When was the first remote control for a VCR made?

I had the first remote control vcr,and I bought in 1981.It had cost around $1200+ dollars that my grandad said that I would be carrying it on my back trying to sell it for food whenever times got tough. It was a Mitsubishi two (2 hr. speed sp and 6 hr slp ) so if you had a tape recorded in a four hour format, it would not deliver the picture very well.It was a direct dirve and had less moving parts than a belt driven vcr-??? 30% less ???.or mabe more maybe 60 %.