Ballyhoo (Oct 28, 1955)

Page scan 0005 from Ballyhoo

Record Details:

Title:
Ballyhoo
Date:
Oct 28, 1955
Volume:
Ballyhoo (Oct 28, 1955) Profit Blitz for 'Fitz'
Leaf #:
0005
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 17, 2025
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$10,000 IN CASH PRIZES take = manship SEPT. 5th PROFIT, with Shoe TO DEC. 3rd SERVE with showmanship 1955 showmanship Lrwith showmanship HONOURING 25 YEARS OF INSPIRED LEADERSHIP IN FAMOUS PLAYERS INVESTIGATORS! REPORTS National Drive Captain DAN KRENDEL Don't duck fellows ... your company investigator is a pretty nice guy ... He has no axe to grind, and you'd be surprised at how many nice things he has to say about you ... when you give him half a chance. He reports what he sees ... no more and no less, He must of necessity be a very observant sort of guy, and at times may notice certain things that you, being so close to your operation, may have simply overlooked. He's not a policeman, and he is not a spy ... He merely reports what he sees, and we pick it up from there. Our company investigator is a one-man service organization, and he's working for YOU. No matter how cautious you may think you are in the operation of your theatre, occasionally certain abuses creep in, which if unchecked can snowball to incredible proportions, and can possibly cast a stigma on your reputation as a manager, and as a good businessman. His reports and comments are communicated to you in order that YOU may take the necessary steps to remedy such abuses or violations of company rules, before they get completely out of hand, Ferg Martin has prepared for me a compilation of the more common faults, as gleaned from a cross-section study of investiga-~ tors! reports over a period of time, and covering most of our theatres from coast to coast, There are several headings, and I'll take them one at a time, and try to cover all the subject matter in the next two or three issues. Suppose we start with your theatre front, as it looks to a passer-by ... a potential customer, THEATRE FRONTS 1. Dark bulbs ... duds, lots of them in your marquee and upright sign. Haven't been changed in weeks. Very unsightly. 2. Paint peeling under the marquee, and starting to rust where the rain had got at it. 3. Display frames and doors in bad need of a coat of paint. Occasionally no display material in one or more frames. 4, Flasher border not working. Neon tubing jerky and buzzing, indicating that transformer should be replaced, 5. One whole end of the "V" attraction board not lighted.