Almost 30 years after Sime Silverman founded
Variety in December 1905 in New York, he figured the time had come to start a separate daily paper in Hollywood.
Spurring him on was the fact that one Billy Wilkerson, a local businessman who ran a men's clothing store on Sunset Blvd., had beaten him to the punch by debuting the Hollywood Reporter three years earlier.
But
Daily Variety could in theory rely on the experience and global reach already established with its weekly paper.
The New York-based
Variety, for example, featured regular dispatches from the European capitals and Los Angeles; the stories datelined from Tinseltown were filed, as early as 1920, by Fred Schader and subsequently by Arthur Ungar.
The latter became the first editor of
Daily Variety. The look of the paper mirrored that of the established weekly -- scattershot but chock-a-block with newsy tidbits.
The front page of the first issue, dated Sept. 6, 1933, consisted of no fewer than 17 distinct news items. Contrast that to today's paper, which features five to seven stories.
And whereas today's
Daily is embellished with as many as half-a-dozen mugs, a relevant chart or graphic and often a marquee ad, the first issues of the paper were largely bereft of graphics and boasted few ads.
Regular news reports were shortand to the point. There were many typos. Analysis was non-existent and no writer betrayed enough personality to project a point of view. (The paper vaunted the anonymity of most of its "muggs" up until the 1980s.)
Nonetheless, there was a sense that the muggs were unmuzzled and dogged in their persistence, hunting all over town to upturn morsels.
These items were mainly about who was doing what -- principally onscreen but also on "phonographs," radio and stage -- with what producer, for what studio.
Under the page-one headline "On Their Way": "Metro's next picture for the Jean Harlow-Clark Gable deep-breathing combo will be 'Road to Rome.' Play is by Robert Sherwood. David Selznick will produce." That was it, over and out.
Or this, in an age when travel was still newsworthy and mentioning one's doctors was not a no-no: On page one with the headline "Dressler East": "Marie Dressler left last night for NY. She will be there a month. Miss Dressler will consult her physicians, Drs. Amy and Wilson, while east."
Finally, this amusing item: "Comic Fathers can't be Trusted": "Son of Groucho Marx demanded new name to fit in with Harpo, Zeppo, Gummo and Chico. Groucho told the boy he'd choose name by lot. Putting a cigar in a hat, the comic pulled it out and said 'Name will be Stinko.' "
(Part one in a three-part series. Click here to read part two or Click here to read part three.)
Contact the Variety newsroom at
news@variety.com