Ballyhoo (Oct 28, 1955)

Page scan 0002 from Ballyhoo

Record Details:

Title:
Ballyhoo
Date:
Oct 28, 1955
Volume:
Ballyhoo (Oct 28, 1955) Profit Blitz for 'Fitz'
Leaf #:
0002
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 17, 2025
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= 1 $10,000 IN CASH PRIZES Fit with showmanship SERVE with showmanship showmanship h showmanship PRO SAVE with of Ble SEPT. Sth \ ‘ z ? TO DEC. 3rd 1955 HONOURING 25 YEARS OF INSPIRED LEADERSHIP IN FAMOUS PLAYERS National Drive Captain DAN KRENDEL A MESSAGE FROM OUR VE@P "Hellow fellows .., I promised Dan that I would direct a few, brief words to all the participants in our current PROFIT BLITZ FOR FITZ, and this being the half-way mark in our drive, seems like an opportune time for my message ...'! "Those of us who are privileged to sit on the Awards Committee are thrilled to see the really great selling job that our managers from coast to coast are doing, each and every week .,." "This is evidenced by the growing volume of promotion ideas, merchandising tie-ups, exploitation stunts and money-saving thoughts that you are sending in to Dan Krendel regularly. We are particularly pleased to see that these contributions are coming not just from the "old regulars," such as Ackery, Newman, Mitcheltree, McKibbin, Trudell, Burke, Harvey, Cauley, Howe, Lynch etc., but each week many other managers come through witn great selling ideas .., ideas that when passed on to other theatres and adopted must of necessity add something towards the improvement of our whole operation ..." "We are pleased to see that so many of you are putting to good use the wealth of ideas that were presented to you at our recent Regional meetings by Jim Nairn, Bud Barker, Jack Fitzgibbons and the others ,.. As a direct result, each week we see new efforts to put on special shows for children ... a revival of interest in attracting teen-agers into our theatres through the regular use of Students! Privilege Cards ... and a further concentration on the merchandising of confections, particularly the high-profit items." "All in all it appears that our PROFIT BLITZ FOR FITZ is well on the road to doing the job that we had hoped for ... instilling a new enthusiasm in our personnel ~ men and women across our entire circuit OB Bas a new and revived interest in our business on the part of our patroais, and commencing to build a foundation under our business to assure a future that will be a Lone happy and secure one for all of us who earn our living in it "Keep up the fine job that you have started ... SELL with Showmanship ... SERVE with Showmanship ... SAVE with Showmanship, and PROFIT with Showmanship," "Happy Blitzing fellows .,. and good luck to every one Of yO oi! R. W. Bolstad