How Variety Covered Sept. 11 Terrorist Attacks 25 Years Ago

On Sept. 11, 2001, after the deadliest terrorist attack on the U.S. in history, Variety reporters and editors swung into action to put out the daily paper.

This was the lede on the multi-bylined top story in the Sept. 12 edition of Daily Variety: “It was the day the world stopped. The real world and the play world.” Variety’s first print edition following the attacks ran 20 pages, mostly stocked with coverage of the day’s events and their aftershocks. The issue was fronted by a banner headline reading, “The Mourning After.”

The report in Daily Variety said “casualties from terrorist bombings were estimated at more than 10,000.” The death toll would later be revealed as lower than initial estimates: The Sept. 11 attacks killed 2,977 people, with 2,606 of those deaths at the World Trade Center towers.

Tim Gray, one of Variety’s managing editors at the time and now executive VP of the Golden Globes, said his main recollection was of the staff’s dedication. “Everyone seemed to be underwater, mentally, but came up with ideas for stories about how this affected film production, the TV schedule, the imminent Emmy Awards, etc.,” he said.

It happened from the moment staffers raced to the office that morning, knowing that day would be unlike any other they had experienced covering the business. Because of the time difference, reporters and editors in Los Angeles got to work early that morning and immediately began calling sources and figuring out how Hollywood and the entertainment business would be immediately impacted. Reporters worked on multiple stories at the same time, sharing bylines and contributing tags throughout the edition.

And it didn’t take long for the biz to react: By 11:25 a.m. PT, CBS and the Television Academy had already sent this email: “We are watching this tragedy unfold on television with everyone else today with the deepest sadness. Therefore, out of respect to the victims, their families and our fellow citizens, the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the CBS Television Network will postpone The 53rd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards. We will announce the new date of our awards show at the appropriate time.” (The Emmys was ultimately rescheduled — and then postponed again due to military action, and finally took place in November.)

The Sept. 12 Daily Variety issue included an on-the-ground report from New York City, after the Twin Towers were reduced to a smoldering pile of debris when terrorists crashed a pair of airliners into the buildings. “‘The city is in an extraordinary state of silent shock,’ said USA Films distrib prexy Jack Foley, his voice rough with emotion,” the story reported.

All told, there were 17 stories and columns about the 9/11 attacks in the issue. Those included one about the postponement of the 2001 Emmys (originally skedded for Sunday, Sept. 16, and eventually moved to Nov. 4) and the cancellation of the Latin Grammys; an article about how the 2001 fall TV season schedule was “in limbo” given wall-to-wall news coverage of 9/11; and one reporting that the Toronto International Film Festival “ground to a halt Tuesday as attendees huddled in horror and amazement around large TV screens in hotel lobbies, watching the terrible events unfold in the U.S.”

The issue also featured a piece about how studios were rethinking release dates for movies in the wake of the attacks — including Warner Bros.’ terrorist-themed “Collateral Damage,” starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, which had been set for an Oct. 5 bow. (WB released “Collateral Damage” on Feb. 8, 2002. The movie — with an estimated $85 million budget — was a flop; Variety reported that the “pricey thriller grossed a lackluster $40 million” domestically.)

And then there were the notable Hollywood figures who died in the attacks, including “Frasier” co-creator David Angell and his wife, Lynn.

“IT’S NOT A GOOD MORNING — and it will not be for a long time to come,” Variety’s Army Archerd led off his column in the Sept. 12 issue. “It is not surprising that the biz is putting the bizness of award shows on hold. ‘This is a national crisis and no time to be handing out awards or to comment on what people are wearing,’ Emmy producer Don Mischer told me Tuesday morning about the cancellation of Sunday Emmy Awards.”

Variety’s Gray recalled that people in the industry told the paper’s staffers that 9/11 “would completely change the face of films, and in the future you will see very few terrorist films, films with buildings blowing up, and downbeat films.” He continued: “Luckily, we didn’t give them too much credibility, because within a year, all those theories were disproved at the box office.”

