Sime Silverman

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Sime Silverman (Simon J. Silverman) was an American journalist and publisher who founded the entertainment trade paper Variety in 1905 and the Hollywood-focused Daily Variety in 1933. Born on May 19, 1873, in Cortland, New York, to a Jewish family, he started his career helping his father and later wrote for Daily America under the pen name “The Man in the Third Row.” After a dispute at The Morning Telegraph in 1905—over a sketch and an advertising contract—he used a $1,500 loan from his father-in-law to start his own paper, Variety, in New York.

Silverman served as Variety’s editor until 1931, when he gave the role to Abel Green, but he stayed on as publisher until his death. He soon launched Daily Variety to cover the growing film industry. He was known as the “oracle of show business” and for his blunt, opinionated style.

In 1920, Silverman bought a New York office building for the company, and in 1922 he acquired the New York Clipper. He married Harriett Freeman in 1895, and the couple lived in Manhattan. He died on September 22, 1933, in Los Angeles at the Ambassador Hotel from a lung hemorrhage at age 60. His funeral was held in New York. His son Sidne (Sid) Silverman took over as publisher, and his grandson Syd Silverman later became the third publisher of Variety. Dayton Stoddart wrote a biography of him in 1941.