That sums up Army Archerd's clout in the biz rather nicely. Longtime publicists -- most of whom were once known as "press agents" -- are unanimous in their praise for the Daily Variety columnist.

Warren Cowan has known Archerd since they were kids together in New York. They attended high school together, and were at UCLA at the same time. "He disproved Leo Durocher," says Cowan. "Army proved that nice guys can finish first."

Cowan recalls attending parties at Archerd's home where Gregory Peck, Jack Lemmon, Kirk Douglas and Elizabeth Taylor would be hanging around the pool -- and another occasion when Danny Kaye "cooked a special Chinese dinner" for Army and his wife Selma.

"Army is the one person whom everyone I've worked with takes his call," he says. Archerd also may have added to the paper's bottom line, Cowan suggests, because readers often subscribed just to read "Just for Variety."

Dale Olson worked alongside Archerd in the early 1960s, when he was a Variety reporter with a desk "right in front of Army. Army was God. An item in Army's column was more important than a full-fledged story, because the first thing that everybody of any substance in this business does in the morning is read Army Archerd."

Olson was Rock Hudson's spokesman and concedes that, in 1985, he had initially "tried to hide" the story of Hudson's fatal illness. But Archerd learned of Hudson's hospitalization for AIDS and, says Olson, "wrote one of the most carefully written pieces I have ever seen.

"That's one of the secrets of Army's success. He would do a story, even if it was a difficult personal story, and not write it like gossip. The message was there, but it was gentle. His column will really be missed. There is no way to replace Army Archerd."

Julian Myers, who started at 20th Century Fox in 1948, recalls Archerd's pre-Variety stint as "leg man" for Los Angeles Herald-Express columnist Harrison Carroll. "Army was the consummate interviewer," Myers says, "a handsome young man, very accessible.

"Army came out to Fox every Friday. I was assigned to take him to all the shooting stages. The actors looked forward to Army's visits because they would read in Carroll's column something interesting and honest about them."

Discussing Archerd's impact on the biz, Myers adds: "This world is shaped to a degree by the movies and TV that we see. The people that create those are more apt to read Army's column than anything else that they could read or see."

Henri Bollinger remembers handling early TV genius Ernie Kovacs and helping to promote a series of half-hour specials that aired on ABC in 1961. Kovacs, who once wrote a newspaper column in Trenton, N.J., wanted to give Hollywood the impression that these were important shows, and scheduled screenings for the press.

"The key to it all," Bollinger says Kovacs told him, "is you've got to get the notice of this into Army's column. He did, and it ran, and it worked like magic."

Similarly, when Bollinger handled David Niven's Oscar campaign for 1958's "Separate Tables," Niven insisted that a spot in Archerd's column was vital. Niven, of course, won.

"These were major talents in the industry who recognized that the way to reach all these people was through Army's column. I have never forgotten that. Army, to this day, is key to every campaign that I do," says Bollinger.

Lee Solters -- whose client list has encompassed such legends as Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Pat Boone, Michael Jackson, Ringling Brothers and David Merrick -- says he "wouldn't deny" that there have been times over the decades when he planted items in other columns that weren't true. "But not with Army," he says, "because I had tremendous respect for his column.

"He is extremely knowledgeable. If I plant something that is not true, he knows. He is a first-class reporter. Before I give him anything, I ask myself all the questions that (I think) he would ask me; lo and behold, he will ask me other questions that I forget to ask myself. He wants facts, facts, facts. The truth.

"He is a mensch, and that covers all bases."