Ballyhoo (Sep 15, 1957)

Page scan 0009 from Ballyhoo

Record Details:

Title:
Ballyhoo
Date:
Sep 15, 1957
Volume:
Ballyhoo (Sep 15, 1957) National
Leaf #:
0009
Language:
English
Collection:
Hollywood Studio System, Global Cinema, and Canada
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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PALACE ~ WINDSOR Some Swell stuff here from Eddie Lamoureux ... and of particular interest +S an experiment he tried when he played JOHNNY TREMAIN., Instead of using the Major portion of his advertising budget for newspaper space, as is Customary, Eddie cut his lineage in half ... and used the balance to post 100 one-sheets around town, and to buy radio time in advance of and following several kids programs ... Result ... one of the best weeks he has had all Summer. Just to make sure it wasn't an accident, Eddie tried the same thing with TARZAN AND TH» LOST SAFARI ... again to outstanding results. I don't mean to suggest that we start indiscriminately chopping our newspaper Space ... but, it may be an idea to test this plan the next time you have a suitable attraction. Perhaps we haven't been making as good use of some of the advertising accessories available to us as we might. It's worth thinking about, When Eddie had DINO booked, he ran into a streak of luck. It so happened that Sal Mineo was in Detroit doing a stint in advance of his LE RUOUNG DONUT" GRYGn.. so-o-o ... with the help of the lads over at C K LW, Kddie arranged for Mineo to appear on T.V. and the boy caused quite a sensation. A good pic of Eddie and his guest appeared in the following day's Windsor Star. Business was good, Next came the twin horror bill, CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN and X THE UNKNOWN, Eddie turned his lobby into a 'Chamber of Horrors! by sealing it off from outside light and using dark green lights throughout. It was an eerie feeling just to step in, and add to that all the ‘horror! gimmicks tossed in for good luck, and the customers really went out talking to themselves, A week before opening, 3000 Frankenstein masks were handed out to the kids. On opening day, Frankenstein and his 'buddy! paraded the streets of Windsor ... suitably bannered of course ... Good use was made of radio, and again Eddie nosted 100 one-sheets throughout the city. Two ! 'legal' ads were used in the daily, in addition to a good teaser build-up and the regular ads. Business on this bill too was well above average, Nice going Eddie ... keep us advised, oX-X.X.X.X.X. PALACE ~ GUELPH Nice campaign from Lloyd Taylor on SILK STOCKINGS. Lloyd followed through on the deal set up by Bert Brown with the Phantom hose people and wound up with a lot of nice publicity. The local Walker Stores went for it, placed a really beautiful display in their most important window -.. loaded with stills and good sales copy, and in addition went for a sizeable ad in the Mercury. Good display cards were also set up on their hosiery counters, Walkers also ran a Phantom hosiery contest, and gave away a dozen pairs of hose, In addition Lloyd made up a dozen very attractive display cards which were placed in the windows of twelve of the better stores in the down town area, One of the stores Lloyd was interested in didn't handle Phantom hosiery ... so, a separate display was made up giving Whisper nylons a boost. After all... the title of the pic is SILK STOCKINGS ... and Lloyd cashed in on it to the limit.