Castle Films

Background
Castle Films was a home-movie distributor founded in 1924 in California by former newsreel cameraman Eugene W. Castle (1897-1960). The company originally produced business and advertising films. By 1931, it had moved its principal office to New York City. In 1937, Castle branched out into 8mm and 16mm home movies, buying newsreel footage and old theatrical films for home use. Castle's first home movie was a newsreel of the Hindenburg explosion. That same year, Castle launched his "News Parade" series, a year-in-review newsreel; travelogues followed in 1938. Castle also released sports films, animal adventures, and "old time" movies. It became a subsidiary of Universal Pictures and was eventually renamed Universal 8 from 1977 before folding in the early 1980s due to competition from home video.

1st Logo (1935-1937)
Visuals: There are two towers on both ends and a barbican in the center, each with battlements. Two dark gray walls connect the buildings and several film holes are seen on the bottom of each part of the castle. The company name in a bold, white font with a black shadow is placed over the castle whereas "A" and "PRODUCTION" in a wide format are above and underneath it.

Closing Visuals: On a moving background featuring various landmarks, "The End" in a fancy font and stacked format is seen above the same logo without "A" and "PRODUCTION".

Variant:
 * An early version of the closing logo features an outlined version of the normal logo. Plus, "PRESENTATION" replaces "PRODUCTION".
 * A later closing variant has the logo on a dark blocky patterned background. Shortly after, "The End" in a fancy, cursive font fades in and slightly darkens the logo.
 * A Terrytoons variant has the castle with very little detail outside of several of a few horizontal black blocks on the top of the towers acting as the castle's battlements. "PRESENTATION" is also present instead of "PRODUCTION", but unlike the early variant, the "P" is bigger than the rest of the letters.

Technique:
 * Most of the variants: a still, printed graphic.
 * On-screen closing variant: traditional animation.

Audio: The opening/closing theme of the film.

Availability: Seen on the earliest 8mm and 16mm films they distributed, which include Yesterday Lives Again and very early News Parade showreels.

2nd Logo (1937-1941)
Opening Variants=

Visuals: On a background, "The End" is aligned to the center and the logo, with a shine on its towers, is underneath it. The former text also has a shadow facing the slight top right.

Variants:
 * The alternate background variant has the logo zoom out and "presents" fade in underneath.
 * On some News Parade newsreels, the logo crossfades to The End after zooming out.
 * Another alternate closing variant has the logo on the bottom right and "The End" in a big format and on the top left.
 * On Help Yourself, this variant is set to a black background, "The End" is in a different fancy font, and "Times New Roman" appears above the Castle Films logo.
 * One early closing variant has the logo centered on a black background with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's copyright underneath it. "THE END" in a large, Art-Deco font fades over the logo.

Technique: A still, printed graphic.

Audio: The closing theme of the film.

Availability: It was seen on News Parade showreels from this period, which include those covering early battles in World War II such as "Battle for France" and "Franco's Victory". Music Album films such as "Snowtime Serenade" also had this logo. Like the pervious logo, these films have gone out of print.

3rd Logo (1941-1945)
Images=

Availability: Can be seen on early 1940's 16mm prints of News Parade newsreels and various Terrytoons, Walter Lantz, and Ub Iwerks cartoons such as The Homeless pup and Old Mother Hubbard. Some public domain VHSes such as Kid Flicks' Little Lulu tape from 1987 has this logo intact at the end of The King's Tailor. Videos=

4th Logo (1942)
Visuals: On a white background, the castle from the previous logos is light gray, more fixed in its rectangular shape, and resembles a film roll like the 2nd logo. The company name is black and is warped along the edges of the castle whereas "PRESENTS" is inside an upper-arched flag.

Variants:
 * There are some colorized version of the logo:
 * One has the castle in against a tan background.

Technique: A still, printed graphic.

Audio: The opening/closing theme of the film.

Availability: This is only known to appear on a few cartoon shorts such as Mary's Little Lamb and The King's Tailor. Like the previous logo, public domain VHSes such as Kid Flicks' has this logo intact.

5th Logo (1945-1968)
Images=

Availability: Videos=
 * Can be seen on old home video prints of Universal, Walter Lantz and Terrytoons films as well 8mm and 16mm films such as Howdy Doody Christmas. This is also found on later News Parade showreels as well as abridged versions of classic movies such as Mummy's Ghost, and world and sports showcase films such as London Landmarks and Surf Riders respectively. It is intact on Rifftrax riffs of their shorts as well.
 * The later variant was used starting the late 1950's and was spotted on The Big Surf and Hawaii State of Paradise.
 * Its last known appearance was on The News Parade of 1968.

6th Logo (1967-1976)
Visuals: The same castle from before is shown but with the font now in a regular Arial font. Underneath it, "Presents" is in a cursive font. Unlike the previous logo, it is still. Additionally, the clouds are more spread out and less realistic.

Closing Visuals: Same as the normal logo but "Presents" is replaced with "The End".

Variants: Arial
 * Colorized version of the logo features it in the same coloring as the previous logo but with the bottom text in white and its shadow in.
 * At the end of an abridged version of Psycho, the following text is placed underneath "The End":
 * An in-credit variant exists.

Technique: A still, printed graphic.

Audio: The opening/closing theme of the film.

Availability: Seen on the company's last films they distributed, which includes several Apollo 11 films such as Apollo 11: On The Moon. One of its last appearances was on a 1970's 7-minute digest reel of Psycho.