Retro

Valley Stream

On Tuesday, March 30, early in the morning, I took the commuter train from Grand Central Station to Valley Stream, Long Island. The station was abustle, as it was every working day, with what one writer termed the “wage slaves” arriving from throughout the Metropolitan area to put in their eight hours of labor in the offices and skyscrapers of the great city. As the eternal outsider, I observed how most of the men were well-dressed, with suits and ties, leather shoes, the femmes in skirts and high-heels. The snack bars and newsstands were doing a lively business and there were always one or two people hovering around the Information booth in the center of the vast ground floor, as well as lines in front of the row of counters selling tickets to the outlying stations. There was a pleasant hum of purposeful, businesslike bustle, a tiny sliver of the daily weekday routine that embraced the working years and lives of millions who had not escaped from what some considered to be the “rat race”, the eternal striving for wealth and security. The scene at Grand Central brought to mind several old films in which the Station was used as a key scenario, such as The Clock with Judy Garland and Robert Walker, The House on Carroll Street and by extension, even the 1953 Italian classic, Vittorio de Sica’s Stazione Termini with Jennifer Jones and Montgomery Cliff. There was even for me a distant filmic whiff of that great British classic, Brief Encounter, most of which is set in a provincial station in England. 

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Abel’s Style Sheet

By Peter Besas                                      

Madrid, Sept. 13, 2023

As I was rummaging through piles of old papers and back issues of Variety in one of the rooms in my apartment, aside from chancing upon a playbill from Tony Pastor’s Theatre at 585 Broadway, with one of the dozen attractions being Miss Lillian Russell, and a 22-page 1912 program of the New Amsterdam Theatre on 42nd Street for a “musical comedy deluxe” called The Pink Lady that included display ads for such restaurants as Shanley’s on Broadway, featuring an “exceptional Cabaret”, Cavanagh’s Restaurant and Grill on 23rd St. (“vocal and instrumental music, shell fish a specialty”), Murray’s “Cabaret in Roman Gardens” on 42nd St., Wallicks new Broadway restaurant on 43rd St. and Bustanoby’s on 39th Street (dinner $1.50, Parisian specialties, dancing, select performance, Tel.6780 Greeley”, I came across a Style Sheet that the former Variety editor Abel Green had printed in 1960 for the guidance of old and new muggs.

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How Variety covered the networks: a reporter remembers

By Steve Knoll 

New York, Jan. 10, 2023

When I joined Variety in 1965 as a TV-radio reporter and reviewer (my signature was Knol.), the broadcast networks dominated the media landscape. I remember when I was assigned to cover a meeting of the cable TV industry association at the Statler Hilton Hotel. It didn’t even fill a small auditorium. There was plenty of room to spare. Today cable TV is a $94 billion business whose annual confab overflows the Chicago convention center.

The old Variety newsroom on 46th St. in the 1960’s.
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The Anni Souvenir Album redux

Madrid, October 8, 2019

Since there are ever fewer and fewer postings on the Simesite as the months and years slip by, in order to show that the Site is not utterly comatose, we have decided to post excerpts from Variety’s Souvenir Album once a month which we feel former muggs might appreciate re-reading.

The Album was printed back in 2005 on the occasion of the 100th Anniversary celebration of the founding of Variety in 1905 by Sime Silverman and was held during a gala dinner in Sardi’s restaurant in New York.

Sadly, most of those who contributed articles to the Album have now passed away, so it is a fitting tribute to their memory to “rescue” these articles and reminiscences from the past which were included in the Album.

We have previously posted four contributions sent for the Souvenir Album by muggs Keith Keller, Larry Michie, Hy Hollinger and one on Jimmy Durante and Sime. You can read all these by scrolling down the
pages.

For the fifth installment, here is one penned by Besa concerning his recollection of an encounter with LA sales supremo, Hal Scott.

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THE OLD LONDON OFFICE

London, Feb. 2, 2017

We were pleased to have a “voice from the past” contact us, namely Catherine Challands who used to work in the London office of Variety when it was on St. James’s Street. Following are a few excerpts from the missive, which also give information on Bob Hawkins:

I found Sime’s Site when I was fiddling around on the computer looking for stuff about Variety.  I worked at the London office in St. James’s Street from 1962-1970 as PA first to Harold Myers and then, when he retired, to Bob Hawkins…

I loved working there, Harold was a fantastic boss and I learned a huge amount from him (I was a rather shy and naïve young girl from South Wales when I started there) – about politics and good food among other things.  I also got on well with Bob and became good friends with Bob’s wife Rosella – we used to go shopping in Soho, the only place she could get the kind of food she was used to.  I’m still in touch with her. Bob is still with us at age 92 but he doesn’t use his computer anymore. I also have very fond memories of Dick Richards (film critic, also of the Daily Mirror) and Bob Ottaway (tv).  In those days I took down every letter and review in shorthand, rather embarrassingly Harold had better shorthand than mine (he had been a verbatim reporter at the House of Commons at one point I think) and he could type faster!

I feel sad, as I guess some old-timers do, at how the paper has changed, but I think it is still respected in the business because you often see it quoted.

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