Mila Jean Smith
graduated from Kansas City MO's Central High School on June 7, 1949, less
than a month after her 17th birthday; and in September embarked
upon college life at the University of Kansas City, among what
she would describe as "a
density of students." At registration "the
lines were interminable. So were the forms," griped the
retrospective 1950
Kangaroo yearbook. "Many of
them morose and sulky, some 3300 new and old students poured
into Swinney gymnasium...
They fought to get through the maze and out again, with such
remarks as 'Why do we have to buy an activity ticket?'
'Why do we have to fill out a yearbook blank when we don't want
a yearbook?' and 'All this trouble just to go to class and go
home and study. Nuts.'"
Jeanie, who planned to major in sociology as her
mother had at Miami of Ohio,
was dealing with that department's renowned founder and
chairman, Ernest Manheim, when she felt something odd under
the registration table—but it was only Dr. Manheim's dog being
friendly.
"For one brief week the school came to
life as the freshmen entered afire with high hopes and
anticipation," the 1950 Kangaroo would recall. "When the week of tests, coke parties,
political bally-hoo, picnic, rally, and dance was over and the
upperclassmen drifted in, the bubble burst. The freshmen
learned that it is not fashionable to speak at KCU, not the
thing to show enthusiasm over a jam-packed social schedule, and
not permissible to display any signs of being a normal
mid-western college student. Many of them had conformed by
the close of the fortnight; a certain group was still carrying
on the spirit of freshman week at the end of two months."
Though not singled out by name, Mila
Jean carried on spiritedly among "The Crowd" at the KCU Roost.
Plunging into
extracurricular enjoyments, she was for the first
time "thrown into the society of older men"—a crowd of
World War II veterans finishing their higher education, financed by the GI
Bill. Among these were
Paul Patterson, who wrote letters
to "Miss Hubba Hubba Smith" but would later be called "a pal,
not a date"; the British-born
Keith Cuerden, who went on to
become a Broadway costume designer; and
Ralph Stewart, "not a
boy—a man... [who] had a steel plate in his head."
Then there was Jim King of Dodge City
KS, who'd gone from the Navy Air Corps to study music at
Louisiana State, singing baritone roles in university
performances. In 1950 he came to KCU to work on his
master's and pledge the Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia fraternity—of
which sophomore Mila Jean Smith happened to be mascot.
1951 was "the great year"
for Jeanie at college: changing her major to music, she
joined the A Cappella Choir (whose activities included a
television appearance on NBC) and became one of
Sigma Alpha
Iota's "secret sisterhood," consisting of "talented students who
show excellence in scholarship and who are vitally interested in
maintaining the highest ideals of music education and
professional advancement." (As per the '51 Kangaroo.)
Mila Jean also found a lifelong friend in
Joann Stegman, a
fellow choir
member who'd graduated from Kansas City's Paseo
High School in 1948 as "a future language translator."
After KCU, Joann would go on to New York, Europe, and the Far
East as the wife of Jean Soulier, France's ambassador to
Thailand (1978-82) and Indonesia (1982-86); but she and Mila Jean would maintain
their bond for over half a century.
Alas, the same cannot be said for
"fickle Jim King," whom Mila Jean's father believed
would marry Jeanie—"and take me off his hands at the age of eighteen,"
she'd quip—especially after some canoodling on the Smith family
porch resulted in damage to a window. But Jim was "stolen
away by exotic Ardis Brown" (a onetime candidate for KCU Bushwhacker
Queen) and they got married on the closing night of the
Starlight Theater's 1951 summer season. Mila Jean would
later admit this to have been a "slightly traumatic" experience; yet when
James King died in 2005 at the age of 80, following an illustrious
international operatic career, she called him "Beloved Jim—not
just a famous tenor remembered for his obvious talent, but
kindness, humor, and patience with a very young and attentive
young girl."
For her, the
Great Year continued to
unfold. Hanging around the Roost that September, junior Mila Jean met
Charles Moore, Assistant Director of
the KCU Playhouse. "He was blond and bespectacled, with a
dapper Eastern seaboard style (smoked
cigarettes in a holder),"
and he sought to audition Jeanie on the basis of her looks. She crept
into the Playhouse "like Marjorie Morningstar peeking at Noel
Airman," got cold feet and ran off, but later returned to
successfully try
out. The Playhouse always needed stage help, so she got
involved with this also.
During Oct. 22-27, 1951, the Playhouse
put on Dark of the Moon, with Mila Jean as assistant stage manager
(and appearing
as one of the Townspeople). This was followed Nov. 26-Dec.
1 by Lysistrata, in which she was one of the Young Women;
and Jan. 7-12, 1952 by The Enchanted, a production she
stage-managed that included a troupe of little girls, among them
Thomas Hart Benton's daughter Jessie.
Mila Jean was now firmly in her element,
populated by numerous Personalities—not least that of the
Playhouse Director. "What can you say
about John Newfield that doesn't sound like a caricature?"
