Army Archerd Retires His Typewriter

Posted on September 8, 2005

Legendary Variety columnist Armey Archerd is retiring after 52 years on the job, according to the L.A. Times. Archerd, who writes the "Just For Variety" column, is known for having four drawers full of current phone numbers for just about every celebrity you could think of.

And then there's Army Archerd, the longtime Daily Variety columnist who has undoubtedly written a line or two about nearly every customer in the joint. In a career that has spanned more than half a century, Archerd has been Hollywood's town crier and cheerleader, chronicling its denizens' deals, divorces, diseases, death, their marriages, remarriages and births.
For decades, reading Archerd was the first order of business for a town that thrives on knowing everyone else's business. Although the gossip trade has been taken over in recent years by the Internet, cable TV and magazines such as Us Weekly, a mention in his column could boost careers. Archerd, 83, just smiles and shakes his head. Not an easy calculation for a man who has written more than 10,000 columns over 52 years in the same job. "Fifty-two years," he says. "That's not chopped liver."
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In this day of celebrity tabloid journalism, which loves to put the embarrassing off-screen foibles of the famous front and center, Archerd has always been a straight shooter, reporting what he knows to be the facts in workmanlike prose. He cringes at the term "gossip columnist" and has always called himself a "news columnist." He never trafficked in rumor or printed blind items.

Said Archerd, 83, "I once said I don't want to drop dead over my typewriter. And my doctor said, 'Why not?'" Apparently, he took his doctor's advice to heart: he says he'll continue to write special columns periodically for Variety.