Sid was my friend, my mentor, my guide. But, more importantly, Sid was the entertainment journalist who refused to allow the American cultural and celebrity juggernaut to crush Canadian TV, movies, music and theatre. He always stuck his stupid little pencil nubs in the cultural dike.
I owe him my job at the Star, and much much more.
But many other people, including household names, owe him even more than that.
Unfortunately, I can't find it online so I reproduce it here in full: My column from when Sid retired from the Star in November 2002.
Adilman's watchful Eye --- Canadian culture would not be the same without Star columnist
IF YOU enjoy Canadian movies, music, television, theatre, art or books,
you owe at least a small debt of gratitude to The Star's Sid Adilman.
If you create Canadian culture, you should know you owe him a lot.
And if you write about it, you probably owe him your job. Without
Adilman on the scene boosting and battling for homegrown art and
artists, most Canadian critics would have had to find another beat,
because these pages would likely be dominated by U.S. wire copy about
Hollywood productions and Broadway shows.
Last week, Adilman, 65, left the building, retiring from daily
journalism after 42 years of covering entertainment. He first joined
The Star in 1960 as a summer intern and then general reporter, moving
to the now-defunct Telegram in 1963. But, after the Tely folded in
1971, Sid returned with his "Eye On Entertainment" column, becoming
both Canadian editor of the trade paper Variety in the 1980s and, from
1986-91, editor of this section.
Long the most influential cultural journalist in Canada, he never
stopped writing his column, giving boldface to those who struggled
mightily against the American entertainment behemoth that always
threatened to crush Canadian showbiz. He helped to build this industry,
as surely as those moguls who grew rich from it.
As Toronto Life magazine wrote in an expansive profile in 1985, Adilman "is a must-read for the city's entertainment community."
King CanCon is how I very fondly think of him, the slight, skittish guy
with the big glasses. He helped put Canada on the world's cultural map.
So, when word of his retirement spread, everybody remarked on how it's
the end of an era. He'll be freelancing - but it won't be the same.
"It's going to be weird not having him there; I mean he's always been
there," said Chum/City guru Moses Znaimer. "He isn't one of those guys
who write in newspapers who like to pretend they live in New York. He
is a genuine supporter of things Canadian."
"Sid's constant interest, support and very vocal criticisms have kept
us all on our toes for years," said movie producer Robert Lantos.
"Nothing escaped him: We have a better industry today because of his
attentive eye and critical insight. One of the finest cultural
journalists ever, (he) deserves tremendous respect because he was
always on the job, whether or not we liked it."
And sometimes they didn't like it at all.
Sid always had the inside scoop on who was doing what to whom and with
whose money - often the taxpayers'. He'd confront TV execs about their
less-than-enthusiastic commitments to Canadian programming; harangue
cultural bureaucrats who weren't performing; kick butt if anybody
messed with Canadian talent; and complain long and loud if something or
someone did not live up to expectations. He was the only entertainment
writer in the country who consistently obsessed over government funding
decisions for Canadian production, federal task forces studying
cultural matters and the fate of the National Film Board.
Nobody was safe. From Izzy Asper to Moses Znaimer, all were in his
sights. Even in his final column yesterday, he lobbed verbal grenades
at CBC suits who don't give on-air personalities the star treatment Sid
feels they deserve.
"I know people he's written not great things about, and that's okay;
sometimes you have to do that," said Stratford's My Fair Lady Cynthia
Dale. "But he's always been a champion for the cause of Canadian
talent."
Said Alliance Atlantis chief Michael MacMillan: "I could never get
angry with him (because) his fundamental purpose was always good."
Sid's nose for news was notorious. If you didn't specify something was
not-for-attribution, you'd find your casual cocktail party conversation
reproduced in 100-point type. But, if you told him something was off
the record, it went into his vast and impenetrable mental vault.
"He could drive you crazy with his information, but he never divulged his sources - not ever," said Lantos.
Sid's note-taking style made me crazy. He'd hurtle through the
newsroom, hot on the trail of some headline, and empty his pockets of
scraps of napkins, coasters, placemats, ticket stubs and matchbook
covers upon which were scrawled the names and deeds of his subjects -
or victims. From these he would construct columns.
No wonder he is legendary for some of his mistakes.
Sometimes even his corrections had corrections.
"The facts were sometimes wrong, but the point was generally right," said MacMillan.
Probably his most infamous gaffe came in 1984, when Sid wrote that,
during a play at the Theatre Passe Muraille, cast members were smoking
marijuana on stage. They weren't. It was actually strawberry tea. The
theatre threatened to sue. The Star apologized.
Sid could also be punishing. In the mid-'80s, when veteran press agent
Gino Empry gave a scoop to The Globe and Mail instead of The Star, Sid
ordered our reporters and critics to boycott him and his clients for 90
days.
But that's because getting the news first mattered more than anything
to Sid. He'd often complain that too many entertainment writers were
into being critics and not reporters. As he groused to Toronto Life in
1985, "They feel that their opinions are worth something, even though
they've been in the business only half an hour."
That commitment to news made him difficult to work with sometimes,
mostly because he expected all of us to care as much as he did. So he
could be a pain, running on too many double espressos and doting
excessively on his Triple A idols: Anne Murray, Anne Of Green Gables
and the late Al Waxman.
Relentless and secretive - we had to sneak this column by him - Sid was
Sid to the end, quitting without saying goodbye. That's okay because
he'll always be around, at this weekend's Gemini Awards, at Tuesday's
Giller Prize gala, at next year's Toronto International Film Festival.
Because, after all, where would they be without Sid?
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