Jeanie would speculate long afterward. One of KCU
President Clarence Decker's discoveries, Newfield had studied
with Max Reinhardt in Austria and worked with theater and opera
companies in Europe and New York before being hired in 1948 to
serve as the new Playhouse's first professional director.
With a
thick Viennese accent, cosmopolitan charm, and yellow fingers from
chain-smoking, he was a "volatile, immature, brilliant
director" who once smashed a yellow-fingered hand through the
glass Playhouse door.
It was not John Newfield but Charles
Moore
who persuaded (or "forced") Mila Jean to portray Mary
Boyle in Juno and the Paycock, Feb. 18-23, 1952. "I
was too shy and untalented for such a big role, but I did it for
him!" Adele Thane, who'd just founded the
Boston Children's Theatre and would be its artistic director for
the next three decades, guest starred as Juno; while L.W. Donaldson,
"well-known by Kansas City housewives in his dual capabilities
as an antique dealer and an auctioneer," made his dramatic debut
as the Paycock. Playing their daughter, Mila Jean
"turned in a very creditable performance," according
to the KCU News.
"More than anything else, she was convincing and earnest,
both of which combined to make such things as her occasional
lapses in the difficult brogue relatively insignificant."
The Kansas City Star added that "Jean Smith is attractive
as the hapless Mary Boyle." (She was a bit hapless in real
life too when the Kansas City Times mentioned her
real age—nineteen—whereupon a popular hangout, Boots & Sully's Bar at
47th and Troost, told her "not to come back.")
May 5-10, 1952, Mila Jean played Minerva
in Orpheus in the Underworld. She kept her
grades up onstage and off, being awarded Sigma Alpha Iota's Music
Lesson Scholarship ($50.00) for three consecutive semesters, and
receiving A's in her Applied Music voice exams for the next year
and a half: "Exceptional... you really have talent
there"; "Fine voice—positively thrilling at times." During her senior year, 1952-53,
Jeanie served as treasurer of
Sigma Alpha Iota and was selected for
Who's Who in American Universities and Colleges. She also found another lifelong friend in
Mary Jane Davis
(later Dodds, eventually Carter) who appeared as Olivia in the Dec. 8-13, 1952
Playhouse production of Twelfth Night. (Sebastian
was portrayed by Arthur Bunker Jr.; as a future car dealer, he would sell
a couple of Volkswagens to Mila Jean's husband.)
John Newfield left KCU for the
University of Kansas in 1952 and Mila Jean was unimpressed with
his immediate successors, remembering one as "a no-talent
nonentity who couldn't direct or teach" and another as "an
excellent (at times) director but an unstable person [who] got
into trouble... was into rough trade boys." Charles
Moore
also left KCU ("alas, too soon") in 1952; his successor was
John Templeman Douty from Baltimore:
Similar to Charles in build,
looks, demeanor, but not charismatic, no wife (recently
divorced), a brilliant scholar, good director (in charge of
Children's Theatre), better teacher... I ended up
being Douty's assistant... especially on the kiddie shows.
We all socialized a lot outside of the theatre
(drinking in bars, eating out, etc.) this "behavior" didn't
seem at all wrong. Everyone was buddy-oriented, as
theatre departments are wont to be.
Mila Jean served as Assistant to the
Director in Douty's May 4-9, 1953 production of Ring Round
the Moon. She herself directed scenes from Anatol's
Wedding Morning (with Mary Jane Davis as Ilona) on Mar. 11;
The School for Scandal (with Mary
Jane as Lady Teazle) on Apr. 15; and her own adaptation of
Spoon River (with Mary Jane as Elizabeth Childers) on May
18. All these were part of a Playhouse series called
Four Projects in Directing.
Jeanie was also one of 500
students who engaged in a mass boycott of classes during the
Feb. 25-27 "Revolution" against President Clarence Decker,
when his vice president, registrar, and two deans quit
simultaneously,
contending that Decker was "the greatest single obstacle to
sound growth." Decker, saying "When anyone washes his
dirty linen in public such actions are bound to hurt the
university," asked KCU's students to judge him with mercy and wisdom;
they staged their class boycott and circulated petitions declaring a
"complete lack of confidence in Dr. Decker," who
thereupon
resigned.
(Into this melee wandered George
Ehrlich, who'd been hired to teach art history at KCU in July
1951 just before being recalled to active Air Force service for
the Korean War. Discharged in January 1953, he returned
home to Illinois via Kansas City so as to at least see its
campus a second time. Going from administrative office to office,
he was told each person he wanted to see "wasn't in," with no
indication why they were out or when they might return.
"The thoroughly annoyed George
finally left Kansas City in a to-hell-with-them mood, and went
back home to Urbana.")
