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18-549: The idea of a completely grassed championship golf course in Dubai was brought about by American businessman Larry Trenary and, British businessman George Atkinson , both living in Dubai on a full-time basis. The actual golf course design was provided by Trenary's friend, the American architect Karl Litten, based in Boca Raton, Florida . Litten's first visit to Dubai was to evaluate and design

36-501: A 600 square foot (56 m ) storefront on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles . In order to raise capital, Atkinson charged $ 50 for an "annual membership" and $ 100 for a "lifetime membership," which provided the opportunity to rent the videos for $ 10 a day. Atkinson was soon threatened with a lawsuit for renting the videos, but he discovered that U.S. copyright law gave him the right to rent and re-sell videos he owned. The battle to protect

54-561: A course for the property surrounding the Jebel Ali Beach Hotel, located to the south of Dubai. The hotel owner, Ahmed Baker was keen to develop the project but he needed permission from the then Ruler of Dubai , HHS Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum , who appeared to be in favor of the project going forward. Sheikh Rashid fell ill and was never able to give his legal support for the specific use of the land. With Sheikh Rashid's passing,

72-451: A luxury item and that customers would want to buy films to own. Atkinson, however, was the first to see the possibility of a video rental market. However, the company he was working for, Home Theater Systems, was not doing well, and himself had gone through a difficult divorce that cost him his house and a struggle with alcoholism. In December 1977, George Atkinson spent approximately $ 3000 to buy one Betamax and one VHS copy of each of

90-468: The father of the storefront video rental store in the U.S. Atkinson established the first major chain of video specialty retailers, The Video Station. When the first videocassettes became available to the public, he was already in the movie business. Customers in the form of hotels and pizza parlors would rent movie projectors and public domain 8mm movies, and later U-Matic videotape. When VCR's first went on sale in 1975, studios thought they would be

108-465: The 50 available movie titles from Magnetic Video , which were then being sold to the public by direct mail. He announced the availability of the videos for rent in the sports section of a local newspaper, after already advertising "Video for Rent" at an earlier date before he had any videos, along with a coupon for readers to fill out and mail in. Atkinson turned his shop into the first professionally managed video rental store and renamed it Video Station,

126-618: The Avco Cartrivision home VCR with a line of major motion pictures available for rent on the Cartrivision videocassette format. Cartrivision went off the market thirteen months after its debut.) Magnetic Video is notable for its contribution to the birth of the modern-day home video empire and the birth of video rental systems. In the fall of 1976, Blay came up with the idea to release pre-recorded motion pictures on videocassette. The following year, he convinced 20th Century-Fox , which

144-505: The club. The first Dubai Desert Classic event took place in 1989. Lucas Herbert from Australia wins the final of the Omega Dubai Desert Classic at Emirates Golf Club on January 26, 2020. 25°05′07″N 55°09′35″E  /  25.08528°N 55.15984°E  / 25.08528; 55.15984 George Atkinson (businessman) George Atkinson (June 2, 1935 – March 3, 2005), was an American businessman, credited as

162-544: The first 50 movie titles from Magnetic Video that were then being sold to the public and established the Video Station rental company from a storefront in Los Angeles. He charged $ 50 for an "annual membership" and $ 100 for a "lifetime membership," which provided the opportunity to rent the videos for $ 10 a day. These 50 titles were: This and similar video stores were a success, and Magnetic Video took off, adding titles from

180-491: The following companies in the next four years, in addition to continuing to release original titles from Fox: The Magnetic Video project was such a success that it soon came over to the United Kingdom as "Magnetic Video UK" in 1978. Not long after, Magnetic Video branched into Australia , trading under "Magnetic Video Australia". In March 1979, Fox purchased Magnetic Video, which was a small OTC traded public company (Blay

198-574: The idea for a championship golf course in the Middle East was still just a dream. A few years later the project, along with another Litten design, which was much closer to the city, was presented to Sheikh Rashid's third son, HHS Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, by Steven Trutch, construction engineer to Sheikh Mohammed. During a hunting trip to Pakistan , Sheikh Mohammed discussed the idea of a grass golf course with his host, President Zia-ul-Haq , who

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216-451: The middle of the driving range. The opening was one of the last personal appearances President Zia made, as he was assassinated that same year when his plane exploded on takeoff in Pakistan . The Dubai Desert Classic , a European Tour event with a US$ 3 million purse is an annual event played at by the club. The Omega Dubai Ladies Classic , a Ladies European Tour event, is also played at

234-441: The proposed golf course, clubhouse, majlis and maintenance area set just a few miles out of the city center. The golf course complex was finished and, open for business in 1988. President Zia attended the opening and, was presented with a solid golf tee and a golf club with a gold shaft in order for him to hit the very first ball, for the club's opening, in front of a large crowd. The drive traveled about 200 yards (180 m) down

252-574: The public's right to rent videos was a major catalyst for the establishment of the Video Software Dealers Association in 1981. His company went public in 1983 but Atkinson resigned and sold his stake a few years later. At its peak, the chain had over 600 affiliates throughout the U.S. and Canada. He died March 3rd, 2005 at his home in Northridge of complications from emphysema. Magnetic Video Magnetic Video Corporation

270-531: Was a home video / home audio duplication service that operated between 1968 and 1982. Magnetic Video Corporation was established by the co-founder Andre Blay , an American film producer in 1968 with Leon Nicholson and was 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. (Cartridge Television, Inc. preceded it in 1972 when it introduced

288-516: Was a keen golfer. President Zia told him it would be a good idea, making Dubai a center for the oil companies and other large companies with operations in the Middle East . Eventually Sheikh Mohammed, in order to get final approval, took the idea to his older brother, the new Ruler of Dubai , HHS Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum . Sheikh Maktoum gave his consent and Sheikh Mohammed immediately designated approximately 175 acres (71 ha) of sand dunes for

306-497: Was a major shareholder and Chairman). In January 1982, shortly after Blay's departure from the company, Fox reorganized Magnetic Video into 20th Century-Fox Video . Around the same time, Magnetic Video began to issue films in laserdisc format. Later that same year, Fox merged its video operations with CBS Video Enterprises , resulting in the creation of CBS/Fox Video on June 18, 1982. Magnetic Video Corporation famously opened its video releases with an animation of their logo and

324-565: Was then in financial difficulty, to license fifty of their films for home video release in VHS and Betamax formats. Blay also established the Video Club of America in order to sell the titles directly to consumers by mail. Their first ad appeared in the November 26 to December 2 Issue of TV Guide (Soap Cast on Cover). That same year, George Atkinson bought one Betamax and one VHS copy of each of

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