Super Castle Drive-In

The Super Castle was certainly the nicer of the two area drive-ins. It had a larger field, a large concession stand and very large block and concrete screen tower. Screens “wings” were added for cinemascope in the mid-50’s. By the 60’s the Super Castle was running first-run product with the Penn Theatre, downtown. Often the filmco’s would allocate a single print for the town. Ushers would take one reel (20 minutes) from the Penn projection booth and swap it for a reel at the drive-in. The two theatres were more than 5 miles apart. Timing was very important and too many red lights or a train would result in a dark screen until the usher could make it back to one theatre or another. This “bicycling prints” program continued until a train hit an usher’s car, hurting him and destroying his car. After that there were always enough prints available and nobody had to share.

It was owned in 1956 by Co-Op which ran a lot of drive-ins in that state.

The ad just posted pretty much confirms the location I pointed out on 8/24/09. 3 Miles West of New Castle on Hwy 224. There is a Wal-Mart SuperCenter a few blocks away, but not at the old drive-in property.

I would say the Franklin address is incorrect.

establish/renew link

The Super Castle Drive-In is listed in the 1975 IMPA with a capacity for 800 cars. It is not listed in the 1980 edition. Drive-Ins.com gives the location as Franklin Avenue and claims that a Wal-Mart now stands where this drive-in was located.