SeanPaulMurphyVille: In Memoriam: Richard Louis Smith, III

Saturday, October 10, 2020

In Memoriam: Richard Louis Smith, III

Richard & Julia Giancristoforo Smith

Richard Smith died in a car accident on September 23, 2020.

Wow. I'm having a hard time processing the fact. What can you say about a friend who gave you a tremendous opportunity that literally changed the trajectory of your life? I think the best approach for me would be to talk about the most difficult editing assignment I ever had, but let me give you some backstory first.

Richard Smith and I both worked at the mighty Smith Burke & Azzam, which was one of the hottest advertising agencies in the Mid-Atlantic during the second half of the 1980s. Richard arrived at the agency before me. He was already an amazing art director and designer. Me? I worked in the mailroom. My chief qualification for the job was nepotism. I was the office manager's son. Richard's path seemed set from the beginning. I had to discover mine on the job as I shifted from the accounting department to the media department before settling in as an Associate Producer in the broadcast department. Associate Producer is a pretty cool title, but I was essentially a gofer.

I knew who Richard was, but I had few direct dealings with him. Nor did I seek them out. Richard was an extremely self-confident but socially awkward ad guy. When he spoke, I often found his words somewhat oblique. I found him intimidating, and our first real interaction didn't set me at ease.

I was helping Richard prepare materials for a new business pitch. It was after hours. I had to edit a new business reel of appropriate commercials that Richard had selected for the meeting the next day. After I finished the reel, I typed up a label, slapped it on the tape and delivered it to Richard's office.

Richard looked at the label, which read: Smith, Burke and Azzam. New Business Reel.

"The label's wrong," he said. He handed the tape back to me before returning his attention to his work. No further explanation was given.

I went back to my office and typed up a new label: Smith, Burke and Azzam. Presentation Reel.

I returned to Richard's office and handed him the tape. He looked up at me annoyed. "That's not the name of the company," he explained. "It's an ampersand, not an 'and.'"

I went back to my office and typed up a new label which read: Smith, Burke & Azzam. Presentation Reel."

I happily handed him the tape with the new label. He was still not pleased. "There's no comma after the Smith," he said, exasperated.

I went back to my office and retyped the label and put it on the tape. This one was accepted without comment. I was very ready to leave that night!

I got to know Richard better in the months and years that followed. He was one of the young Turks at the agency. With his partner Jeff Millman, Richard created some truly amazing commercials and advertisements. The team was winning every award, and, as a result, the agency was winning accounts. I began working more closely with him. While he was never a people person, I came to understand that most of those oblique comments that once intimidated me were jokes. I simply didn't get his sense of humor at first. Later I found him often hilarious. Richard was easy to work for because he knew what he wanted. If you could figure out what he wanted from his sometimes diffuse instructions, you would do fine. That, however, wasn't always easy.

I remember a meeting in his office overlooking Charles Street before a commercial shoot. Richard was directing. He called in the cinematographer, the late great Tom Loizeaux, to discuss the project. The meeting took about a half an hour. Richard did almost all of the talking, gesturing determinedly as he did so, trying to explain his vision. Once or twice, when Richard was looking away, Tom would give me a quick look of panic. After the meeting, Tom pulled me aside and whispered, "I have no idea what he wants."

"Don't worry, it'll all be fine," I answered. And it was.

Around this time Richard literally changed the trajectory of my life. Although we had a three-quarter-inch editing system at the agency, most of the commercials we produced were edited in either New York or Los Angeles. Richard and Jeff were editing a Choice Hotels commercial in New York, and weren't satisfied with the work. In post, they decided they needed a fifteen-second version. The New York editor said it couldn't be done.

Richard brought a three-quarter-inch tape of the dailies back to Baltimore with him. He knew I could operate the equipment, but he also knew that cutting new business reels didn't make you a creative editor. However, although he didn't say it at the time, Richard was impressed by a little music video I edited during some down time that told the history of the agency by using a shot from every commercial it had produced. Remembering that film, Richard dropped the tape on my desk and asked me if I could cut a fifteen-second commercial.

I said I could and I did. Richard approved of the result, and soon I was editing real commercials for the agency. It changed my life. I wasn't particularly fond of being a producer. I looked at the job as a stepping stone to copywriting, but I really took to editing. By the time I left the agency, I had the experience and the reel necessarily to become a full-time freelance editor. The occupation has provided me with a nice income and creative satisfaction for thirty years. But it was never something I sought. I never considered becoming a full time editor. That would have never happened if Richard hadn't dropped that tape on my desk.

Thanks for my career!

I liked Richard, but he remained an eccentric. What humanized him was his relationship with an account executive named Julia Giancristoforo. Like Richard, Julia was also one of the rising Young Turks. Some of the guys called Julia and some of her female associates The Wolf Pack. It was probably a result of a misogynistic fear of assertive, ambitious women, but that's a story for another day. I must confess I had a run in with Julia once that I thought would cost me my job.

In addition to editing, producing radio spots and filling out talent contracts, I also trafficked the finished commercials to the radio and television stations. It was an annoying and time consuming job, with a lot of paperwork. It was my least favorite responsibility.

Late one afternoon, Julia, who was the account executive for Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino, called me into her office. She wanted to change how we trafficked the spots on her account in a way which I felt would literally add an hour to my day without providing any meaningful benefit. Normally I was a team player. I genuinely loved the agency and my co-workers. However, I was already working ten or more hours a day during that period so I said no, I wouldn't do it and stormed out of her office.

