Ballyhoo (Feb 11, 1955)

Page scan 0004 from Ballyhoo

Record Details:

Title:
Ballyhoo
Date:
Feb 11, 1955
Volume:
Ballyhoo (Feb 11, 1955) Ontario 'B' District
Leaf #:
0004
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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DRUMBEATS ALONG THE BALLYHOO TRAIL Befors we preceed with a resume of last week’a selling activities, I°d ike to veview again, briefly, eur results for January .o. and & eomparison or two ... plus a few very interesting figures. During the month & total of 253,800 points were awarded, representing 537 individual items of selling ... Broken down a Little farthon 4% shows up es an average of thirty items per theatre o.. How do you stack up? Over or under? Art Gauley led the field with 83 separate units ... Mel Jolley and Bob Harvey each contributed 53, and Geergo Forhan Jr. didn't do too badly with 48. From there 1% scaies down to a low of 11 ... which ain't good, and suggests a complete disregard for the basie principle of this drive ... GONSISTENCY ... and ali ff ean add is that it’s a sure-fire way of reserving a seat in the eelilar ... when the f£imal seores are drawn, and winners named. This contest is far from over, and I repeat ... BVERYBODY still has tame to hop on the bandwagon and join the guys who have already assured themaeives of a place at our victory luncheon 2... but you can't de it by sitting baek and hopiag ... You've got te do a real solling job on every attraction, every week. Don's concentrate your efforts om A STAR IS BORN, or SHOWBUSINESS, or SEVEN BRIDES. Sure they need selling ... but your bread and butter comes from the others ... the ones that may be just a Little bit tougher te put seress. Don't overiscok the important fact that Publie Relations deals also eara you points ... plonty of them. Sell your industry ... promote your compeny!’s welfare, and yeu're selling yourself too. There are no cineh winners ... Ask Bob Harvey, he'll teil yeu. Bob started of f in the first month with a lead of 17,000 points ... and I could hear tho groans from Art Cauley, Mel Jolley and a fow others ... BUT ... wha heppen? Art and Mei. rolled up their sleeves ... Bob made the mistake of turning his head for an instant, and did he ever get a surprise ..oo? Our current score-board shows Art withia one hundred points of Bob’s total, and Mei isn't too far behind, oven though he's still trailing by roughly twelve theusand points ... and 2 think it's been conclusively proven that ome slip, offset by one extra iittle spurt can oven things wp. So fellows ... take a deaf from Art's book, and Mel's ang make up your minds now ... RIGHT NOW ... that if they can do it, you cam too. BUT ... remember this ... the oniy way you ean hepe to catch up is by a concentration of selling effort during each and every week romaiming in our $.0.S. drive. We have three months left ... our contest ends the end of Apeil ... You've invited to join us at our prize award lunch in Torente sometime in May ... BUT ... you've got te write your own ticket. Nuff sed. And now ooo Shall we proceed with the task in hand? furn the page ploase.