RIP Bill Olsen( AKA Banana Man/Code Red)

[Rakesh R. Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Rakesh R.]

Unfortunately, Bill Olsen( AKA Banana Man/Code Red) has passed away. I saw the bad news on Twitter.

[Matt H. Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Matt H.]

He was certainly a unique individual. Code Red was hugely important in the early days of DVD collecting and it was a little weird and disappointing when Bill's personality and frustrating distribution decisions started to overshadow the actual releases. It's unfortunate that CR is mostly remembered now for Bill's online antics and the whole Banana Man thing instead of their significance in the burgeoning DVD/BD collecting world. RIP.

[agent999 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close agent999]

There's no denying the massive contribution he made and his incredible knowledge. Whilst I found his manner in recent times utterly infuriating, I've seen people with poorly controlled diabetes progressively act in a similar manner, so I suspect that may have been a factor. At least he can't be exploited by certain people anymore. RIP, my condolences to Walt.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Oops, just posted the news in the CR thread, didn't see this one.

Either way, RIP. He was a character for sure. Bill went after me a few times on line for reasons, at this point, I'll never understand and I'm not going to lie and say he was my favorite guy on the planet but Code Red put out some seriously awesome discs and we all the man a debt of gratitude.

[Mark Tolch Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark Tolch]

Code Red was the shit back in the day, and that wasn't going to happen without somebody with an issue or two.

My condolences to his family, and hopefully his online tantrums won't be what he's ultimately remembered for; Code Red releases definitely made a lot of people happy.

[Derrick King Waterfall Puncher Find all posts View Profile Close Derrick King]

Due to both his antics and his distribution (pre-Kino taking over the distribution), he certainly didn't make it easy to buy his titles, but he released a bunch of stuff that a bunch of the other labels likely wouldn't have. RIP to real oddball.

[f.ramses Member Find all posts View Profile Close f.ramses]

Real sorry to hear this, Bill ran a great label and was by far the most entertaining guy in the DVD/BD scene. While he never appeared to be wildly successful I’ve always really admired him for being able to act the way he did and stay in business for so long.

RIP

[BW Haggar Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close BW Haggar]

Sad news, but probably not unexpected at this point.

Given that ten years ago he seemed like a fairly reasonable guy who put out decent releases and was happy to sell them to people, I've long assumed that his subsequent shenanigans must have largely been the result of deteriorating physical & mental health, and it's been horrible to witness, even second hand through forum banter etc.

I've long wondered why he didn't just close down his label or pass it on to someone capable of looking after it -- but who knows what combination of personal/financial issues made that impossible.

Anyway, Code Red's releases of 'Stunt Rock' and 'Messiah of Evil' remain amongst my most treasured & frequently viewed discs, so RIP to the man who made 'em happen.

[killer must kill again Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close killer must kill again]

RIP in peace banana man! he's gone to nutsack tadpole heaven now, complaining about damn kids and overseas terrorists.

I'm expecting a facebook live stream of demon dave (standing in the morgue flexing his muscles) any minute now.

[Thomas Wood Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Thomas Wood]

I share what Matt posted above but just want to correct something that a number of people have said. Bill really didn't have a vast knowledge of the field. His criteria was either what rented in his store or what his contacts, when he was buying rights, told him were good. Of course that helped to create low sales for those titles (the producers were just trying to pawn off titles no one else wanted). But, it did result in him releasing titles that would have never seen the light of day otherwise.

[Jason C Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Jason C]

Here's hoping he's in a better place now. I remember getting upset with Bill really early in my DVD collecting when I came across one of his releases that had a DVD menu called something like "Sewage Cinema" and when you selected something it would be covered in shit. And some guy was in a trash can. It had nothing to do with the film. I ended up calming down over time and realizing that while he was difficult, he was also releasing films no other labels would. Genre film fans owe him a debt of gratitude even though he hated us and would troll us every chance he got.

I remember the back of one of his DVDs had a blurb saying no one was going to buy this film. He was an odd cat.

I wish I could remember which DVD had that Sewage Cinema menu. It was discussed on Horrordvds.com years ago but it appears they are defunct now.

RIP

[Derrick King Waterfall Puncher Find all posts View Profile Close Derrick King]

I've long wondered why he didn't just close down his label or pass it on to someone capable of looking after it -- but who knows what combination of personal/financial issues made that impossible.

During one of his meltdowns he said he wanted to sell Code Red and Synapse said they were interested in making a deal, but Bill never responded

[Darcy Parker Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Darcy Parker]

RIP in peace banana man! he's gone to nutsack tadpole heaven now, complaining about damn kids and overseas terrorists.

I'm expecting a facebook live stream of demon dave (standing in the morgue flexing his muscles) any minute now.

Don't be surprised if Demon Dave posts a video violating Banana Corpse in various unspeakable ways while flexing and threatening Roger Ebert.

[agent999 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close agent999]

I share what Matt posted above but just want to correct something that a number of people have said. Bill really didn't have a vast knowledge of the field. His criteria was either what rented in his store or what his contacts, when he was buying rights, told him were good. Of course that helped to create low sales for those titles (the producers were just trying to pawn off titles no one else wanted). But, it did result in him releasing titles that would have never seen the light of day otherwise.

I may be mis-remembering, but when people were trying to identify some unknown slasher film from a poster, wasn't it Bill who identified it as an obscure regional retitling of The Prowler? He certainly kept on top of who had rights to just about everything, or why rights weren't available for titles. Agreed that he could be cajoled into picking up some terrible titles that everyone else saw would never sell 300 copies.

[killer must kill again Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close killer must kill again]

Don;t be surprised if Damon Dave posts a video violating Banana Corpse in various unspeakable ways while flexing and threatening Roger Ebert.

back in 2020 I thought he'd sell his corpse online

gross! imagine that wrestling dude selling banana mans corpse on his dark force superstore after his demise … totally gonna happen.

Yeah, I bet the guy who buys it will whine about the quality.

the guy will be disappointed that it comes without a limited slipcover!

The banana suit is the slipcover.