Kroger Babb - Other Ventures

Other Ventures

After the success of Mom and Dad, Babb talked of an "unrealized" project called Father Bingo, which he advertised in BoxOffice magazine as "An Expose of Gambling in the Parish Halls" and described as a comedy with an anti-gambling message about a corrupt priest who runs a "controlled" bingo night at his parish. Babb called it "the best 'snow-job' of my life," and it has been speculated that he never intended to make it, despite the trade ads that appeared for years.

Babb was involved with many film production companies along with his own, including Southwestern Productions. On the strength of his past successes, Babb joined John Miller's film production company, Miller-Consolidated Pictures, as vice president and general manager in 1959. Babb advocated the use of the hard-selling technique he had perfected as a presenter: "selling the sizzle instead of the steak", according to an interview. He wrote a column for BoxOffice at the same time. His personal anecdotes provided advice for selling films, such as writing off expenses as tax deductions, and using women's clubs to expand advertising and revenues cheaply. He noted that there were "over 30,000 women's clubs," and that "practically every women's club has a 16mm projector."

In 1963, Babb formed another distribution company, Studio 10,001. Operating in Beverly Hills (and claiming representation in Canada, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand), it used similar roadshow techniques to market television programs such as The Ern Westmore Show. Babb also acted as a showman for hire, promoting others' films when not working on his own. Among them was a nudie-cutie picture titled Kipling's Women, a peep show, and Five Minutes to Love, a reworking of a Rue McClanahan film.

Babb began creating promotion kits in an attempt to teach his craft to would-be presenters. Marketing himself as "MR. PIHSNAMWOHS" ("showmanship" backwards), he advertised in BoxOffice. He also dabbled in other areas, writing tirades against pay television and creating a pyramid scheme titled "The Idea Factory." One of his schemes was the "Astounding Swedish Ice Cream Diet": overweight throughout his life, Babb claimed to have eaten ice cream three times a day, yet to have lost one hundred pounds in forty-five days.