Mila Jean stayed put, graduating with honors
and the highest scholastic average in her chapter of Sigma Alpha
Iota. Having taken a radio workshop her senior year, she
spent the summer of 1953 as a research assistant at
WHB, Kansas
City's second oldest radio station (which briefly expanded into
television, sharing Channel 9 with KMBC). In July the KCU
English Department offered Jeanie a graduate
fellowship,
which turned out to be a year as the Playhouse
Costume Assistant; she worked on The Grass Harp (Nov. 2-7, 1953), The
Taming of the Shrew (Dec. 14-19, 1953),
Babar (Feb.
3-14, 1954, featuring Mary Jane Davis as Celeste), Summer and
Smoke (Mar. 1-6, 1954), Arthur and the Magic Sword
(Mar. 24 to Apr. 3, 1954, with Mary Jane as Morgan le Fay) and
Green Grow the Lilacs
(May 10-15, 1954). While playing this backstage role, Mila Jean was
profiled by the KCU News:
As the 1953-54 Play Series gets
under way at the University of Kansas City Playhouse the
responsibility of costuming the various characters from
Roman to Flapper is shouldered by a girl who has been around
the Playhouse practically as long as the building itself has
existed. This distinction goes to Mila Jean Smith,
graduate student. This year as a graduate fellow she
has been named costume assistant of the University
Playhouse... In the large but narrow, L-shaped costume
room close under the eaves of the Playhouse, Jean can
usually be found behind the scenes figuring just how the
actors for each production will appear to the audience as
the curtain goes up opening night. Although Jean
insists she "can't sew a stitch" she has proved herself very
adept thus far in the season... Being indispensable to
the Playhouse is only one of Jean's many activities.
She is a member of the Chiko social sorority, Sigma Alpha
Iota music sorority, and Torch and Scroll honor society.
She was elected to Who's Who in "American Universities and
Colleges" in 1953. In previous years Jean was active
in A Cappella
Choir and the Radio Workshop...
The Dec. 6, 1953 Kansas City Star
mentioned her in the article "A Job on the Side Gives Added
Training to the Students of K.C.U.":
A handful of safety pins and a
needle and thread are the tools of Mila Jean Smith, a
graduate student. Standing in the wings of the
University Playhouse, she goes to the rescue of actors when
costume emergencies arise. And the emergencies are not
infrequent. "A hysterical business" is her description
of her job, which is costume assistant at the Playhouse.
She aids in selection and supervision of costumes for all
the plays, including those produced by the Community
Children's theater.
Planning for a play, she first
reads the script carefully. Then she is ready to help
choose the costumes, fit them and provide all the necessary
accessories. Next comes her nightly vigil in the wings
with safety pins in hand. A graduate of Central high school
in 1948 [sic], Mila majored in English at
K.C.U. and went in for dramatics. One year she was in
five of the six Playhouse productions. If her
application for a Fulbright scholarship is accepted, she
will study the history of dramatic literature and staging
techniques next year at the University of London.
In October, John Douty and technical director
Mort Walker
had "encouraged me (forced!) to apply for a Fulbright Scholarship in
1954 about the British pantomime (a good topic for study
in the UK, very scholarly—early influences include commedia
dell'arte)." Mila Jean's Fulbright application
included her reasons and plans for study abroad:
I am applying for study in
England as the basis of a proposed research project to be
used as thesis material for my Master's degree, its general
subject being that of the history and development of the
pantomime, and its particular application being that of
producing plays for children. My project would include
attending the Christmas pantomimes held in and around London
every year, which employ many interesting stage devices
suitable for use in the American children's theatre.
The project would also include a study of the evolution of
the pantomimic art from its origin in the Greek comedy and
Oriental mime, through the commedia dell'arte and the
seventeenth century masque, to the English extension of the
tradition in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, from
which the Christmas pantomimes are the direct descendents.
Paralleling this would be the supplementary study of the
staging techniques employed during the various periods of
the art. As a result of my studies I hope to be able
to enhance my teaching of dramatic literature in the future
and to increase the scope and effectiveness of children's
theatre productions.
On Apr. 21, 1954 she was awarded a
Fulbright scholarship for one academic year at the University of
Bristol, beginning Sep. 23, with a maintenance allowance of
£468. Mila Jean's reaction: "At last! An
escape from costuming!"
Hubert Wheeler, the Missouri state
commissioner of education,
formally announced the grant to "Miss
Mila Jean Smith, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Francis S. Smith, 3908
College" on June 16; that day's Kansas City Star
headlined it "AWARD FOR FOREIGN STUDY" while the June 17, 1954
Kansas City Times lyricized, "TO BE A CO-ED IN ENGLAND."
That summer Mila Jean again worked at
WHB (which had just given up sharing Channel 9 with KMBC-TV, but
was about to adopt the Top-40 format that would dominate local
radio for the next two decades). On September 5 she served as
bridesmaid at the wedding of
Dolores Ann (Dee) Glogau, her best
friend at Central High, to Eugene Dale Chambers; three days
later Mila Jean set off for New York City, sending her parents
the following telegram:
ARRIVED SAFELY NO
CATASTROPHES YET LOVE JEAN
