Philip left Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School in Brooklyn last year to work as a doorman. It was a fight that led to his first job.
“One day, a friend and I went to the RKO Orpheum Theater after school to see a vaudeville show and a movie,” he told Playbill in 2005. “There was a fight on the porch and a doorman was beaten. I said to my friend, ‘I bet he won’t be going tomorrow.’ I went to the theater manager and asked if he had a job as a porter available. He said, ‘Smitty, go down and put on your uniform.’ I took the job and never looked back. “
He later became manager of the RKO Palace (now the Palace) in Times Square, a former vaudeville flagship with 1,740 seats that continued to reserve live entertainment.
“Eight months after starting at the Palace, I was asked to take Judy Garland and her husband, Sid Luft, for a tour of the theater,” he recalled. “This led to Judy’s record engagement in 1951. I remember when she brought Liza” – her daughter – “to the stage to perform with her. After Judy came a series of stars – Danny Kaye, Betty Hutton, Liberace, Jerry Lewis. “
At a party one night in 1957, Smith met Irving Morrison, a Shubert executive, who hired him for the Imperial box office. His career was launched.
He married Phyllis Campbell, a dancer, in 1960. She died in 1994. A second marriage, in 1999, to Tricia Walsh, ended in divorce in 2008. In addition to the daughters, from the first marriage, he left five grandchildren and a brother , Joseph.