Ballyhoo (May 25, 1956)

Page scan 0002 from Ballyhoo

Record Details:

Title:
Ballyhoo
Date:
May 25, 1956
Volume:
Ballyhoo (May 25, 1956) National
Leaf #:
0002
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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DO YOU READ YOUR MAIL? I'm serious .,~. we sometimes wonder at thisS’end if you fellows bother to even open your head office mail ... and we've even gone so far as to make free offers, which in the majority of cases were completely ignored, which can only suggest that you either aren't interested, or that it's too much trouble to slit the envelopes open and take a peek inside, Sounds ridiculous? ... Well, let's take a case in point, Some time ago Bert Brown advised every theatre on the circuit of the availibility of special material FREE on two of the big upcoming attractions MAN IN THE GRAY FLANNEL SUIT and ANYTHING GOES. The key runs were provided with this material in advance of their openings ... the rest of the theatres were asked to requisition it as the pictures were booked, Bert informs me that NOT ONE manager bothered to follow up on this, and consequently there is expensive material sitting around gathering dust, Have you either of these two pictures booked? Well man, get off that big fat chair of yours and do something about it ... besides, I mean, thinking up excuses to include in your weekly letter as to why they didn't do any business, There are good, die-cut cards on FLANNEL SUIT, and lots of material to help you promote the Lustre-Creme tie-up on ANYTHING GOES in your town, They are available on a first-come-first-serve basis, and Bert has’ promised that he will take care of the orders as they reach him, Drop Bert a note TODAY .., will you? Dontt play around until your éngagement is ancient history and then say that you didn't know, Got it? Good, eX ok eX eX qXo THOSE MAINTENANCE REPORTS AGAIN It takes exactly ten minutes of your time .,. once a month, to prepare the monthly maintenance réports required by our Engineering and Maintenance department, Wé fully appreciate that you are snowed under with paper work ,.. daily reports, weekly reports, monthly reports, quarterly reports etc. etc, but you must appreciate that all of them are designed to help you run an efficient operation, and are very important to the departments involved, The monthly maintenance report is especially important. It places you on record regarding the physical condition of your theatre, and gives the Maintenance department vital information for its files, Don't get’mad if you happen to mention an item’ that requires attention ... and don't get it by return of mail. Keep repeating it, month after month, until something is doné about it. That gets you off the spot and puts somebody else there, Get those reports in on time fellows, huh? All of us will appreciate it, and you'll get better service, Try it ... NOW.