Ballyhoo (Sep 28, 1956)

Page scan 0001 from Ballyhoo

Record Details:

Title:
Ballyhoo
Date:
Sep 28, 1956
Volume:
Ballyhoo (Sep 28, 1956) National
Leaf #:
0001
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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LATE SHOPPING NIGHTS More and more Downtown Businessmen!ts Associations in communities across Canada are forcing their municipal authorities to permit Late opening of merchants on one or more nights a week. The accepted late~shopping night seems to be Friday, and the effects on our business are confusing to say the least. In some towns our managers report that their Friday business has gone up a bit, in others they tell us it has had no effect on us, and a few even report that it has harmed use It's all in the way you approach the problem, fellows ee. and what YOU do to take advantage of the hundreds of extra shoppers who jam the down town streets on this night. They just started the late Friday shopping in Vancouver, and I have reports from both Ivan Ackery and Charlie Doctor ... and fellows ... their boxoffices have been jingling like mad .«.. but only because the lads did something about it. Ivan and Charlie both jumped right on the bandwagon and saturated the city with clever advertising, by means of specially printed cards which are placed in the thousands of cars in all the down town parking lots, and good copy in their newspaper ads. They stress a suggestion and the offer of a service ... 'Shop and See a Show ~ We Will Check Your Parcels.! ... The idea is to get the local citizenry to make Friday their night out ... do their shopping, take in a show, drop into a restaurant ... and it's really catching on. If you don't believe me ses. well, Charlie's receipts on Friday night, his 26th day of KING AND I, jumped by $150.00 ... and Ack reports that his second week of MOBY DICK exceeded opening week by over $800.00. Friday night shopping is good for the merchants who go to a lot of trouble and expense to sponsor the idea ... and it can be equally good for YOU ... but there's a catch. You've got to do something about it too ... contact the businessmen's Association and work with them ... Work out a deal with your newspaper and radio people ... Offer free checking facilities as they do in Vancouver ... and if you happen to have a parking lot, have them purchase their ticket, park their car, do their shopping and then come in to see your show. This is wide open guys ee. and you can probably dream up a lot of gimmicks you can introduce to help you reap some of the proven benefits of this late shopping. Don't just sit back and groan ... GET UP AND GO ... and tell us what you've done so that we can pass the information along to others in the same boat. eX eXe Xe XaXe EXCUSE IT PLEASE Fred Tickell has brought to my attention that while matrons are a 'must! in Ontario during such periods as juves are permitted in our theatres, the same does not hold true in Alberta, and quite possibly in other provinces. So fellows, check your own particular copy of the Theatre Act in your province for the correct information relating to the engagement of matrons. The story I ran in our last issue of BALLYHOO applies to Ontario alone. Thanks Fred for bringing this to my attention.