Ballyhoo (Oct 1960)

Page scan 0002 from Ballyhoo

Record Details:

Title:
Ballyhoo
Date:
Oct 1960
Volume:
Time Out for Ticket Talk (Oct 1960, no date)
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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2 samples and free prizes, the children wouldn't put up their money for admission to see old films, when they could attend the othertheatres and see better pictures. Although I was disappointed, I Gidn't give up on "ELMER", as it is one of the best Public Relations promotions a local theatre can have. Then I went to work and I mean work, on a scheme that more than paid off, and here it is .... I contacted local businessmen and succeeded in getting each to give me $200.00 as a co-sponsor of the !!Elmer Safety Shows" for ten weeks finishing just before Christmas. This gave me a rental of $1,000.00 for the whole series of Saturday morning sponsored shows at 10:30 each week. I even had a local television personality from the States make a personal appearance, but he charged too much, so I did not ask him back. The cost of this first "Elmer Show" ran over the $1,000.00 rental sum by $100.00 but candy sales grossed $1,200.00 for the ten weeks leaving me an approximate profit of around $300.00 for the entire series which was better than nothing if I had not run the shows and also proved to me that you can get kids into the theatre without Disney product if you are willing to get out and work at it. Even the Kinsmen Club and Police Department, sponsors of the show in co-operation with the cash-paying sponsors, thought this system was far better and their enthusiasm picked up and they asked me to try another series of rental shows as they feel they are getting to the children in a strong way. Well, I had learned my lesson expense-wise after this pre-Christmas "Elmer Series" and vowed to get higher profits on my next series. I then contacted three large concerns in the Sault and talked them into each paying the theatre $400.00 a piece, making a rental total of $1,200.00 for this second series of Saturday morning shows,