UK and international countries.
 * On some promotional trailers for PolyGram releases and Franklin tapes from Reader's Digest, the print logo is used instead. It has a slightly more stylized, more detailed version of the logo flanked by two wings on each side, and the font is also smaller, more spaced out, and presented in one line. The logo is either in B&W or a solid blue.

Technique: Same as the movie and television counterparts. The short version of this logo originated on PAL videotape; however, a PAL format version has yet to surface.

Music/Sounds: None.

Music/Sounds Variants: On the extremely rare screener VHS release of Bean, it uses the theme from the previous logo, and may possibly be even the first tape to use the logo.

Availability: Uncommon.
 * Seen on PolyGram releases of the period like Barney's Great Adventure, What Dreams May Come, Bean, The Borrowers, The Game, Kansas, The Land Girls, Cats, Very Bad Things, The Last Days of Disco, The Proposition, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Clay Pigeons, Elizabeth, American VHS releases of Noddy's Toyland Adventures, and The Big Lebowski, among others.
 * Also seen on reissued VHS releases of Troll 2, The Graduate, Misery, Needful Things, Platoon, Escape from New York, Howling 2, The Curse, The Sure Thing, and The Producers, among others.
 * This also appears on the original DVD releases of Ghost in the Shell, Mr. Saturday Night, Return to Paradise, What Dreams May Come, Malice, Needful Things, and Misery, as well as the first DVD releases from Palm Pictures and Manga Entertainment.
 * The long animated variant has appeared on a European VHS release of The Real Macaw, a UK VHS release of The Borrowers, the 1998 UK retail VHS release of Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie and the 1998 Japanese VHS release of Super Mobile Legend DinaGiga, among many others.
 * Also seen on the 1998 World Series video, as well as the 1999 San Antonio Spurs NBA Championship Video.
 * Like the 5th logo, sometimes, at the end of UK VHS tapes, the logo is shown before the warning screen.