Milwaukee man curates 3,000-tape VHS archive
Maxi Boy has spent four decades gathering obscure films and broadcast recordings, prioritizing the tactile warmth of magnetic tape over digital streaming.
By William Turner ·
Max Knowlton-Sachner, known locally as Maxi Boy, maintains a personal library of approximately 3,000 VHS tapes in Milwaukee.
The collection spans a wide range of genres, from obscure horror films to psychedelic 1990s animation. It also includes training videos produced for McDonald's employees. Maxi Boy, who has collected videotapes for more than 40 years, notes that some items date back to his childhood.
He prefers niche titles over mainstream commercial releases. "I lean more towards, like, obscure things, not, like, real mainstream commercial movies like Forrest Gump," he said. He estimates he has viewed about three-quarters of the films in his possession. The remaining tapes are often part of incomplete series or hard-to-find releases that he is still seeking.
His recent focus has shifted toward animation. "What motivates me to collect more is just, like, I haven’t seen everything, especially with animation, which is, like, my main focus lately," he said.
Among his most valued items are non-movie tapes. These include recordings of television broadcasts made in the 1980s and 1990s. These home recordings preserve the original commercials that aired during the broadcast. Maxi Boy finds that these specific audio clips trigger strong memories. "It takes me back to a time where life for me was easier, life for everybody was easier," he said.
He cites the physical nature of the medium as a primary draw. "I like the quality of VHS. I like the warmth of it. I like how they look on a shelf," he said. The collection serves as a personal archive of his life and interests.
In the event of a house fire, he said he would rescue two specific tapes: one recording of a taped TV show and one featuring his own appearance on local news as a child.
