Ballyhoo (Nov 18, 1955)

Record Details:

Title:
Ballyhoo
Date:
Nov 18, 1955
Volume:
Ballyhoo (Nov 18, 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 11, 2024
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$10,000 JN CASH PRIZES | hi ROFIT with showmans P P SERVE with showmanship SAV E with showmanship manship SEPT. Sth TO DEC. 3rd 1955 HONOURING 25 YEARS OF INSPIRED LEADERSHIP IN FAMOUS PLAYERS National Drive Captain DAN KRENDEL MARQUEE LIGHTS Last week Gerry Coffey, John Heggie's secretary was awarded a prize for her recommendation that during the winter months some consideration be given to turning on our front lighting early enough to take advantage of the homeward-bound street car traffic. The prize awards committee considered this sufficiently important to pass along another reminder ... to ALL of our managers, Please make sure that effective immediately, the lights in your front frames, your marquee and attraction readograph go on the moment it gets dark out ... and that!s between four and five o'clock. Of equal importance, and it may offset the expense of lighting up early, is that you turn all lights, except perhaps your outer border and illuminated frames, off when your box office closes at night ... not half an hour or an hour later, Yout1ll SERVE and you'll SAVE if you take the trouble to follow these suggestions. oherhonrene SAVE THAT 10% SALES TAX From Norm Jackson comes a suggestion to those theatres which use on occasion the services of commercial engravers, photographers and perhaps commercial artists, for the reproduction of zincs, engravings, cuts and mats. Often you will find a 10% sales tax added to your bill. Please remember that when these are required definitely and exclusively for newspaper advertising purposes, the production costs are not subject to the federal sales tax, In future, when ordering such materials for newspaper advertising purposes, just advise the producing firm of this sales tax exemption under our License #125, and request examption from payment of this tax. Your quoting of our license number automatically relieves the producing firm of any liability. Here's a chance to SAVE 10% WITH SHOWMANSHIP. You Know fellows, I was just thinking ... If we all followed the many and varied suggestions for saving money, contributed by the various department heads, office personnel and managers across this circuit, it sould amount to countless thousands of dollars added to the PROFIT side of our ledgers.