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:

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Rob from the great blog “All in Black and White for 75 Cents” sent me these great Castle film ads from various monster publications in the 70’s. While the home video market is definitely an example of how change can be good (in this case great) thing, I still kind of miss when my parents would rent these reels from the library, it was like having a movie theatre in your house.

Frankenstein Conquers the World? Man, I’ve got to own that. Everytime I look at these things, I wonder how I don’t own hundreds. I don’t have any will power, so it must be laziness…..On the Halloween Front, a couple of folks have dropped me a line about entering the Halloween Countdown:Laura Moncur has a Halloween Countdown each yearGravedigger’s Local 16

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