Ballyhoo (Feb 5, 1955)

Page scan 0007 from Ballyhoo

Record Details:

Title:
Ballyhoo
Date:
Feb 5, 1955
Volume:
Ballyhoo (Feb 5, 1955) 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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ALGOMA S00 For his date on SHOWBIZ, Norm effected a tie-up with ¢ Jj I ¢ and @ lecal merchant, which resulted in a half-hour program on the Sunday preceeding his opening, with plenty of music from the pic and theatre plugs thrown in. The station's deejays plugged song hits from the picture throughout its run. Moore's Musie Store set up a nice window on SHOWBIZ ... tying in with their sale of recordings of the hit tunes. A good musical note standee drew much attention on the sidewalk in front ef the theatre entrance. For his date on BRIGADOON, Norm arranged for the local pipe band to parade to the theatre in full uniform ... Made a very colourful display, and attracted much comment. Two young ladies from a local dance studio wore on hand on opening night, in Scottish attire, dancing and greeting patrons. The Mayfern Fabric Store dressed their entire front window with a terrific display of tartans as a background for posters, coloured photos and copy plugging Norm's attraction. Canada Foods placed displays in all stores handling their oatmeal ... The local Caledonia Society sent notices to their memborship, recommending the picture at the Algoma. The box office and Norm's confection bar were suitably decorated for the occasion with plaid wall paper ... which added a truly authentic Scottish atmosphere. CAPITOL = ST. KITTS This week Vern tied in with the local New Method Cleaners, and in return for a few single Oakleys, used as prizes in a weekly salesslip draw, got himself plenty of good space in their daily newsepapor ads. An offetheatre-page scene on SHOWBIZ im the Standard oo. fhe daily “Morning Melodies" program still plugging Vern's eurrent attractions. Standee still standing at the entrance to the new Dominion store. A special "Advance Product" ad was run by Vern in the Standard and proved most effective. When you have something to erew about ... Why net do some crowing? He has a iime-up of top attractions, and decided toe tell his customers about it ... and %~o mc that spelis good business. PALACE = GUELPH A good scene on an off-theatre-page in the Mereury on DRUMBEAT ... Three thousand heralds were made up, using the coin game as dese cribed in the pressbook, and distributed to school children as they ieft the school grounds. Vorvis Restaurant still distributing several hundreds of book matches with the theatre contest imprinted, every week.