"Just for Variety" debuted April 27: "Good Morning: Here's the public's answer to the future of 3-D: nine out of 10 want to see more."
He ended the year on a poignant note: "An over-dressed gal, waiting for a table at a Las Vegas supper club: 'Isn't this disgusting, isn't this awful -- waiting.' A soft voice behind her: 'I don't mind -- I can remember waiting in line for bread.' Happy New Year!"
What followed over the next 53 years was an incalculable number of items about every major and most minor players in show business.
Besides his work as a columnist, Archerd was, for 47 years, the official greeter at the Oscars, interviewing nominees and stars as they made their way across the red carpet.
He was always nervous about getting his facts straight, and would spend hours boning up on the nominees in the days leading up to the ceremony.
Archerd, who hosted the People's Choice Awards from its inception in 1974, also had a minor sideline in the movies and on television, often playing himself.
In his first year at Daily Variety, the general manager of KNXT-TV, James Aubrey (who would go on to head CBS and MGM) decided that Los Angeles needed a "young, photogenic Hollywood reporter." So five nights a week, after his column deadline, Archerd would dash over to the studios of KNXT (now KCBS-TV Channel 2) to do a five-minute report on the 11 o'clock news, "The Heart of Hollywood."
Archerd never lost his urgency for news and never lost his appetite for a scoop.
"I was trained in the old style of the reporter," Archerd told Daily Variety in 1993 for a story about the 40th anniversary of his column.
"You could really call up and say, 'Hold the front page. I've got a story.' And I've carried that feeling even though I now have a daily column. So often I will call up the desk and say, 'We've got to rewrite. I've got something hotter.' For instance, at the Kennedy Center Honors last month, I bumped into Dana Carvey at the White House. I found out that the president [George H.W. Bush, in his final days of office] had invited him to spend the night and sleep in the Lincoln Bedroom. I just made a beeline downstairs to the men's room and quick called up Daily Variety and said, 'Kill my lead.' It was eight o'clock Washington time Sunday evening and we were able to have it in Monday morning's paper. There were hundreds of newspapermen there, but nobody else had it. Then it was all over everything. It's that kind of excitement I love."
Along with his wife, Selma, an actress whom he married in 1970, Archerd's survivors include a son, Evan; stepsons Richard Rosenblum and James Rosenblum; and five grandchildren. His daughter, Mandy Falk, died last year at 58 after running a marathon.
Services are pending.
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