Sidney Skolsky (2 May 1905 â€" 3 May 1983) was an American writer best
known as a Hollywood gossip columnist. He ranked with Hedda Hopper
(with whom he shared a birthday) and Louella Parsons as the premier
Hollywood gossip columnists of the first three decades of the sound
picture era. A radio personality in addition to having his own
syndicated newspaper column, Skolsky also was a screenwriter and movie
producer who occasionally acted in the radio and in the movies.
Skolsky claimed to be the person who gave the nickname "Oscar" to the
Academy Award and was credited for the introduction of the use of the
word beefcake.Skolsky was born to a Jewish family, the son of dry
goods store proprietor Louis Skolsky and his wife Mildred in New York
City. He studied journalism at New York University before becoming a
Broadway press agent for the theatrical impresarios Earl Carroll, Sam
Harris, and George White. When he became the New York Daily News
gossip columnist in 1928, the 23-year-old Skolsky was the youngest
Broadway gossip columnist plying his trade on the Great White Way. He
also had a Sunday column, "Tintypes", profiles of actors, directors
and other production personnel and Hollywood creative types, that
continued in print for 52 years, until a couple years before his
death.He moved to Hollywood in 1933, where he moonlighted as a story
editor for Darryl F. Zanuck's Twentieth Century Pictures. The New York
Daily Mirror hired him away from the Daily News in 1937, and he moved
to the New York Post in 1943. United Features syndicated his column to
other newspapers. He also had a regular column in Photoplay, the
country's premiere movie magazine. His Photoplay column was bylined
"From a Stool at Schwab’s", the Hollywood drugstore he made famous.
He helped promulgate the myth Lana Turner had been discovered there,
when it actually had been another Sunset Boulevard establishment, The
Top Hat Cafe, which was closer to Lana's alma mater, Hollywood High.
He helped champion and was very close to Marilyn Monroe.While Skolsky
might not have created the nickname "Oscar" for the Academy Award, he
is the first person to use the nickname in print for Hollywood's
premier award, in his 16 March 1934 column. In 1946, he became a movie
producer with The Jolson Story (1946), which was nominated for several
Academy Awards. He followed it up with 1953 bio The Eddie Cantor
Story. Starting in 1954, KABC-TV Los Angeles featured him in his own
TV show, Sidney Skolsky’s Hollywood. He wrote five books about
Hollywood and the movies, including a 1975 autobiography, Don’t Get
Me Wrong, I Love Hollywood.
known as a Hollywood gossip columnist. He ranked with Hedda Hopper
(with whom he shared a birthday) and Louella Parsons as the premier
Hollywood gossip columnists of the first three decades of the sound
picture era. A radio personality in addition to having his own
syndicated newspaper column, Skolsky also was a screenwriter and movie
producer who occasionally acted in the radio and in the movies.
Skolsky claimed to be the person who gave the nickname "Oscar" to the
Academy Award and was credited for the introduction of the use of the
word beefcake.Skolsky was born to a Jewish family, the son of dry
goods store proprietor Louis Skolsky and his wife Mildred in New York
City. He studied journalism at New York University before becoming a
Broadway press agent for the theatrical impresarios Earl Carroll, Sam
Harris, and George White. When he became the New York Daily News
gossip columnist in 1928, the 23-year-old Skolsky was the youngest
Broadway gossip columnist plying his trade on the Great White Way. He
also had a Sunday column, "Tintypes", profiles of actors, directors
and other production personnel and Hollywood creative types, that
continued in print for 52 years, until a couple years before his
death.He moved to Hollywood in 1933, where he moonlighted as a story
editor for Darryl F. Zanuck's Twentieth Century Pictures. The New York
Daily Mirror hired him away from the Daily News in 1937, and he moved
to the New York Post in 1943. United Features syndicated his column to
other newspapers. He also had a regular column in Photoplay, the
country's premiere movie magazine. His Photoplay column was bylined
"From a Stool at Schwab’s", the Hollywood drugstore he made famous.
He helped promulgate the myth Lana Turner had been discovered there,
when it actually had been another Sunset Boulevard establishment, The
Top Hat Cafe, which was closer to Lana's alma mater, Hollywood High.
He helped champion and was very close to Marilyn Monroe.While Skolsky
might not have created the nickname "Oscar" for the Academy Award, he
is the first person to use the nickname in print for Hollywood's
premier award, in his 16 March 1934 column. In 1946, he became a movie
producer with The Jolson Story (1946), which was nominated for several
Academy Awards. He followed it up with 1953 bio The Eddie Cantor
Story. Starting in 1954, KABC-TV Los Angeles featured him in his own
TV show, Sidney Skolsky’s Hollywood. He wrote five books about
Hollywood and the movies, including a 1975 autobiography, Don’t Get
Me Wrong, I Love Hollywood.
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