Ballyhoo (Nov 9, 1956)

Page scan 0001 from Ballyhoo

Record Details:

Title:
Ballyhoo
Date:
Nov 9, 1956
Volume:
Ballyhoo (Nov 9, 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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REFLECTIONS Shades of yesteryear ,... another convention has come and gone, and from the comments both spoken and implied ... this one too was the best one ever, Many words were spoken, many thoughts were expressed, many es. oh so many suggestions were presented, and a whole lot of infectious enthusiasm was generated, Many of us unfortunately are awfully short on memory, and I wonder .-. Are YOU going to make a truly sincere effort to justify all the tite, the expense and the effort which went into this convention? Will the lessons you learned be put to practical use in YOUR own particular operation eee or have the memories ... fond memories, of our meetings been left behind to lurk forever in the shadows of our conference rooms? Only one person can truthfully answer that ... YOU. We took a gander at a couple of the greatest attractions of all time ... We were graced with the presence of the greatest movie-maker of them all Cecil B. DeMille ... We were assured that our future is still ahead of us, if WE care enough to do something about it. Our president and our vice-president were on our side all the way ... our only regret is that they couldn't spend more time with us, and we missed them. Mr. Fitzgibbons and Mr. Bolstad, by their words and their actions left us secure in the knowledge that our team is well managed by the two top men in this business coe and that's an awfully good feeling to take away with you. We worked hard ... and some of us played hard, although frankly our schedule didn't leave too much time for play. A few, and I am happy to say it really was FEW, became just a little bit farshtunken ... and you can figure out for yourself what that means. I suppose there's some excuse for it at a convention ... IF the end result is what it should be, I shall try in this issue to give an eye-witness account of the proceedings ... just to refresh your memories a little oe. Hope you enjoy it. By the way ... I don't remember 2... but did anyone think to thank the chairman of our meetings, Morris Stein, for the truly magnificent job he did of handling the sessions? If not ... then I trust that he will accept this as a sincere vote of thanks from every one of us privileged to have been there. And now ... to do a little reporting. eXoXKeXoXeXo STATISTICS ... THE BRIGHT SIDE Our veep Rube Bolstad didn't try to kid anybody ... He reminded us that our business volume was down considerably, BUT ... he also told us that in spite of the decline in attendance, we — FAMOUS PLAYERS are still selling over 1,000,000 tickets per week which is substantially better than our rec dollar sales, ord in 1949 or 1950, in Let!s take it from there fellows ... and let million mark as our foundation TG BUILD ON. I ee = ees atte