Copyright 1991
by George Holliday. MultiShoW exclusively
license the footage to All Media Worldwide.
THE
VIDEO THAT SHOCKED THE WORLD The 90
SECONDS brutal beating by Police
wildly out of control
that caused the 1992 Los Angeles
Riots.
30th Anniversary
2021
We
exclusively license the footage to all
media worldwide. MultiShoW represents
George Holliday and his Rodney King
Beating Video. Contact Roby
Massarotto info@rodneykingvideo.com WORLD +1(818)583-6838
USA | LATAM +54(911)4471-0825
Argentina
R E C E
N T L Y L I C E N C E
D M E D I A
Rodney King Beating Video is a videotape
filmed by George Holliday that turned what
would otherwise have been a violent, but
soon forgotten, encounter between Los
Angeles police and Rodney King into the most
widely watched and discussed incidents of
its kind. The 1992 Los Angeles Riots,
also known as the Rodney King Riots
are mostly associated with this beating by LAPD.
Before there
was YouTube, before
anyone had ever heard the words "Viral
Video" there was Rodney King
Beating Video. Rodney
King would have lived and died
complete unknown, were it not for the
most famous home-video ever made
Rodney King Beating Video. First
Ever Viral Video.
This is the
story of little known maker of the First Ever Viral
Video. George
Holliday, the man who pioneered citizen
journalism, captured the history-making
video that changed television news forever.
The major networks shocked Americans showing
LAPD officers beating King more than 50
times with wooden batons and shocked him
with an electric stun gun. Before the local
TV station paid him a cent, it aired the
tape on its evening news show. From there,
it went viral on the national cable and news
networks and became the most famous home
video of all time. But Was King and what we
saw on that videotape the whole
story?Watch
the VIDEO
¨Something
Happens between
the weddings birthday
parties, it´s
called the
rest of your
life¨, Sony´s
commercial for
the nifty new
technology
proclaimed in
the 90s.
¨That´s why we
created
America´s most
popular
camcorder, the
Handycam.¨
On those
days, almost thirty years ago,
a unique icon of Los Angeles
police brutality was filmed,
which hadtwo
main protagonists:
George Holliday,an immigrant escaping
from South America who awoke to the sound
of sirens and helicopters, hit
‘record’ on his new Handycam,
and preserved one of the most brutal
racial moments by LAPD wildly out of
control that later triggered the worst
race riots in US history.
Today
George Holliday is
the only protagonistof the Rodney King
Beating with an unknown story to tell:
¨The Other Beating¨. The man who
pioneered citizen journalism, captured the
history-making video that changed
television news forever. His videotaped
images rocked this nation's consciousness
and remains as one of the most widely
watched and discussed incidents of its
kind and are still continually required by
worldwide media.
The video was a trigger for so many
political, artistic and cultural
phenomena that the Rodney King Beating
is not the only story to tell. Watch the VIDEO
The
Other Beating.
A story of an Argentine
plumber who immigrated to the US escaping
from a turbulent country, Argentina in the
80s with military governments, looking for
the American dream, and suddenly gets
involved in a case of police brutality,
human rights leaders, the media pressure
who took advantage of him, court rooms,
millionaire demands, unfaithful lawyers
and covered settlements.
After
KTLA and CNN aired the video
television stations around the world
quickly picked it up
¨My phone blew up.
Everybody wanted to interview me and get
a copy of the tape¨. “There was a
sea of reporters every day,†George
recalled. “My wife Maria didn’t even
want to leave the houseâ€. He may have
pioneered “citizen journalism,†but he
was swallowed up and spit out by CNN, gave
him little credit and no compensation for
his contribution to history.
Without
a doubt, this accidental
citizen journalist was
exploited by CNN and the rest
of the media
The Los Angeles riots
were modern America’s deadliest, with 53
killed. Damages exceeded $1 billion.
Coming as they did in the spring of 1992,
the riots derailed Bush’s re-election
campaign and boosted Bill Clinton’s
election efforts. As a result, one could
say that George Holliday may have ended
one presidency, launched another, and
helped ensure that today’s leading
Democratic contender, Hillary Clinton,
would have an eight-year head start to her
political career. Not bad for plumber
using his new toy.
¨People
have blamed me for the
disturbances. What is on the
tape caused them, not the
tape¨
“You’re the guy
who caused the riots.†George
received death threats and was constantly
hounded by the media "Be careful when you
start your carâ€.
Rodney
King wins a $3.8 Million
settlement from the City of
Los Angeles
However, one person later
thanked him. In late 1991 Holliday stopped
at a gas station and a young black man in
a new sports car pulled up at the same
pump: "Hey, George Holliday," the
man said. "You do not recognize me,
do you?" Suddenly, he realized it was
Rodney King. "I just wanted to
thank you. You saved my life." They
shook hands and said goodbye. The images of the Rodney
King Beating Video were seared into the
American consciousness: A black man
struggling on the ground while Los Angeles
police officers stood in a semicircle
around savagely kicking and shocking him
with an electric stun gun, landing 56
baton blows to his body, battering and
bloodying him. Black leaders rallied
behind Rodney King immediately. They say, "Seeing the Rodney King beating was
like seeing history repeated again and
again."
the
influence of the video in the
American society
A prosecutor who was
absolutely convinced that it was an
open-and-shut case based on the George
Holliday video, which showed King being
beaten by the police. Little did he
realize that by re-editing the images, the
attorneys defending the L.A. police
officers, in the first criminal case,
totally changed the story. Ever since, the
beating of Rodney King and the ensuing
riots have formed a somber backdrop to
America's "dialogue" on race. The beating
itself, and the initial exoneration of
LAPD officers by a suburban Simi Valley
jury, supported the notion that America
remained a deeply racist society.
movies,
music,
TV The powerful echoes of
which we see on display in American TV and
Cinema which uses actual footage from the
King video such as: Natural Born
Killers, Strange
Days, Mace, Malcom-X, Dark
Blue, Straight Outta Compton, Wu-Tang:
An American Saga, and the American Crime
Story/O.J. Simpson Trial,¨Fox
producers decided to open with the Rodney
King beating and the 1992 Los Angeles
riots, laying the groundwork for Mr.
Simpson’s defense in a trial that
largely served as a referendum on the Los
Angeles Police Department’s treatment of
blacks.¨ as NY Times states in its
article. The verdict exonerating him was
clearly marked by the King beating and the
riots in a context of racial tensions and
mistrust of police. Today the Rodney King
Beating Video is still remaining as an
unique reference.
politics
The Riots occurred just
four days after Operation Desert Storm had
ended triumphantly. With a 90 percent
approval rating in the polls,
President George H.W. Bush expected
an easy re-election in 1992. Rodney King
emerged as a great American healer,
demonstrating more effective leadership
than President Bush during the rioting by
pleading: “People, I want to say…
can we all get along?â€
educational
Rodney King Beating Video
is a continuous matter of study in most
schools and universities of the U.S. It
turned what would otherwise have been a
violent, but soon forgotten, encounter
between Los Angeles police and Rodney King
into one of the most widely watched and
discussed incidents of its kind. GH:One day my son came home from
school and said, “Dad, you are
in my history bookâ€.
