Little Accident

The three great organs of the theatrical world are The Billboard, Zit's Weekly and Variety, and the greatest of these is Variety. Into the laps of laymen Variety seldom finds its way. That is just as well, for to the untutored mind its language is almost unintelligible. Yet for professional mummers and mimes Variety is almost as necessary as mascara. Every week actors, cinemactors, pitchmen, tent show performers depend upon its fat pages for information regarding bookings, gossip, scandal, news. To such folk, for instance, the headline NO JOINT. NO TAKE INDOOR CIRCUS NETS 20 G'S means that an indoor circus which operated without the use of shady concessions made a profit of $20,000.

Because it employs a distinctive brand of free-and-easy journalism, Variety frequently gets into trouble, is often sued. This happened again fortnight ago, this time after a French lawsuit. The paper was fined 1,000 francs ($39.22), ordered to give 150,000 francs ($5,882.35) to Actor Pierre Meyer. The court had found that Variety had reported that the only reason Actor Meyer was appearing in the Palace Music Hall Revue in Paris was because his wife had financed the show. In addition, slow-spoken, big-nosed Editor Sime Silverman was sentenced to 30 days' imprisonment.

Editor Silverman's only reaction to the proceedings was one of amusement. He pointed out that Variety is frequently sued abroad, that it has no "accredited correspondent" in France (although one Abel Green sends French despatches), that the publication owns no property abroad, that other journals which do so are foolish. Said he: "I have never been to Europe. I have never had any curiosity to go. Now I have the best excuse in the world. Green has a big expense account, so let him go to jail."

Editor Silverman's own particular province is largely bounded by a window facing Manhattan's West 46th Street in which he sits on a dais-like structure. Across from him sits his son Sid to whom he gave half his paper last year. As much a part of him as Son Sid is Sime Silverman's Variety.

The publication's career began in 1905 when Editor Silverman left the New York Morning Telegraph because he would not comply with his boss's wishes about a theatrical review. Variety's first field was the vaudeville and burlesque profession. From the start its impertinence made good friends and bad enemies. Longest and bitterest struggle the sheet had was with the late Edward Franklin Albee, from whose theatres and booking offices Variety reporters were barred because the weekly rushed to the defense of wronged Thespians on every possible occasion.

For its lavish use of slanguage, the late Jack Conway is largely responsible. Conway, once a professional baseball player, once a streetcar conductor, was employed when the paper was in its kicking, yelping infancy. A swift writer, he compounded the argot of the ball park, the slum and the green room, helped make possible such journalistic enigmas as: "Crusading Tab Bailies Biz Into Rough Joints," "Ruined by Grift, Carnival Goods Men Turn to Bridge Prize Trade," "Wellman No Like, He Walks on Par."

Of himself and the business end of his paper. Editor Silverman is secretive. Variety's circulation is never disclosed, although 20,000 vaudevillians read it weekly, "so people will give us credit for more than we have. Other papers ought to do that too!" He insists that he never makes any money, that he has little to do with the journal's editing. "I'm an accident. The staff did it." But the staff knows that he has read every story, directed each move in Variety's 25 years.

His present worst enemy and severest competitor is C. F. Zitell of Zit's Weekly. One of his best friends is Walter ("Vulture") Winchell, gossipist of the New York Mirror, who writes his blurbs only with a heavy-leaded Variety pencil. Although Editor Silverman likes to be told he looks like Jimmy Durante, grotesque funnyman, he vehemently insists that he was never an actor. Asks he: "Did you ever meet an actor?"

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