Ballyhoo (Jul 2, 1954)

Page scan 0000 from Ballyhoo

Record Details:

Title:
Ballyhoo
Date:
Jul 2, 1954
Volume:
Ballyhoo (Jul 2, 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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“s * ONTARIO ‘B' DISTRICT A ; 4 a ae OUR "NEW CANADIANS" I'm no statistician, believe me ... and I don't think that you ars ... but we both reed our dally newspapers, and somee where between the editorial page and the comic section, certain figures can't help but impress themselves on our minds ooo For many years, in the twenties and carly thirties, Canada’s population remained static at around the nine miilion mark o.oo. Then the census takers went to work, and in 1941 came up with a new figure cf 11,500,000 ... quite a jump, but nothing Like what happened in the succeeding decade or se. The latest population figures, as at January 1953, read ... 15,035,000, a jump, in twelve years, of three and one half million persons. Not all of this increase can be attributed to natural biological processes ... As a matter of fact, a very smail pere centage. The rest, numbered in the millions, are new arrivals to this country. They are our "New" Canadians ...0 a very important seg-= ment of that vast, untapped audience we are always talking about and doing very little to attract into our theatres. These newcomers to ovr midst speak little if any English ... do not read our newspapers, and stick pretty closely together. They are known to be good movie-goers once they have formed the habit .o. I know they can be sold. There are several foreign-language newspapers throughout Canada ... their rates are low ... They reach this potential audidence. Is there one in your community? Do you use it on occe agion? Do you make an effort to get into the "foreign" noighe borhoods of your city? ... Your best contacts are the members of the clergy. Do you know them personally? Do you cover the rest-= aurants where they meet and eat? How about the stores they trade at? oo. Their labour temples? A pretty fair share of that 3,500,009 population ine~ rease is right here in Ontario. You want new customers? Youlve got ‘em ... probably just a stone's throw from your own theatre. Go after this important potential ... Start tapping this vast “untapped” audience. "New" Canadians become assimilated inte the general pattern of their country very quick Tho habits they form now will last a lifetime ... YOU can help influence those habits .o¢ NEED X SAY MORE?