It's funny, isn't it - it's hard to remember when technologies we're so used to were introduced. More than once, my husband and I have had the experience of watching an old movie and saying to each other - "Were there answering machines then? Really? I don't remember that..." etc.
I know what you mean. The predecessor for the Fax machine goes back to WWII (it was used to send photographs via telephone lines).
The first video recorder, made by Ampex, sold for $50,000 in 1956; hence, why only TV broadcasters used them until the cost dropped in the 1970s. A bit of trivia, CBS was the first broadcaster to use videotape to record programmes.