CastleRock took place in the cavernous Dorney Park dance-hall, Castle Garden. The "Garden" was built in the early 20's and hosted all the famous big bands of that era. By the late fifties it was call CastleRock. The Philadelphia recording stars, such as Frankie Avalon and Freddy Cannon would routinely perform. By my teenage era, in the early mid 60's, it was mostly disc jockeys. The Park was free, no admission. Pay to park, and maybe a buck or so for the dance-hall. By then the nightclub tables shown in the photograph were gone, and sitting was around the sides. There were no shootings, and rowdiness was restricted to sneaking on a ride without buying a ticket. The dance-hall overlooked the lake, it was destroyed by a fire on Thanksgiving in 1985.
The can be no on CastleRock without mention of my favorite draw, the mechanical bull and the urban cowboy craze! Those were D-park's best days!
ReplyDeleteIt seemed like it was an awesome place back in the day.
ReplyDeleteAlfonso
I wish I had seen this place, I bet it was pretty awesome
ReplyDeleteMy Own Little Homemade Video On The Subject..
ReplyDeleteAmusement Parks And Band Organs (9:54 Minutes)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJQTrAUjcjY
Channel 39 did a really good piece on all the area amusement parks.
Carousel of Memories (59:46 Minutes)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQHA9JUWngM
I can still here the melodious sounds of Jay Sands at those great dances. Imagine a teen dance with hundreds of kids and only a couple of security guards. 'dem were the days, huh?
ReplyDelete