The Best of Kid Pics (Unconfirmed 1-hour long VHS tape)

8 years later, this definitely needs an updated video. New info regarding Amvest and its owner, Dante Pugliese, can be found readily on the internet. Long story short, there was much more to this story than crappy tapes and a dude in a hamster costume.



1. Pugliese was a shady dude who’s entire life was a series of bad business deals, massive losses, business bankruptcies, personal bankruptcies, lawsuits, C&Ds, and products that either infringed on copyrights or just barely made the mark for what a product is.



2. The two addresses for Amvest/Audiofidelity/Videofidelity are 937 Hazelwood Avenue and P.O. Box 86, both in Rahway, NJ. Anyone can get a P.O. Box. 937 Hazelwood Avenue is at least the size of a Target store, and there’s no way Pugliese was using that whole space. Something else was definitely going on there. The office is currently occupied by a company called Curiel, but I forget what they do. Guaranteed there’s no connection between the two besides the building.



3. Pugliese was the only employee. How on earth he managed to get Grandpa Munster to come in is a mystery, though rumor has it he was desperate for money. The “crew” on that tape was nonexistent, and Pugliese was the only crew. My guess is he either pulled the names from a source (phone book, year book, etc) or made them up. Not only would decent crew have made it more decent, but decent crew members would not have worked on that production. Th Rey would have known that they were messing with copyrighted material, and they would have known that they would get sued mercilessly. Also, they would know not to get anywhere near Pugliese, since he had a history of screwing people over and they’d know they’d be left holding the bag.



4. While Happy Hamster and Pugliese (who was the guy in the costume) wasn’t a pedophile, the intentions were still bad. When children signed up, the info of them and their families was then sold to “agencies” that took part in child beauty pageants and child modeling. While there’s no record of children actually being kidnapped, abused, trafficked, etc as a result of this act, Pugliese made no effort to assure it wouldn’t happen. Instead, the children and their families were ruthlessly marketed to, especially the kids, who had no comprehension of the fact that they were being had. Pugliese then earned kickbacks from whatever money was earned. While obviously the requests for the children’s names, pictures, and info about themselves could easily be mistaken for something darker, the real intention was to aggressively market to the kids and their families. Pugliese wasn’t trying to kidnap and abuse kids, nor was he trying to help others do it. At the same time, he didn’t care if it happened. All he wanted was money. Most likely, the info selling and kickbacks earned him more than all of his home video and music operations ever did. Also, few kids ever received the posters, tapes, shirts, and newsletters. Most likely there were less than 100 recipients in all.



5. Pugliese has a long history of gambling, to the extent that World Series of Poker has a page on him. The best he ever did was fourth place, and his other appearance on the site is hilariously lower. Long story short, just because he plays poker, doesn’t mean he can play poker. This most likely resulted in a lot of debt.



6. Pugliese has been sued by the owner of Alvin and the Chipmunks, the owners of several copyrighted items, and Disney. Between those lawsuits, business and personal bankruptcies, the mess involving selling children’s info, and probably the unpaid rent on the Hazelwood location, that’s the reason why Amvest is no longer in business. Ironically, Michael Jackson never sued over his music being exploited, nor did Columbia for the exploitation of Ghostbusters. Had either or both done that, Pugliese’s damage would have been cut a lot shorter.



7. Pugliese’s credit was awful, due to his extensive debt, his history of nonpayment, his losses of thousands of dollars, the loss of several homes and businesses, several lawsuits, several bankruptcies, and a nasty divorce. When he was down on luck, he had his son Michael, his daughter Jeannette, and his mother Florence bail him out. They all took out loans, mortgages, businesses etc in their name for Dante to run. All tanked, and all had their names and credit ruined.



8. After Amvest went bust (at some point between 1990 and 1996), Dante asked his mother for a loan to start yet another PD business, Passport Video. Florence countered with providing capital in exchange for all of the stock (1,000 shares), with Dante as the president. Much like some bigger PD labels at the time, Passport began licensing low-end content and creating their own content, though the latter was done by combining PD clips with on-screen graphics, sound effects, and narration. (Lucy: Queen of Comedy is one of their products.) Dante and Jeannette both have pages on IMDb, but don’t expect to see any masterpieces on there.



9. When Dante and his wife Michele got divorced, Michele sued for his money from Passport, only to discover there was no money. The company had traded owners on paper for years, there were several stock certificates of dubious authenticity, there was barely any real money, and yet the company was expected to make millions in the coming years. Also, Passport allegedly had two offices in two different states, as well as three presidents.



All in all, Dante Pugliese was a slime, whose bad business practices go back to 1962, when he was 24 years old, and while I can’t find info on him within the last ten years, he’s probably still up to his same old shenanigans today. Also, his mother was dying during his divorce about 15-20 years ago, but no death notices could be found for either Florence or Dante. Also, there’s tons of death notices for several Jeannettes, but none of them appear to be Dante’s daughter. Much more than a fly-by-night video label and a guy in a hamster costume.