Ballyhoo (Jun 16, 1954)

Page scan 0008 from Ballyhoo

Record Details:

Title:
Ballyhoo
Date:
Jun 16, 1954
Volume:
Ballyhoo (Jun 16, 1954) Ontario 'B' District
Leaf #:
0008
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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' GAPT TOL . NORTH BAY That boy Robert Q never ceases to amaze me ... he cries and he cries, about the unco-operative Nugget, the unco-operative merchants, the UnCO-Gperative so and so's ooo 80 what happens? He comes through with co-op newspaper ads, co-op merchant deals and co-op just about everything else, including those so and so'’s ... No points for the obvious build up, me lad ooo Bob's feature was NIGHT PEOPLE ... and he started the ball rolling by coming up with a double truck spread on the day before opening .ce. On opening day a local all night garage ran an ad slanted at the local NIGHT PEOPLE ... On the same day, North Bay Confections, bless ‘em ,.. devoted about three quarters of their newspaper ad to: — Robert's feature ... and om the last day of the run, a lecal satery which stays open all night reached out for the NIGHT PEOPLE. Now that's what I call real UNco-operation oo. Bob promoted 1,000 book matches which members of his st handed out on the street with a neat card reading "This is to lig you way to NIGHT PEOPLE ..." A student was sent out to clean all the windshields in the down town area, leaving a neat card on each, promoting NIGHT PEOPLE and GimemaScope. QP afz he ne Two leak service stations remain open all night ... So-o=G naturelly Robert arranged for good displays several days in advances In the lobby, an eye-catching display of newspaper headlines stopped the incoming and outgoing customers, with good selling copy ... This was. extended to the street, where newsboys were provided with dumny headlines taken right out of the press book ooo The "Hollywood in Review" program over local air waves gave Bob full picture credits plus comments on the stars appearing in the picture, using a different star on each of the four days ose The station also carried a good story on CinemaScope on the day before opening ..o. Liberal air mention on both the Lever'’s and Gerald Edmonds’ daily program. For his MAN BETWEEN date, Bob had a couple of youngsters riding their bikes around town with good display banners suspended between the frameso CAPITOL © GALT Something I%m extremely pleased to see from out Galt way ... Eddie reportsthat after a lot of needling, cajoling, begging, he has finally succeeded in getting the local Reporter to come through with an I SAW deal ... The contest is still inthe missionary stages, but as soon as the letters start coming in, brother-rer, we're off to %he races. Nice going Ed ... persistence does pay off, what? Eddie did a bang up campaign on COUNTRY PARSON, and enjoyed the best business his house has turned in in some time ... Personal contact was the keynote of his campaign. Heralds and personal letters were mailed to the rural routes, and the local newsboys inserted heralds in thelr daily newspapers for a week in advance. Thirty elderly inmates of the Eventide Home were Kd's guests for a showing of the picture, Good PR. ,