Ballyhoo (Sep 28, 1956)

Page scan 0002 from Ballyhoo

Record Details:

Title:
Ballyhoo
Date:
Sep 28, 1956
Volume:
Ballyhoo (Sep 28, 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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HOW ABOUT A FALL FESTIVAL? Autumn isn't on the way, fellows ... IT'S HERE ... and I wonder how many of you have taken advantage of the cooler weather eee the end of vacations ... the return of the small fry to school, and any one of another dozen reasons I could very easily come up with .«.. to begin a concentrated sales drive for more customers and more ticket sales. Some of our men do this as a normal and natural part of their routine Showmanship activities. Others, for some reason or other have to be prodded into it by constant reminders, and in some instances by actually having the details handed to them on a silver platter. YOU pick YOUR category, fella. We have a lot of high-budget and truly terrific product coming up, and you don't have to be ashamed to shout it from your roof tops. Currently making the rounds are MOBY DICK, THE KING AND I, PARDNERS, HIGH SOCIETY, BEST THINGS IN LIFE ARE FREE, etcCe and coming up in the near future, two of the greatest things that have happened to our industry ... WAR AND PEACE, and of course Cecil B. DeMille'ts THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. You will see them both at our upcoming convention, and then you'll know what we're raving about. But ee. for the immediate future «.. have you a seasonal display in your lobby, with an attractive listing of the product you have coming to your theatre? Have you a FALL FESTIVAL going in your town? Have you arranged for an interview with your newspaper editor to try and sell him on a timely and certainly newsworthy item of interest to his readers ... what to expect from you and your tneatre in the next few months? Letts get crackin! guys ... November is too late to start a FALL FESTIVAL. The time is NOW ... RIGHT NOW. oXeXeXeXeoXe THOSE BOOKS OF TICKETS How're your sales of books of F.P. tickets guyS e+. huh? Not as good as they might be? What's the reason ..e. or have you tried to analyze it? Could be that not too much effort is being put into their promotion, huh? S'funny ... but guys like Will Harper out Kelowna way and a few other eager beavers seem to do all right, all year 'tround. Some of you fellows wait until the very last moment ... a few days before Christmas to contact your potential customers, and in far too many instances are told that you're just a little too late. How about starting your Christmas selling well in advance this year? Some of the excuses used to be that the staff members stalled pushing their sales until the commission period arrived »«.. but that won't hold water now, as they're on regular commission fifty two weeks a year, . Let's get goin! guys .ee and get some of those very important CASH BUCKS into our tills now. How about it?