by PETER BESAS

Simesite learned with great regret of the passing last Tuesday (Mar.18) of Abie Torres near his home in St. Petersburg, Florida, following a long bout with cancer. He was 67.

Born in New York City of Puerto Rican parents, Abie (Abraham) joined Variety as a messenger in 1958 and eventually took over the “production” department, which was in charge of laying out the paper each week for its publication (in those days) on Wednesdays. Abie’s desk was located at the rear of the ad department, in the back of the long, narrow “ground floor” of the building at 154 West 46th Street. (In fact, you reached the floor by walking down a short flight of stairs right after passing through the main entrance to the building).
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Gerald Lee Gronau, 61, passed away July 2, 2007, after battling prostate cancer.

Gerry was retired from his long career as a newspaper editor which included The Herald Examiner and Daily Variety. For the past several years Gerry and his wife, Cathy, managed a storage facility in Simi Valley.
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It grieved us to hear that former Managing Editor of Weekly Variety, Frank Meyer, passed away last Monday (Jan. 29) at the Memorial Sloan Kettering hospital due to fluid in his lungs and blood clots. He had been hospitalized since shortly before Syd Silverman’s birthday party on Jan. 13th.
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by PETER BESAS

We were grieved to learn of the death of Variety’s former Toronto-based bureau chief for Canada, Sid Adilman, last Saturday (Oct. 14).
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by PETER BESAS

Sadly we must add yet another obit to this webpage. It is for one of the longest-remaining Variety troopers, Norma Nannini, who passed away in New York on August 10th after a long illness. Norma had just turned 70.
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