Philip dropped out of Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School in Brooklyn last year to work as a diaper. It was a fistfight that led to the 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. I told my friend, ‘I bet he won’t be tomorrow.’ I went to the theater manager and asked if he had an introductory work available. He said, “Smitty, go down and put on your uniform.” I accepted the post, and I have never looked back. ”
He later became manager of the RKO Palace (now the Palace) in Times Square, a former 1,740-seat vaudeville flagship that continues to discuss live entertainment.
“Eight months after I started at the palace, I was asked to take Judy Garland and her husband, Sid Luft, to the theater,” he recalled. ‘It led to Judy’s record-breaking engagement in 1951. I remember when she first brought Liza’ – her daughter – to the stage with her. After Judy came a whole series of stars – Danny Kaye, Betty Hutton, Liberace, Jerry Lewis. ”
At a party in 1957, Mr. Smith Irving Morrison, a Shubert executive who hires 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 a divorce in 2008. In addition to his daughters, from his first marriage, he is survived by five grandchildren. and a brother, Joseph.