Ballyhoo (Apr 20, 1956)

Record Details:

Title:
Ballyhoo
Date:
Apr 20, 1956
Volume:
Ballyhoo (Apr 20, 1956) National
Leaf #:
0008
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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SOME GOOD ADVICE I have copy of a memo sent to his managers by Mort Margolius, and it makes good sense. It has to do with the manager's weekly and quarterly analyses which you are required to forward to this office, and I know that at times you wonder why all this detailed paper work. Maybe Mort!s note can throw some light on the matter. "The onerous job of keeping up to date your Manager's Weekly and Quarterly analysis of operations is the most positive way we know of to keep your finger on the pulse of all the important elements of your business. As you watch the pattern unfold weekly and quarterly it is not difficult to catch any item that may be moving out of line." "Henry Marshall of the Capitol has just completed a lengthy quarrel with the Water Department, who maintained that their billings were correct. Henry knew from his records that something was wrong, and persisted in trying to trace down what he believed to be an obvious error. His persistence paid off to the tune of $261.00 savings, and served to readjust his water bill to its proper level for this season, which was $14.60." I can't think of any more concrete evidence than what Henry Marshall was able to accomplish, in support of the statements we require from you fellows at regular intervals. If you really watch your operation, and put the figures down on paper, you are bound to recognize discrepencies when they crop up. I sometimes wonder how many thousands of dollars go down the drain just because we are too busy (?) to take a good look at our accounts once in a while. Your weekly and quarterly reports are designed to help you stay right on top of your business, Take a little trouble with them, huh fellows? It makes it easier all around. oXe Xe XoXo DAILY NEWSPAPER ADS Well ... I'll try again. Obviously a couple of our boys either hadnit read earlier copies of our BALLYHOO ... or didn't pay too much attention to what they did read. Newspaper ads DO NOT represent any unusual effort on your part in the interest of special exploitation activities. I'm afraid I just cantt give you too much credit for snipping an ad out of the press book or your proof sheet and sticking it down on a piece of copy paper. We know that you use daily ads in your newspapers ... How good or how bad they are of course depends on the trouble you take in their preparation. However, once again for the record ... please do not send me your daily ads as evidence of your selling ... unless, that is, you happen to have come up with something just a little different or unusual, such as Jimmy Cameron's and Bill Trudell's personal approach to their SINCERELY YOURS selling. One guy sends me a scrap book full of his weekly newspaper ads each week ... and very little more. Sorry ... wrong number, Your tear sheets should go to the lads in the publicity department for checking.