Ballyhoo (Nov 27, 1954)

Page scan 0007 from Ballyhoo

Record Details:

Title:
Ballyhoo
Date:
Nov 27, 1954
Volume:
Ballyhoo (Nov 27, 1954) Ontario 'B' District
Leaf #:
0007
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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CENTURY HAMILTON Well sir, give that guy Mel half e chance and brother-r-> ... does he ever deliver, His chance came this week, and have I ever got a stack of stuff from him to prove it ... Hope I scored everything, as this may well prove to be the turning point in Mel's climb towards the winners!’ cirele ... A few more like this and our boy up in the North country will have to start werrying ... Jan Sterling, star of HUMAN JUNGLE, one of Mel's coming attractions wae due to visit Toronto, and Mel quick-fast made a few phone calls and arranged for her to include the Ambitious Gity in her itinerary ... He figures that her very brief visit netted him well over a thousand bucks! worth of free newspaper publicity alone. To start the ball rolling, Hel arranged for a civie reception, with press, radio, T.V¥. and local police brass in attendance. A 30 foot banner across the entrance to the hotel welcomed Miss Sterling te Hamilton ... three days before she even hit the town. The HamfZiton Spectator came through with a total of 1165 lines distributed as fcllows ... On the day of Jan's vieit, a@445 line cut of the 11!1 Lady seated atop a police motoreyelsa, (fo tie in with the police theme in her picture) naturally with plonty of mention of her pic and the Century .-. Om the day before the picture opened, the Spee ran another three column pic, with accompanying story by Robert Hanley, one of their top weiters. Johnny Robinson deveated an entire column to a story ef the star's visit, with running commentary as only Robinson ean write it. The Daily News stacked up 1200 lines of free publicity which took the form of a giamorous photo ef the star ... four celumns acress, plus a fine stery on the »... get this ... Front page, no less. Another four colamn pic taken at City Hall, plus another interesting story of her visit ... ALI this on the very day before the pic was due to open. Nice timing boy. The Review van a Front Page stery of the visit, plus a co-op ad with participating merchants kicking in a total of 315 {ree lines, on opening day. ALL in all it adds up to something like 2700 lines of free space contributed by the three papers, and aia't that sump'n? € HC H -f¥ co-operated to the fullest ... Miss Storling was interviewed on a half hour afternoen show. Her arrival and interview were filmed, and shown again on the newseast at & P.M. and at midnight. ¢ K O € as always dig a bang up job ... Miss Sterling was interviewed by the Women's ssetion commentator, and one of the popular local deejays. Thess two interviews were aired on both the day before opening and opening day. Eight separate newscasts carried brief stories. Mel figures his pals on ¢ K O C made him a gift of about $150.00 worth of free tine.