PUBLICIST JULIAN MYERS PASSES ON

Los Angeles, Dec. 24

Mike Malak has forwarded to us the following:

The L.A. Times reported today the death, at 95, of vet publicist Julian Myers. Julian wrote a number of Anni articles for the Daily Variety, was a well-regarded regular visitor to Tom and Pete Pryor and was as close to a staffer as I’d ever seen a publicist get. His wife, Patsy, an attorney, was famous for her pro-bono work. She died at 83 in October. I knew Julian was a runner and a health guru, but not that he marked his 90th birthday by running 90 miles, from San Diego to L.A. (By that criterion I’m barely two.) He was one of the Gentlemen Publicists and never a stranger to a smile.

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YEAR’S END ROUND-UP

Madrid, Dec. 17, 2013

As we head into the home stretch of yet another year, my thoughts turn to all the surviving muggs all over the world, wondering if, in fact, they have survived and, if so, what they might be up to.

Some will doubtless be sitting in their slippers glued to their TV sets, veritable couch potatoes; others may still hobble around the streets and countryside; the younger ones, it is to be hoped, will be gainfully employed and active. A few may still be writing or working on novels and other artistic ventures.

All of which is merely a preamble to once again urge you to drop me a few lines telling us what you’ve been up to in the course of 2013 so we can include your comments in Simesite’s Year End Roundup.

So do take off ten minutes and kindly send your brief or long input, the sooner the better, to pbesas@hotmail.com. Our faithful Ian Watkins in London will post on the Site whatever I have received at year’s end.

In the meantime, we send you all Season’s Greetings and our best wishes for a healthy and happy New Year.

Ian and Peter

Johnny Madden remembered

New York, Oct. 30, 2013

By Marie Silverman

I visited New York City last week to catch up with another Variety denizen, Tom Gilbert. As we ate lunch, we reminisced, as we often do, about some of our colleagues and the good times at the paper. John Madden was among them, and he is the subject of this piece.

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French Mag traces expression “WHODUNIT” to Sime

London, Sept. 19, 2013

Our “man in London”, Ian Watkins, has spotted an item in a French online mag (Les Voyageurs du Soir) titled “La Whodunit, What Is It?” which delves into the question of exactly who first came up with the expression.

Here’s a rough translation of the contents of the article:

“Per Webster’s New World Dictionary the contraction Whodunit first appeared in the period between the two world wars, in 1930, from the pen of a certain Donald Gordon in the bibliographical magazine American News of Books,

“However, considerable controversy still rages about who really was the father of the expression. Thus, in the April 25, 1942 issue of the Daily Telegram its coining is attributed to having been first used in a Variety article in 1932. In an item published in the Toledo Blade on June 3, 1985, the inventor of the contraction is given as Sime Silverman in 1936 in Variety (which is patently wrong, since Sime died in 1933!  PB), while another source, the Milwaukee Journal of June 10, 1946, claims it was a certain [Variety staffer) Wolf Kaufman who came up with the expression in 1935 or 1936 while writing about the film Murder of an Aristocrat, when he was seeking a term shorter than “mystery story”. The term definitely appears in the Aug. 28, 1934 issue when talking about the film adaptation of Recipe for Murder, by British writer Arnold Ridley. In any case, Variety’s use of the word Whodunit refers to a film and not a novel.”

The article goes on for another 500 words or so giving a recap of the whodunit genre, its history, and some of its most famous examples.

If anyone want to read the original French text, click on to:

http://voyageursdusoir.vendee.fr/2013/09/19/whodunit-what-is-it/