Dec. 22, 2014

As we near the year’s end, here is a round-up of what some of the muggs have been doing since we last ran this annual entry. In all, we’ve received 21 replies, which ain’t bad, but is fewer than the previous year.

In the event we receive others in the coming weeks, we’ll post the latecomers in mid-January.

Here, then, in the order in which they were received, are the “magnificent 21”. Be sure to scroll down to the end, where Mark Silverman has included some pics of Syd.
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New York, Nov. 11, 2014

Former mugg Fred Lombardi alerts us to a new feature film that is now in release in the States made by a Variety alumnus, albeit one whose tour of duty was only for a few months.

Nightcrawler, written and directed by Dan Gilroy and starring Jake Gyllenhall and Rene Russo (Dan’s wife) opened in New York on October 31. Dan, the son of the playwright (The Subject Was Roses) and film director (From Noon to Three) Frank Gilroy, worked briefly as a reporter on 46th Street, circa 1986.

I remember Dan as a good guy. He gave me a review copy of a book on John Ford that he had received and I wound up reviewing the book for Variety.

P.S. Fred recently received the longest in-depth critique of his book Allan Dwan and the Rise and Decline of the Hollywood Studios from the Bright Lights Film Journal, reviewed by its editor Gary Morris. Bright Lights was begun as a printed publication back in the 1970s but, in a sign of the times, now appears only online.

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Norwalk, CT. Oct. 10, 2014.

Former Variety sales manager Mort Bryer sent us this amusing contribution of an offbeat sales assignment he undertook in 1979 to darkest Africa. This was during the years when the sheet was expanding prodigiously overseas and special sections were being added zeroing in on areas such as Latin America, Portugal, the Far East, New England, the Magreb, Australia & New Zealand and a dozen other territories around the world.

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Here is Mort’s account of the trip:

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The occasion of getting quoted (quoted!) in Variety this week prompted a nostalgic visit to Simesite, where I found myself listed among the missing. I’d love to be reinstated into the list and the loop .

I’m still in NYC (20+ years since I left both Berlin and Variety), and still tracking media, if not covering film and tv. For the past many years, I’ve covered digital media, marketing and advertising, mostly editorially but more recently as a research analyst (more on what I’ve been up to, if anyone cares to click, is at rebeccalieb.com). Old habits die hard, like spelling “exex.”

I would love to hear from any muggs in, around or passing through NYC. A special hello to Jack Kindred, who roped me into writing for Variety when I landed in the Fatherland direct from a NYC film praisery, wondering what I was going to do next.