"what was before vhs tapes?"

And they came after VHS. I think they even came after CD's.  Slightly before VHS came Beta (or Betamax), and before that there were tape cartridges in really huge decks, but I don't know what they were called (I remember them from high school). And before that were open reel tapes.

You are thinking of one of two formats:

Laserdiscs are still on the market, and are essentially LP-sized CDs.
"CED discs" (sold as "RCA Selectavision") were darker colored discs stored inside a non-removable plastic "caddy".

==

More details on the formats:

(1) Laserdiscs:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laserdisc

Laserdisc (LD), previously known as Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Videodisc, Disco-Vision, DiscoVision, and MCA DiscoVision and originally spelled LaserDisc (note the CamelCase) was the first commercially available optical disc storage medium. The format offered large storage capacity, but its use as a backup medium was limited; the technology was used primarily as a high-end home video format.

Despite being technologically superior to VHS, the Laserdisc format was nowhere near as popular or as far reaching and is not considered to have been hugely successful. Nonetheless, Laserdisc developed a niche following in America among collectors and, to a greater degree, in Japan, where the format was better supported and more prevalent during its lifetime.

Compact discs, DVDs, Blu-ray Discs and all other optical-disc formats released since Laserdisc have included features that debuted on the Laserdisc format.

==

(2) RCA SelectaVision VideoDiscs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SelectaVision

Capacitance Electronic Disc
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Capacitance Electronic Disc
The CED disc, exposed from protective caddy
Media type video playback media
Capacity 60 minutes NTSC video per side, 27,000 frames per side[1]
Usage Home video

The Capacitance Electronic Disc (or CED) was a video playback system developed by RCA, in which video and audio could be played back on a TV using a special analog needle and high-density groove system similar to phonograph records.

Introduced in 1981, the CED system was widely seen as a technological success which was able to increase the density of a long playing record by two orders of magnitude.[2] Despite this achievement, the CED system fell victim to poor planning, conflicts within RCA, and technical difficulties that stalled production of the system for 17 years until 1981, by which time it was outmoded by the emerging Betamax and VHS videocassette formats. Sales for the system were nowhere near projected estimates, and by 1986, RCA had discontinued the project, losing an estimated $600 million in the process.

The format was commonly known as "videodisc", leading to much confusion with Laserdisc format, which is mutually incompatible with this format.

The name "SelectaVision" was RCA's brand name for the CED system. It was also used for some early RCA brand VCRs,[3] and other experimental projects at RCA.

They were about the size of phonograph records (around 12-13" diameter) and the ones I say were all gold colored, although that was probably the plastic.  They never caught on; primarily because they and their machines were so darned expensive and not mass market items.  They were valuable, though, in that they were an evolutionary step towards VHS, Beta, CDa, and DVDs.

Before that was the classic VTR (Video Tape Recorder) which was identical to a reel to reel audio tape recorder (of the time) EXCEPT that the tape was either 3/4 or 1" wide (audio tape was 1/4 inch wide).  VTRs acted just like reel to reel audio; you had to thread them and you could see the wheels go around.  Unlike a VHS or a Beta VCR, there were no cassettes,, just raw reels of tape.

See this from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laserdisc

...but jokes aside, I think they were called LASER DISKS, as Wikipedia states:

 

---"Laserdisc (LD), previously known as Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Videodisc, Disco-Vision, DiscoVision, and MCA DiscoVision and originally spelled LaserDisc."

I have a quantity of them still, but my DiskReader doesn’t work anymore, so I just keep them as memorabilia! They were the progenitors of the DVD, and next it’ll be microdisk or just flash drive technology.

 

Below a couple of links:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laserdisc

 

http://www.stanleysonline.co.uk/scategory-56.htm