Ballyhoo (Nov 18, 1955)

Page scan 0005 from Ballyhoo

Record Details:

Title:
Ballyhoo
Date:
Nov 18, 1955
Volume:
Ballyhoo (Nov 18, 1955) Profit Blitz for 'Fitz'
Leaf #:
0005
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. IN CASH PRIZES hip s SEPT. 5th PROFIT with showman TO DEC. 3rd on : SERVE with showmanship 1955 V_E with) showmanship owmanship HONOURING 25 YEARS OF INSPIRED LEADERSHIP IN FAMOUS PLAYERS SAVE... SERVE ... AND SELL POPC National Drive Captain DAN KRENDEL Barney Regan of our Vancouver booking office has a suggestion, and one which has worked, for the elimination of the hundreds of messy, empty popcorn cartons on the floor of the theatre at the end of the Saturday matinees ... When he managed a theatre, he used to run a popcorn box colouring contest ... The kids took the boxes home with them ... coloured them, and were awarded prizes the following Saturday for the best ones. There!ts a three-fold purpose served ... More popcorn is sold ... You are doing a service to the evening customers, and you are saving your staff the time it would normally take to clean out the house. Oh yes ... it keeps the kids coming back week after week, trying for the prizes. Good deal, and one YOU certainly can use ... unless you have a better gimmick, and we'd like to hear about it if you have, oXeXeoXoXo THIS IS SERVING? Louise Tarantino, Bob Eves! secretary, decided to take in a show one Friday night, and hiked down to one of our theatres .,. The house was packed and she had to wait for seats. Finally she was ushered into the balcony ... about six rows below the projection booth. The six rows above her remained empty during the entire performance, and why? Well... the projectionists were carrying on an animated conversation ... the ports were open, and their voices drowned out the screen dialogue. The manager wasn't around ... and no one else took the trouble to shush them up, with the result that a couple of hundred seats went begging, With customers lined up outside begging to get in. Some fun, huh? Louise further reports that with the terrific crowd inside, only one girl was back of the confection counter, and couldn't possibly handle the business ... Many patrons left their seats to make a purchase and then returned disgusted ... minus the drink, or candy, or popcorn they had set out to buy. Talk about discouraging business? This certainly is a classic example. I like to think that if the manager had been on the job this wouldn't have happened. His B.O. receipts would have been a lot healthier, because all the seats would have been filled ... and his candy counter would have turned a much better profit. More important ... his customers would have been HAPPY.