Comments from JackOberleitner

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JackOberleitner
JackOberleitner commented about Cinema on Jan 5, 2007 at 8:29 am

The closest that New Castle ever had to a “Castle” Theatre was the SUPER CASTLE Drive-In theatre in the cities western suburbs.

The W. Washington Street theatre was originally opened around the turn of the century as the DOME Theatre. A minor remodeling came about in the 1930’s renamed it the PARAMOUNT briefly. New owners renamed it again as the VOGUE. The “C” on the front of the marquee was originally a “V.” Throughout the late 50’s and early 60’s the Vogue and sister theatre. the Victor, were operated by the Fry family as fifty cent admission, double feature, sub-runs. Both houses were closed in the early 60’s.

To maintain a first-run presence in New Castle after the well known Penn Theatre was closed, Associated Theatres, of Pittsburgh bought and hastily remodeled the Vogue, once again changing simply to the CINEMA. The “C” on the marquee stands for “Cinema.”

Almost a century after its original birth as the DOME, this historic little theatre is scheduled for demolition soon.

New Castle is rich in theatre history. I have photos and histories of many of the original New Castle theatres including the Penn, Hi-Lander, Regent, Nixor/Victor, Vogue, State, Crescent, Baltimore Strand, Capitol and others. I hope to add these to the Cinema Treasures site as time permits.

As a theatre owner and historian, I have renovated many old stately theatres and would love to see a tribute to the original Warner Brothers theatre. I think the right facility could be a real cultural and perhaps tourist attraction for this once bustling city that was once my home town.
– JAck Oberleitner, Springfield, OH