Ballyhoo (Sep 17, 1954)

Record Details:

Title:
Ballyhoo
Date:
Sep 17, 1954
Volume:
Ballyhoo (Sep 17, 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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LAPITOL = WeLLAND Wy hehe eee SUITE gave George a chence for a good tie-up with Hilder's de wv SUITE Purnitur "ey liberally plastered with advertising accessories provided by the theatre, Hiider's also included art and copy in a geed newspaper ad, Patterson's Furniture also devoted their window to a good display. The local Tribune came through with a good scene on an off=theatre page. Por HOBSON'S CHOICE, George had some pretty ambitious plans involving his local Nash dealer ... who backed out at the last minute. However, every taxicab in town sported bumper strips during the run of the program, ORPHEUM ~ $00 ill ef ORCHESTRA WIVES and SUN VALLEY SERENADE, Olga 1 local music stores and the local radio station 2... Yr a complete window loaded with Glen Miller recordings, % music, backed with loads of good selling copy. The two Local stations were most liberal in their use of er music, and the deejays were most co-operative in slipping ature titles and theatre between spinnings,. GAPITOL = ST. KITTS For his HOBSON’S CHOICE date, Vern arranged a screening of the pic on the Sunday before he opened, for the gabbiest people in the world, all of the local hairdressers, plus the press and radio ... and did Ei Sy ever talk it up? ... His business proved it ... His newspaper and local radio both carricd the story. Vern used a special false front, plastered with 11 x 14's and plugging the "23 weeks in Toronto" angle ... Cards were diste vribvted at the stock car races, tying in "Tonight's choice is HOBSON'S CHOICE. Vern got together with Roy Miller at the Lincoln on a really splash newspaper ad. Since there was no paper on Labour Day. they used the portion of their budget saved to combine on a half page ad, headed "MOTION PICTURUS" Greatest Year of Hits" Both were playing Paramount pictures, each with an assist fron the distxibuters, which made this deal possible. This was a most effective way of getting the Famous Fall Festival under wayo CAPITOL = NORTH BAY Hey, what gives .o. all I see is half a dozen lines covering the past three weeks cv. Oh oh oo. nearly forgot oo. Robert "Q" has been holidaying. lowever, before he left he managed to promote the use of a teally elongated trailer, which was parked in front of his theatre during the run of LONG LON: TRAILER. Donor, Harvey Seal Motors, also ran a quarter page ad featuring press book art, copy suppliec by Bob, and a good ticein head. Welli be looking for those red scrap books RVERY WEEK now thet youtre in good shape again after your holidays, Mr. "Q". Ore, Syito used their entire window on a display of EXECUTIVE