The attacks also disrupted production of Daily Variety: By 9:40 a.m. PT, publisher Charlie Koones and editor-in-chief Peter Bart put out a joint e-mail to staff, with the subject line “Today’s Events and Our Activities”: “Given the tragic situations in New York and Washington, we will not put out the Gotham Edition for tomorrow. It is our intent to deliver the Daily in LA as scheduled. During this difficult time, we ask that you use your best judgement in balancing the needs of personal safety, family and work. If you feel you need to be with family, please do so. We appreciate your help.”

When Daily Variety Gotham returned the next day, Sept. 13, there was a noticeable change in the logo. Before 9/11, an illustration of the NYC skyline — including the Twin Towers — were above the word “Gotham” in the newspaper nameplate. The day after, the skyline was gone. And for the rest of the life of Daily Variety Gotham, the word “Gotham” stood alone, a bit naked.

Daily Variety‘s Sept. 13 issue continued the coverage. But unlike the Sept. 12 issue, which still contained some ads (mostly congratulations pages for Emmy nominees) that probably weren’t pulled in time, the Sept. 13 issue was mostly ad-free. That was a 12-pager with a banner that read “Daze of Our Lives” above a photo showing the Statue of Liberty in front of downtown Manhattan engulfed in black smoke.

While “The Mourning After” headline for Sept. 12 Daily Variety “was well received,” the banner on the 13th “was hated,” Gray said.

“Every day, I would write five to 10 possible headlines for the Daily’s banner story and a group of editors would sit and discuss,” he recalled. “Many people liked ‘The Mourning After’ but the following day, when ‘Daze of Our Lives’ ran, irate people called the editorial desk to complain, and some canceled their subscriptions to Variety. One caller told me with contempt, ‘That headline is CLEVER and this is no time to be clever!’”

The three lead stories in Daily Variety on Sept. 13 were about NBC opting to push its fall premieres to Sept. 24 (CBS and ABC followed suit later in the day); how movie studios were reshuffling schedules (“Sony and Amblin announced they will change the ending of ‘Men in Black 2,’ due for release on July 3, because the World Trade Center was to be involved in the climax,” per the story); and that studios had increased security on their lots as they resumed work on Sept. 12 (while noting that “It was, however, hardly business as usual”).

Another story in the Sept. 13 paper, “A time for healing: New York showbizzers return to their shattered city,” had this lede: “Just two days ago, New Yorkers were in the center of the media-entertainment universe. Now, they’re in the center of utter confusion.”

The edition also included a brief obit of actress and photographer Berry Berenson, the wife of Anthony Perkins and mother of Elvis and Oz Perkins, who was on the American Airlines plan that was flown into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

In the days and weeks after, Variety continued to cover the ever-changing 9/11 landscape even as some things returned to normal: In the Friday, Sept. 14 issue of Daily, for example, the Fall TV Preview still published — even if it was unclear when those shows would now premiere. CBS’s “The Amazing Race,” for example, had just premiered its first-ever episode on Sept. 5 — but when its second episode finally hit the airwaves a few weeks later, the world (and travel in it) had dramatically changed. Also, the new Fox series “24” had to cut a quick scene of an explosion in its pilot episode, so not to upset viewers when it finally premiered in November.

At that moment, it still felt like the business — and covering it — might have changed forever. But that feeling didn’t last long.

By the following Monday, that week’s weekly edition of Variety laid it all out, with a mondo report from the entire staff: “Last week, all of showbiz seemed frozen on a split screen: There was a fierce desire to get back to work, but also an inability to focus on anything but the tragedies in New York and Washington. On Sept. 11, the entertainment biz, like the rest of the world, was paralyzed as it watched the unfolding events: Two hijacked jets slammed into the World Trade Center, a third hit the Pentagon and a fourth crashed near Pittsburgh. However, within a few days, studios were open and functioning, TV execs were mapping out the fall season and ‘The Producers’ was again SRO on Broadway.”

A year later, Daily Variety marked the one-year anniversary of the attacks with an acknowledgement that our pop culture ultimately had not changed since 9/11.

Read the two Daily Variety lead stories from the Sept. 12 issue: “Showbiz is rocked by real life” and “A ‘silent shock’ hits New York.”

Pat Saperstein contributed to this story.