Variety

Variety. The leading contemporary theatrical journal, it was founded in 1905 by Sime Silverman and has been published weekly ever since. As its title indicated, its original emphasis was on vaudeville, but it rapidly branched out to cover all aspects of what it called “show biz.” It publishes weekly reports on the grosses and attendance at all major stage productions, and devotes several pages to news of legitimate theatre, albeit since the 1960s it has had to give far more coverage to films and television. Its theatrical reviews have generally been the most accurate in predicting the success or failure of shows, and at the end of each theatrical season it offers a detailed record of the year's statistics. Variety has long been famous for such headlines as “Wall Street Lays an Egg” and “Stix Nix Hix Pix,” the latter reflecting its distinctive verbal shorthand that also included such terms as “legits,” “filmusicals,” and “b.o.” for box office figures. Daily Variety is published on the West Coast. In 1987 the trade sheet was purchased by England's Cahners Publishing Co.