Ballyhoo (Apr 9, 1954)

Page scan 0000 from Ballyhoo

Record Details:

Title:
Ballyhoo
Date:
Apr 9, 1954
Volume:
Ballyhoo (Apr 9, 1954) Ontario 'B' District
Leaf #:
0000
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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DISTRICT VOLUME 3 ‘ SPRING FEVER Well, I guess Spring is here oo. The sun's baoen out, and it hasn't rained for nearly three days ... Big fat robins are waging their annual tug-o-war with equally fat, and just as persistent worms in our back yard ooo and I'm starting to get the itch to get thoce heavy storms off our windows and replace thea with the fresh, newly painted screens ... Spring must be here. It is sometimes facetiously stated that "In the Spring a young man's fancy turns to what he has been thinking about all year” ... I wonder if I may pull a switch, and suggest that "In the Spring a shoywman's efforts turn to reaping the profits of the selling job he has beem doing all winter" oo. If you've been honestly selling your show ooo putting into practice all those theories of showmanship we have been expounding all this time, forming the habit of doing an honest, individual selling job on every single incoming attraction, then the results of such effort must have snowbealled to the point where they will carry you right through the Spring and into the summer season on the steam you have generated ooo JT den’s mean ooo believe me oo. that now you may siacken off and rest on such laurels as you may have won during the past few months ... Perish the thought ooo I do think, however, that such consistency as you may have displayed in your selling job throughout the winter months shovld now be bearing fruit, and it should be that much easier for you to continue in the adaptation of ali the proven ideas, and the development of new onedo Spring is here oe. and summer can't be too far behind ... Spring fever can be either an excuse for lethargy, or a golden opportunity to shake out those bugs; and start a practical onslaught on the numerous and varied forms of summer competition which will soon be staring you in the face. Whieh is it going to be ... Spring fever, or SPRING FERVOUR? Yov tell me. DoEoko