Ballyhoo (May 1957)

Page scan 0004 from Ballyhoo

Record Details:

Title:
Ballyhoo
Date:
May 1957
Volume:
Ballyhoo (May 1957, no date) National
Leaf #:
0004
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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THE GARMENT JUNGLE While this is certainly not the biggest thing Columbia have ever made, it definitely is saleable, well done and packed with action. GARMENT JUNGLE is completely pro-Union ... and should be sold on that basis. In the big Imperial in Toronto where it is playing, and I might add, to excellent business, Russ McKibbin contacted every union local he could think of ... and all co-operated by Circularizing their memberships to good B.O. results. A very interesting sidelight is the fact that after the pic had played a couple of days, Russ received a phone call from the secretary of an electrical workers union he had inadvertently overlooked, asking why they had been neglected ... He soon fixed that, and benefited through additional boxoffice sales. Go after GARMENT JUNGLE when it hits your town ... You don't have to be in the centre of a needle-trades district to cash in ... notify all union locals ... provide them with display cards for their meeting halls ... plaster your town with window cards, and, an inexpensive herald to the homes can do a lot of good too. There's real dough in this one if you go after it properly. oX.X.X.X.X.K.X. ORDEnING MATS When you order mats or any other material from our Publicity Dept. please ALWAYS specify your playdates. This is very important ... as, if your date is still a couple of months away the boys may not yet have started work on the junior mat service, but will have it in time for your engagement ... without having to turn out special art work for you alone, And ... it shouldn't be necessary to wait until the very last minute and then wire in, expecting the mats by return of mail. That isn't always possible, and you may get caught short. And... fellows, orders received on Friday cannot possibly be filled until Monday ... so please, don't wire in on Friday, or Saturday in the hopes of getting your mats in time for Monday's paper. You're just tossing good money down the drain. Just a reminder ... that's all. oXeX.X.X.X.X.X. BOXOFFICE CITATIONS It's good to know that the trade sheets are still watching us, and come through with credit when and where credit is due. Of course they can't possibly know what you're doing if you don't tell then, but here are a couple of guys who did, and received recognition. In the last issue of BOXOFFICE they list their citations for April, and it's nice to see the names of Don Edwards of the Tivoli in Hamilton, and Freeman Skinner of Halifax listed. Don received his for the excellent selling job he did on GIANT ... and Freeman's recognition came as a result of the novel manner in which he tied in all Halifax schools on a trophy deal in connection with his ELMER shows, The May citations will soon be announced ... Is YOUR name gonna be among them?