Lapsang souchong is the pronunciation in Minnan dialect for Wuyi Mountains, which is the mountain area that produces a large family of tea in South-East China). Lapsang souchong from the original source is increasingly expensive because of increasing demand for this variety of tea, as Wuyi is a small area. The story goes that the tea was created during the Qing era when the passage of armies delayed the annual drying of the tea leaves in the Wuyi Mountain. Eager to satisfy demand, the tea producers sped up the process by drying the leaves over fires made from local pines. According to
Variety (magazine) death in 1973. Sime's son Sidne succeeded him as publisher of both publications. Following his death from tuberculosis in 1950, his only son Syd Silverman, was the sole heir to what was then Variety Inc. Young Syd's legal guardian Harold Erichs oversaw Variety Inc. until 1956. After that date Syd Silverman managed the company as publisher of both the "Weekly Variety" in New York and the "Daily Variety" in Hollywood, until the sale of both papers in 1987 to Cahners Publishing for $64 million. He remained as publisher until 1990 when he was succeeded on "Weekly Variety" by Gerard A.