Ballyhoo (Feb 25, 1955)

Page scan 00011 from Ballyhoo

Record Details:

Title:
Ballyhoo
Date:
Feb 25, 1955
Volume:
Ballyhoo (Feb 25, 1955) Ontario 'B' District
Leaf #:
00011
Language:
English
Collection:
Hollywood Studio System, Global Cinema, and Canada
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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ORPHEUM S00 (cont 1d.) Every hairdresser in the city was provided with mounted stills whieh were placed in strategic locations in the shops ooo Naturally the stills were appropriately Lettered. fhe Girl in Red restaurant played Doria Day and Frank Sinatwa records for a full week .0. te the exclusion of ail other recerdings ... The Tribal Room at the Algonquin Hotel placed a cut-out ef Sinatra at their organ cco very life-like $00, and the entertainer played Sinatra and Doris Day hit tunes from the picture for a full week. fhe front of the theatre was the most striking I have ever seen, with two huge red hearts, heads of the principals and good art salvaged from some of the paper em the pic. This theme was carried right through the lebby, into the foyer and right ever the confection bar. Every membor of the staff wore YOUNG AT HEAR? hearts for a full week before the pic opened and through 463 run ooo Oiga doesn't have a p.a. system in her theatro, but one of her projectionisats borrowed ome, wired it, aad all wook tunes from the pic wore played out into the lobby and street. fhe famous Hargraves quadruplets live in the See, and Olga invited them to be her guests at the theatre .o. They net only accepted, but marched inte the theatre carrying huge YOUNG AT HEAR? hearts .o. People erowded around to watch ooo believe me o.o and I guess a few paid their way in tee. Oiga has a seft spot in her heart too ... and doesn't always think in terms of personal publicity and promotion. Ail the youngsters at the Local homes wero invited in as her guests for the last day's showings ..o Incidentaily, in connestien with her YOUNG AT HEART contest, I neglected to montion that the participating merchants took air time to publicise the deal. Both wradio stations, WS O00 and ¢ J I € came through with terrific co-operation ... Both featured Doris Day and Prank Sinatra recordings during the rum, and ail the deejays were instructed to include an announcement break in their programs. I'm sure I aust have missed something along the iine, but XI think the absve may give you some slight idea of the kind of a selling job Olga did. Congratulations Olga oo. you really did a job on this one ...0 Keap At up ooo and i'm sure T° see you at our prizeeaward lunch. ool 0X ooo Well gang, it’s getting late and I want to get out of here ... Keep slugging ... and KEEP BALLYHOOIN’. See you noxt week. DoE.K.