Ballyhoo (Jan 21, 1955)

Page scan 00011 from Ballyhoo

Record Details:

Title:
Ballyhoo
Date:
Jan 21, 1955
Volume:
Ballyhoo (Jan 21, 1955) Ontario 'B' District
Leaf #:
00011
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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awe ‘ o~ CAPITOL PETERBORO Phe Review and Lakefield News each ran two separate scenes on beth FIRE OVER AFRICA and BEAU BRUMMEL ... The News continuing with their Hidden Name Contest page on which Len receives an excellent banner ad in return for a few ducats as prises. An attractive easel display om BEAU BRUMMEL was first used as a lobby piece, and then moved out oa the streot in front of the box office. The whole front was dressed up for the occasion with paper and stills. Lon didn’t want to spend too much dough on his New Year's Eve midnight show, scrounged around in the basement, and came up with a lot of hats, horns, balloons ete. left over from some pre= historic celebration. He advertised this in the local daily, and since his was the only house in town to offer novelties, Lea feels it did boost his business on that night. Your stuff seems to have lost some of its sparkle lately Leonard .owhat's the matter? Now that you have GinemaScope I really expected to be flooded with more and better Showmanship than I've ever had from you. Wake up bey oo. You're slippin’. ot oXoXoXoKe Lo The next scoro-beard ought to be a real lulu ... and should ace some very important changes in the standings ..» You can't live eff one giant sampaign, fellows ... t's just not that kind of a contest. Anybody ean got out and do a job om WHITE CHRISTMAS, mostly because everything is pretty well laid out for you in the press book ... but how about the rest of our stuff ... the real bread and butter pictures? The ones you have to live off the balance of the year? When the final winners are named early in May, they will be winners becauss of tho sustained effort, the interest, the Showmanship they injected into their selling jobs ... BUT ... there will be other winners too, even if they don’t find theme selves in the dough ... the guys who consistentiy, week in and week out, sell, sell, sell ... their attractions, thoir theatres, their industry, THEMSELVES. fhe results which appear en your twenty four shsets are commensurate with the effort you fellewa put inte your selling, 1et%s make no bones about 14t. You do a job ..0 your results show it. You start coasting a littie, and your businesses coasts tooe Can't help it ... I& just worka that way. We have a Little over three months left in our current drive coo OUr $.0.S. oo. remember what it means? SPOTLIGHT ON SHOWMANSHIP. So, come now oo. give out with that Showmanship» and I'1i see to it that the Spotlight hits you ... but good. Get in the swim guys ... lots of room for all ooo and plenty of prises ..o Ali you have to de, is ReE-A-GeH for them. Hope 1°12 be seein! you in the next week's issue ooo DEK.