Syd Silverman Dies: Longtime Variety Publisher Was 85

Syd Silverman, longtime publisher and owner of Variety and Daily Variety, who shepherded the entertainment trade papers into the modern era, died August 27 of a sudden illness in Boca Raton, FL. He was 85. In his three-plus decades at the helm of Variety Inc., he steered the trade publications founded in 1905 by his grandfather Sime Silverman to prosperity, through the revolutions in cable and pay TV, independent film presales, financial interest/syndication rules for TV…