beginning of old VHS tape unreachable I was recently given a 27-year-old VHS tape to transfer.

While I'm happy that most of the tape is transferring smoothly (right now), the beginning of the tape is inaccessible.  The player's auto-rewind stops before reaching the beginning of the spool.  I naively attempted to rewind the tape manually (unlocking it first), and either the player or I stretched part of the tape.

Is it true that an old tape will "fuse" at the ends?  What do you think has happened here?  While the stretched part is probably destroyed, I wonder if the bit ahead of it is salvageable, by a professional service or me.

Thanks for your advice!
27-years old?! Forget it. Tapes need to be regularly forwarded and rewound, fully, for them not to stick. If that tape of yours remained unused for so many years, it might be too late.
Talk to a transfer pro... but don't expect miracles.