Castle Films Home Movie Catalog
Before the VCR was affordable, the super 8 film craze was sweeping the nation. Here you take wonderful, colour, silent home movies of the family to keep forver.
But seeing as millions of families already had a projector, why not use it to show some highlights of Hollywood’s finer and schlockier moments?
Castle Films was one of the best known houses for purchasing these short 16mm reels of Hollywood classics, I myself remember visiting birthday parties where the parents had rented shorts from Star Wars, Abbot and Costello and Universal Monster movies for the kids. This commerce would fade away by the end of the 70’s but for a brilliant time, this was it and we loved it.
I was invited to more than one birthday party that the entertainment consisted solely of Castle Films shorts (rented from the Library). I can remember laughing at Abbot and Costello and being in awe of about ten silent minutes from Star Wars. I used to collect these, I regret selling out….
And to all my Canadian peeps, Happy Thanksgiving!
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If you’re into Castle Films, also check out this great site for cool images from the Castle Boxes:
When I was a kid, we’d have the extended family over for BBQs in the summer and those nights would inevitably end with Dad setting up the 8mm projector and showing the old home movies. But amongst the reels of home movies, there were also 2 authentic Warner Brothers Bugs Bunny cartoons, and my dad would put them on for me and my brother after the family flix were done. These were Bugs episodes that my brother and I could see on any given day after school on television, but the idea that we could show them on our rickety white screen, on that projector, with the dust particles floating in the light it cast . . . somehow made it a magical experience. Our projector didn’t even have sound. We’d be watching Bugs Bunny cartoons that we’d seen a million times on channel 5, without sound, and it was fantastic.
So I can’t imagine what it would have been like to have a theatrical release like Star Wars showing in my home!
When I was around 3 (which would have been '81), my parents rented a projector & some of these films from somewhere. It wasn't the library though, because I remember going to a store in Toronto that had shelves & shelves full of them. It's actually one of my most vivid childhood memories! I know we got Chilly Willy & Woody Woodpecker cartoons, because I can still "see" them. Apparently Super 8 movies make great childhood memories 🙂