Castle Films
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Castle Films was a home-movie distributor founded by Eugene W. Castle in 1924 ,primarily to handle advertising films. In 1936, Castle branched out into the 8mm and 16mm home-movie business, buying old theatrical films for home use. In 1937, Castle launched his "News Parade" series, a year-in-review newsreel; travelogues followed in 1938.
Castle obtained home-movie rights to cartoons from several animation studios, including Walter Lantz, Terrytoons, and Ub Iwerks.
In 1947, Universal Pictures purchased Castle Films, and subsequently became a Universal subsidiary, drawing upon the studio's library of vintage films (Abbott & Costello, W. C. Fields, Boris Karloff, James Stewart, etc.). Castle Films became Universal 8 in 1977, and the era of home video brought an end to Universal's home-movie enterprise.
The complete inventory of Castle Films (more than 1000 titles over 40 years) is listed in Scott MacGillivray's book Castle Films: A Hobbyist's Guide, ISBN 0-595-32491-6.
