Role in growth of home video industry

Blay co-founded Stereodyne, the nation’s first eight-track and cassette duplication company, in 1966.

Blay then founded an audio/video production and duplication company in 1968 called Magnetic Video

Magnetic Video

Magnetic Video was a home video/audio duplication service established by Andre Blay in 1968 and based in Farmington Hills, Michigan. In 1977 it became the first corporation to release theatrical motion pictures onto Betamax and VHS videocassette for consumer use. Magnetic Video was a home...

. He also started the Video Club of America, a direct-mail sales operation through which he offered the video cassettes produced and duplicated at Magnetic Video. He advertised the club through TV Guide, and nine thousand users initially joined the club.

That subsequently provided the model for and enabled the creation of the first video rental stores, many of which were soon started thereafter.

He was later recognized by the Consumer Electronics Association as creating the idea that "sparked a retail revolution as hundreds of mom-and-pop video rental and sales stores popped up in every community in America." In 1987, home video rental income surpassed movie theater revenues for the first time. Today, movie studios routinely make more money on video rentals and sales than from the box office of theaters.

CEO of 20th Century Fox Video

In the late 1970s, Blay paid a flat fee of $300,000 plus $500,000 yearly to 20th Century Fox to license movies from their catalogue, which he then duplicated and distributed, earning a royalty generated per video rented. This proved so successful that 20th Century Fox quickly bought Magnetic Video in 1979 to form the 20th Century Fox Video unit, for $7.2 million. Blay then served as the first CEO of 20th Century Fox Video.

CEO of Embassy Home Entertainment

In 1982, Blay became CEO of the newly formed Embassy Home Entertainment, a division of Embassy Pictures

Embassy Pictures

Embassy Pictures Corporation was an independent studio and distributor responsible for such films as The Graduate, The Lion in Winter, This Is Spinal Tap and Escape from New York.-Founding:The company was founded in 1942 by producer Joseph E...

. While there he helped bring to production several movies, including Hope and Glory, Sid and Nancy

Sid and Nancy

Sid and Nancy is a 1986 British biopic directed by Alex Cox. The film portrays the life of Sid Vicious , bassist of the seminal punk rock band the Sex Pistols, and his relationship with girlfriend Nancy Spungen .-Plot:The film opens with several police officers dragging Sid Vicious out of the Hotel...

, Souvenir, and Destiny. He served as CEO until 1986, when the company was sold.

Executive Movie Producer

During the next several years Blay served as executive producer for several movies:

• Mosquito
  Mosquito (film)
  Mosquito is a 1995 science fiction film directed by Gary Jones. The film's plot pays homage to the classic 50's horror genre. Mosquito is about mosquitoes that become mutated when a spaceship crash lands in a swamp. The mosquitoes grow to enormous size and attack campers in a remote northern...
  
   (1995)
• Village of the Damned
  Village of the Damned (1995 film)
  John Carpenter's Village of the Damned is a 1995 science fiction-horror film directed by John Carpenter. It is a remake of the 1960 film of the same name which is based on the novel The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham. The 1995 remake is set in the United States, while the book and original film...
  
   (1995)
• Souvenir (1989)
• They Live
  They Live
  They Live is a 1988 science fiction/horror film directed by John Carpenter, who also wrote the screenplay under the pseudonym Frank Armitage ....
  
   (1988)
• The Blob (1988)
• Jack's Back
  Jack's Back
  Jack’s Back is a 1988 horror film directed and written by Rowdy Herrington and starring James Spader and Cynthia Gibb.-Plot:In Los Angeles, a young doctor is suspected when a series of Jack the Ripper copycat killings is committed...
  
   (1988 producer, uncredited)
• Brain Damage
  Brain Damage (film)
  Brain Damage is an American comedy horror film that was released in 1988, and directed by Frank Henenlotter .-Plot:...
  
   (1988)
• Prince of Darkness
  Prince of Darkness (film)
  Prince of Darkness is a 1987 horror film directed, written, and scored by John Carpenter. The film is the second installment in what Carpenter calls his "Apocalypse Trilogy", which began with The Thing and concludes with In the Mouth of Madness .-Plot:The movie opens with a dying priest clutching...
  
   (1987)
• Homeboy

He also worked in securing venture capital for films such as The Princess Bride

The Princess Bride (film)

The Princess Bride is a 1987 American film based on the 1973 novel of the same name by William Goldman, combining comedy, adventure, romance, and fantasy. The film was directed by Rob Reiner from a screenplay by Goldman...

, The Emerald Forest and The Name of the Rose

The Name of the Rose (film)

The Name of the Rose is a 1986 film directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, based on the book of the same name by Umberto Eco. Sean Connery is the Franciscan friar William of Baskerville and Christian Slater is his apprentice Adso of Melk, who are called upon to solve a deadly mystery in a medieval...

.

CEO of Enterprise Software

Blay subsequently served, until 1999, as chairman and CEO of Enterprise Software, a developer of broadcast management software for television stations and distributors, cable networks, and radio stations worldwide.

Awards

• In 2000, he was inducted into the Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame.

• He was made an Honorary Alumnus at Central Michigan University's College of Business Administration in 2006.