Former mugg Steve Knoll, who worked together with Jack Pitman in the New York office of Variety, sent the following two emails to Seb Pitman:

“Many of the names were CBS executives (your father covered CBS for Variety). Sid Garfield, a publicity agent, worked for CBS for many years and later for Alexander Cohen productions. Bill MacPhail was president of CBS Sports. Len Spinrad was vice president of corporate information for CBS. Harry Feeney was director of press information for CBS. Arnold Becker was vp of research for CBS-TV. Swiss is probably George Swisshelm, a reporter in the TV section.

“I have fond memories of your father as a colleague in the 46^th Street office.”

and

“I deciphered one more signature: Charles Steinberg, CBS-TV vice president.

“Apparently all of Jack Pitman’s top contacts at CBS got together to affix their signatures to the Variety page. This shows the clout Jack — as the man from Variety — wielded in those days: these were very important names in the industry.”

London, Feb.20, 2026

It was back in 1969 when Variety mugg Jack Pitman (Pit) got the go-ahead to relocate from the 46th Street digs of the paper to the London office on the top floor of 49 St. James’s Street. There Jack would cover the legit scene in Blighty.

As a farewell gesture in New York, some of the staff scribbled their “best wishes” on a Variety issue, which is here posted. This curiosity was come across yesterday by Jack’s son, Seb, who wonders if anyone can identify any of the scribes that signed the item in question. For my part (PB) none of the signatures rings a bell. Should anyone out there be able to identify the sigs, you can reach Seb at diseboo@yahoo.com. 

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