"It was a must-have...people came from everywhere to see them and get them. Having a television arrive at someone's house in your street was a major event. All the neighbours would come around to see this amazing new device.
"This was the age before iPods and iPads...it was a huge deal."
As a teenager, Mr Pemberton was heavily involved in the business, helping out in the store and going out to install the sets in people's homes.
"It wasn't like televisions now - you couldn't just plug it in. We had to go out to install them and you needed rabbit-ears and ribbons of wire."
The business - now referred to as DTR or Dominion Television Rentals - has grown to 22 stores nationwide.
Staff from around the country will gather in Auckland this month to celebrate the milestone and also meet those who were among the first families to rent a TV from the original store, in Howick, in 1962.
Among those is 54-year-old writer Ken Grace, who met Mr Pemberton in Auckland last week.
Leaning on an old television the size of a small microwave, the pair laughed as they swapped stories.
Mr Grace said: "There was only one channel and it started around dinner time and finished about 11pm.
"Because there was only one channel, when you went to school the next day everybody had seen it and so everybody was talking about it."
Mr Pemberton said: "Sometimes we'd just be sitting there watching static. There was nothing on, but we'd all be staring at it."
By 1973 about 13,000 black and white television sets had been rented, and then colour TVs were introduced.
Mr Grace said: "That was a big deal. It was like walking on the moon - which we also saw on TV."
