Ballyhoo (Jan 7, 1955)

Page scan 0005 from Ballyhoo

Record Details:

Title:
Ballyhoo
Date:
Jan 7, 1955
Volume:
Ballyhoo (Jan 7, 1955) Ontario 'B' District
Leaf #:
0005
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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CAPITOL WELLAND I SAW has became a regular feature of the local Tribune, and George is quite prowl of the fact that this is the first reali theatre promotZon om a permanent basis, this paper has ever gone for ... On off-theatre pages this week two scenes were rum oo. One on NEVER WAVE AT A WAC and another om GREAT DIAMOND ROBBERY ... Pretty good, I'd say, especially in view of the fact that in the past we couldn't cven get the boys om the paper to talk to us ... let alone co-operate om promotion of any kind. George is still getting valuable free time over © HV ¢ en their "Mystery Personality Show” and the Hungarian and French hours oco Direct plugs for all Capitol attractions. Permanent displays in several dewn town windows continue o draw attention to eur eurrent programs ... George's marques display of live Christmas tress was really something... and didn't do hig WHITE CHRISTMAS date any harm. CAPITOL = SUDBURY Jeff was playing SHOW BUSINESS, and his entire front was loaded with full-size star cut-outs and good sales copy ... most of it eut out of a 2hesheet. Four good window displays helped sell plenty of tickets ... Melody Music store used an attractive eut-out of Marilyn Monroe in their front window ... the locals stopped, gawked, then dashed for the Capitel ... (So Jefr% tells us ...) Paquette’s Men's Wear store used a eutout of Donald O'Connor in top hat and tails to dress up a full window ... Lots of geod pic and theatre art and copy ... Another excellent display in Parisienne Ladies! Shoppe, using Ethel Merman in an evening gown to tie in with their sale of gowns for the holiday season. Johnny Ray was used to plug records in Kreage’s ooo Interesting to note that Jeff used each of the major stars te do a epecific job ... appealing to a separate and distinct segment of his population. That's what I like to sao. Lecal disc jocks were very ce-eperative, and plugged all the musical hits on their regular pregrams, with eredits to picture and theatre. Total cost for this service ... TWO ducats for each station manager ... Two stations, two ducats. CAPITOL = PETERBORO Not too much from Len ... What's the metter Leila? Shot your bolt when yew wom socond prise Last nonth? For TRACK OF THE CAT Len had large cat tracks stencilled from the sidewalk right into his theatre ... with good selling eopy. A good story in the Examiner on the staff Christmas party and that looks like the extent of Leonard's promotional activities this week ... Won't win any prizes this way, boy.