Variety (magazine)

Variety is an American trade magazine owned by Penske Media Corporation. Sime Silverman founded it in New York City in 1905 as a weekly newspaper covering theater and vaudeville. In 1933, a Los Angeles–based edition called Daily Variety launched to focus on the film industry. The publication’s website includes entertainment news, reviews, box office data, a credits database, production charts, and a film calendar.

Silverman started the weekly on December 16, 1905, after being fired from *The Morning Telegraph* earlier that year for panning an act that had bought a $50 ad. He vowed his own paper would not be swayed by advertising. With a $1,500 loan from his father-in-law, he became publisher and editor. Competitors at the time included *The Morning Telegraph*, *The New York Clipper*, and the *New York Dramatic Mirror*. The original logo, close to today’s design, was sketched by scenic painter Edgar M. Miller, who declined payment. The first issue’s cover showed the editorial staff: Alfred Greason, Epes W. Sargeant (also known as Chicot or Chic), Joshua Lowe, and Silverman. It also featured a review by Silverman’s son Sidne, called Skigie, who at age seven was billed as the world’s youngest critic.

In 1922, Silverman bought *The New York Clipper*, a stage and entertainment paper dating to 1853, to pull ad revenue from *Billboard* after a dispute with its owner, William Donaldson. He folded it two years later, having spent $100,000, and merged some features into *Variety*. That same year he launched the short-lived *Times Square Daily*, which he called “the world’s worst daily.” Staffers worked on all three papers during this period.

After *The Hollywood Reporter* debuted in 1930, Silverman started *Daily Variety* in Hollywood in 1933, with Arthur Ungar as editor. It replaced the *Variety Bulletin*, a four-page weekly wraparound. *Daily Variety* initially published every day except Sunday, later mostly Monday through Friday. The daily and weekly editions operated nearly independently, with the daily focused on Hollywood news and the weekly covering U.S. and international stories.

Silverman handed editorship of the weekly to Abel Green in 1933. He remained publisher until his death later that year, shortly after launching *Daily Variety*. His son Sidne succeeded him as publisher of both papers but contracted tuberculosis in 1936 and could no longer work daily. Green and treasurer Harold Erichs ran the paper during Sidne’s illness. After Sidne died in 1950, his only son, Syd Silverman, became sole heir to Variety Inc. Erichs, who started as an office boy, became Syd’s legal guardian and assumed the presidency.

Ungar edited *Daily Variety* until his death in 1950. Joe Schoenfeld, a former William Morris agent who had worked at *Variety* from 1932 to 1943, succeeded him. In 1953, Army Archerd took over the “Just for Variety” column on page two of *Daily Variety*, quickly becoming a Hollywood fixture. He broke exclusive stories from film sets, announced deals, and reported on star-related events. The column ran daily for 52 years until September 1, 2005.

Erichs oversaw *Variety* until 1956, after which Syd Silverman managed the company as publisher of both the weekly in New York and the daily in Hollywood. Schoenfeld left in 1959 to return to William Morris as co-head of its worldwide motion picture department. Thomas M. Pryor, former Hollywood bureau chief of *The New York Times*, replaced him. Under Pryor, *Daily Variety* expanded from 8 to 32 pages, and circulation grew from 8,000 to 22,000. Green edited the weekly until his death in 1973, when Syd took over.

In 1987, *Variety* was sold to Cahners Publishing for $64 million. That December, Syd handed editorship of the weekly to Roger Watkins. Tom Pryor passed *Daily Variety* editorship to his son Pete in June 1988. On December 7, 1988, Watkins oversaw the switch to four-color print. The new-look *Variety* was one inch shorter with a washed-out color cover. The old front-page box ad was replaced by a strip ad, and photos of Sime, Abel, and Syd appeared—the first images in *Variety* since Sime dropped them in 1920.

From 1989, Peter Bart served as editor-in-chief of the weekly New York edition, while Michael Silverman (Syd’s son) ran *Daily Variety* in Hollywood. Bart had previously worked at Paramount Pictures and *The New York Times*. Syd remained publisher until 1990, succeeded on the weekly by Gerard A. Byrne and on the daily by Michael Silverman. Syd became chairman of both publications.

In April 2009, Bart moved to “vice president and editorial director,” with online coverage calling it “Boffo No More: Bart Up and Out at Variety.” From mid-2009 to 2013, Timothy M. Gray served as editor-in-chief after more than 30 years in various reporter and editor roles at the publication.