Ballyhoo (Jan 18, 1957)

Page scan 0005 from Ballyhoo

Record Details:

Title:
Ballyhoo
Date:
Jan 18, 1957
Volume:
Ballyhoo (Jan 18, 1957) National
Leaf #:
0005
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
Something wrong or inaccurate about this page? Let us Know!

Thanks for helping us continually improve the quality of the Lantern search engine for all of our users! We have millions of scanned pages, so user reports are incredibly helpful for us to identify places where we can improve and update the metadata.

Please describe the issue below, and click "Submit" to send your comments to our team! If you'd prefer, you can also send us an email to mhdl@commarts.wisc.edu with your comments.




We use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) during our scanning and processing workflow to make the content of each page searchable. You can view the automatically generated text below as well as copy and paste individual pieces of text to quote in your own work.

Text recognition is never 100% accurate. Many parts of the scanned page may not be reflected in the OCR text output, including: images, page layout, certain fonts or handwriting.

YOUR DOORMAN'S LOG Some years ago we instituted a system whereby anybody entering the theatre ... for any reason ... without a ticket, must have his name recorded on a special doorman's log, with time in and time out carefully entered, also reason for the visit. This system was designed to protect you as well as us. It is obvious from the many reports reaching us that this rule is not being strictly adhered to, This is just a reminder guys, that the doorman's log is a MUST ,.. and that it is your responsibility to make sure that it is properly filled in every day, with one copy attached to the H.O. Audit Department copy of your box office statement, and the duplicate to the theatre copy, for ready reference. Instruct your doorman in the proper use of this Ize co EWatel emphasize its importance, Make it a normal part of his routine ... and when he is on relief, make sure that whoever takes over his post is also familiar with the procedure, Let's not have any more reports of people wandering into your theatre without tickets, unsupported by legitimate reasons recorded on your doorman's log ... eh? aXe Ke KoKoXe SEAT MAINTENANCE How are your theatre seats, fellows? Every one of them in good shape? Take another look, huh? I was in a theatre watching a program one day, and noticed a customer gingerly feeling his way along the aisle ... the usher was apparently busy elsewhere ... When he found a vacant seat, said customer eased himself into it, let out a whoop and jumped half a dozen feet into the air. He had sat himself right on top of an open spring. It's not quite as funny as it sounds, fellows ... we may have lost another patron to that vast 'Lost audience.' Check your seats every day ... it will only take you half an hour or so. Check the covers, the springs. Look for loose standards and missing or broken arms. I'm not only thinking of the discomfort to the customer, but the actual hazards involved. It's up to you to protect your customers ... your business ... YOURSELF. You're trying to fill seats, is that right? Well then, make sure that you have seats ... comfortable seats, to fill. oX.X eX eXoXe SMOKING AREAS In many of our theatres, the last ten rows or so are designated as smoking areas. For the benefit of the many folks who object to smoke we try not to permit smoking in any other area in the theatre. To help identify the area where smoking is permitted, some of our men have painted a white line on the concrete alongside the aisle seats, They tell me it does wonders in the control of smoking. Do you have a suitable sign advising patrons of the smoking privilege, and limiting it to cigarettes only? It is one of the many services you offer ... so, don't keep it a secret, huh?