Tichi Wilkerson Kassel, 77; Hollywood editor, publisher

LOS ANGELES -- Tichi Wilkerson Kassel, former editor and publisher of the Hollywood Reporter and the founding president of Women in Film, died Monday at a Los Angeles hospital. She was 77.

Mrs. Wilkerson Kassel had had Parkinson's disease for 14 years and died of complications from intestinal surgery, according to publicist Chuck Ashman.

She inherited the Reporter in 1962 after the death of her first husband, William Wilkerson, who founded the daily movie trade publication in 1930. The couple met when her mother was Wilkerson's housekeeper, and married in 1947. The bride was 21 and the groom was in his 60s. It was her first marriage and his sixth.

As the Reporter's editor and publisher, Mrs. Wilkerson Kassel quickly moved daily coverage in new directions, opening bureaus in New York, Paris, and Tokyo, and making the television industry a prominent reporting beat.

She was creative in marketing the paper and circulation grew to more than 20,000 before she sold the paper to BPI Communications, according to Robert J. Dowling, who replaced her as editor and publisher in 1988.

Her sometimes impulsive management style brought mixed results. She was known for giving untested writers their first jobs, but she could be hard on her staff. In one eight-year period during the 1980s, she changed the paper's managing editor seven times. She was a prominent social figure, envied for the dinner parties she held in the Sunset Boulevard mansion that her first husband built. After his death, she was briefly married to William Miles, a real estate agent. Their marriage ended in divorce before she married Arthur Kassel in 1983. For her efforts to cover Hollywood news, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1989. She also wrote books about her experiences: "The Hollywood Reporter: The Golden Years" (1984) and "Hollywood Legends: The Golden Years of Hollywood" (1988), both with Marcia Borie.After she married Wilkerson, she went to work for his newspaper and he taught her the business. As an editor, she organized Women in Film, which helps newcomers in the business and provides scholarships for film school students. It now includes about 10,000 members worldwide.