Ballyhoo (Apr 20, 1956)

Record Details:

Title:
Ballyhoo
Date:
Apr 20, 1956
Volume:
Ballyhoo (Apr 20, 1956) National
Leaf #:
0003
Language:
English
Collection:
Canada, Global Cinema, and Hollywood Studio System
Format:
Periodicals
Contributor:
Media History Digital Library, Greig Dymond in memory of David Dymond, Paul Moore and Jessica Whitehead
Coordinator:
Media History Digital Library
Description:

Ballyhoo

  • Ontario 'B' District Ballyhoo, editor: Dan Krendel (1952-55)
  • Profit Blitz for ‘Fitz’, editor: Dan Krendel (1955)
  • National Ballyhoo, editor: Dan Krendel (1956-57)
  • Time Out for Ticket Talk, editor: Norman Barker (1960-61)

Ballyhoo (1952-61) was published by Famous Players Canadian Corporation as a mimeographed internal sales and theatre managers’ newsletter. Editor, Dan Krendel, had been division manager of the Ontario ‘B’ District since 1942, and initially created Ballyhoo in 1952 to circulate weekly updates for a regional sales contest. Ontario ‘B’ District Ballyhoo continued until 1955 as a tool for sharing and incentivizing new sales techniques and publicity methods as the movie business declined in the face of television and the baby boom.

In Fall 1955, Profit Blitz for ‘Fitz’ was a nationwide sales contest, named for Famous Players’ president J. J. Fitzgibbons, honouring his 25th year as head of the business. Dan Krendel was made National Drive Captain and edited a weekly newsletter for the campaign.

From 1956 until at least 1957, National Ballyhoo was published weekly with Krendel as editor. He continued the style and content developed earlier for his Ontario ‘B’ District, but now extended vastly for a chain-wide coast to coast scale. Ballyhoo’s sharing promotional tools came at a time of contracting box office as television and automobile ownership became prevalent in the mid-1950s.

By 1960 until at least 1961, Time Out for Ticket Talk continued as a mimeographed newsletter, edited by Norman Barker of the head office publicity department. Time Out was compiled on a less ambitious scale than Ballyhoo. Compared to the earlier national compilation of local publicity gimmicks, Time Out often contained only a single memo or reproduced local story, and was often undated and only informally edited.

– Paul Moore, March 2024

Date Added:
April 11, 2024
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IN THE TRADE PRESS Glad to note that at least a handful of our lads made the pages of a couple of our trade mags this past week, A listing of the Quigley Awards contenders in M.P, HERALD under date of April 7, lists the following eligibles ... Jerry Duggan ... George Forhan ... Mel Jolley ... Les Mitchell and Fred Varlow. Not a very imposing list, but I guess they were the ones who sent their material on to New York, In SHOWMEN'S TRADE REVIEW, also dated April 7th, there appears an Honor Roll, listing those managers who really did a job in selling their product. I see listed the following ... Olga Frenette ... Art Cauley ... Claude Smith ... Eddie Dulke, Jerry Duggan ... Mel Jolley and Jimmy Cameron. There are no prizes for these listings ... but they do tell the rest of the world that we!tre in there pitching. Come on guys ... let's really flood the pages of these magazines with names of our Top Canadian showmen ... and in my book .,, it CAN mean YOU. How about it, eh? oXeXeXeoXe LES PRESTON RESIGNS Bill Trudell advises us that Les Preston, manager of the Capitol in St. Thomas for many years, has resigned to accept an appoint-~ ment with the Dominion Life Insurance company in the St. Thomas. district. Mrs. Zara Ellwood, former cashier at the theatre has been named manager pro tem. oXeXeoXeoXe WHAT DO YOU DO WITH YOUR USED POPCORN? No ... I ain't kiddin'. Your cleaners must sweep up an awful lot of the stuff, and naturally ... into the ashcan it goes, Will Harper, out Kelowna way has found a good use for it. Will is a bird lover, and it hurts him to see the poor little devils foraging for a bite to eat during the heavy snows and sub zero weather in his neck of the woods ... So-o-o ... Will gathers up all the corn, and each A.M. tosses it out to his little feathered friends, He has been doing this for a long time now, and has exhorted all his fellow citizens to do likewise. I see a nice story in a local Weekly commending Will for his thoughtfulness ,.. Must be a nice felling, Will old boy ... and mighty good P.R. aXeXeXeXo HOW'S YOUR SHOW TODAY? I know I've said it before, but it's worth repeating. Do you ma ke a habit of sitting through your first showing of each new picture? It's the only way you!11 know what's on your screen ... and the only way you can give an honest answer to this old, old question. Try it.