I fully suspected that my hissy fit would cost me my job. The next morning, I was called into the office of my big boss Roger Gray. He asked me about my current workload and I explained it. After listening for a while, Roger offered me a raise. That was quite a surprise for someone who expected to get fired! However, as we walked to the door of his office, he added, "You will do the things that Julia needs you to do, right?"

"Yes, of course," I replied and I did. Fortunately, because of the heavy workload, they soon hired another person in the broadcast department who took over trafficking and the other aspects of the job I despised.

I never had any problems with Julia afterwards. I liked her, but she was definitely walking on the tightrope. Advertising agencies can be incredibly political, particularly in the account services and creative departments. The amount of backstabbing was incredible. Alliances came and went. One false move and your one time friend would devour you. But Julia had an ally: Richard. I don't know if her relationship with Richard was ever a secret, but it wasn't one for long. They were obviously in love, and that love loosened Richard up considerably. They eventually moved into the "little house" on her parents' property in Stevenson, Maryland. I will always remember a Halloween party they threw in that little house. It was the first time I really saw them away from the office or an office event. I found them very sweet and happy.

In time, Richard became my direct supervisor. I'll never forget my final employee evaluation at the agency. Richard called me into his office. After I sat down, he said, "Sean, we never know where you are or what you're doing..."

Crap, I thought. I was sure my next stop would be the mailroom to get a cardboard box to carry my possessions home with me.

Then he continued, "...but it doesn't matter because we know you're always doing something good."

Whew. Spared again! The irony is that I would survive at the agency longer than either Richard or Julia.

After a series of shake-ups at the agency which led to the departure of some of the original partners, Richard, Julia and Jeff decided to leave Smith Burke & Azzam. They packed up their possessions, as well as the Trump Casino business, and took up residence at the venerable VanSant Dugdale, the dean of Baltimore advertising agencies. Little did they realize that SB&A, now called Gray Kirk & Evans, would soon devour VanSant and become GKV.

Any merger leads to a bloodbath and Julia was among the first to go. It actually proved to be a blessing to her. She took off her high-powered, business suit and took a job at a flower shop near her home. She later told me that working in the dirt with her hands changed her entire perspective on life. She would no longer be the hard driving business woman first, but her soul-soothing vacation from advertising would prove short-lived. Richard also fell victim to the internal agency turmoil. But instead of schlepping his resume around the town, he and Julia decided to create their own agency. Smith & Associates was born. Richard handled the creative. Julia took care of the rest.

By that time I had also departed agency life for the greener pastures of freelance. Smith & Associates was one of my main clients in those early days. After all of my large agency experience, I was surprised by the efficiency of their small shop, especially after the arrival of the trustyAnita Abbott. However, Richard's attitude had changed as a creative. Earlier in his career, he seemed very interested in winning awards. That attitude changed at Smith & Associates. He rolled his eyes whenever I asked him if he was going to enter a spot in a contest. He said he wasn't interested in winning awards, only getting the best results for his clients.

I remember editing a spot for Cellular One. Richard had driven around Pennsylvania with a cinematographer (Bob Dorsey?) to capture the scope of the region. When we were going through the footage, we came to a shot of the York Barbell Guy -- a rotating statue clearly visible from Interstate 83 of a muscle man lifting barbells on the roof of the company's offices. It is perhaps the most iconic image in South Central Pennsylvania.

The York Barbell Guy

As we watched the footage, Richard said, "In the old days, Jeff and I would have thrown out everything else and built a spot around this shot."

"Do you want to do that?" I asked.

"No," he replied, laughing out loud.

Sometime, I can't remember exactly when, Richard got very sick. He had a rare disease that was hard to diagnose. He also descended into depression as a result of the drugs used in his treatment. When he pulled out of it, he told me he only got through it because of Julia. He frequently said, "She saved my life."

As the years passed, my relationship with Richard and Julia shifted from bosses, to colleagues, to friends. And, although he had hardly any interest in the subject, I decided to do his family tree. I traced his family back for centuries to the royal houses of Europe. I told him he was the 21st great-grandson of Edward I, aka Longshanks. Yawn. The 34th great-grandson of Charlemagne?... Yawn. It wasn't until I told him that he was the 59th great-grandson of Coel, aka Colius that he took any interest.

"Old King Cole?" he asked.

"That's what they say," I replied.

"I'm related to Old King Cole," he said with bemused solemnity. That, he seemed to take some pride in.

He also took great deal of pride in his daughter Augusta. I remember how he told me, soon after she was born, how he wanted to make sure she would have every opportunity. Sadly, he couldn't control fate. Tragedy was coming. Julia got cancer.

It was a losing battle, but Julia refused to surrender. As she fought it, she wanted to live as normal a life as possible. She kept working. It is still difficult for me to articulate how I felt working with them during those last days of her life. We were doing a commercial for Advanced Business Systems. I was at their office during pre-production to discuss the special effects. I went to the shoot with them. I went to their office every day during the edit to work on Richard's Final Cut system.

Julia's condition was the elephant in the room. We weren't supposed to talk about it, but she was growing visibly weaker. In the end, she was only coming into the office for lunch, which she prepared for us herself. Every day I went home with the knowledge that she might not survive the night. She did survive the edit, but died days afterwards.

Now comes the most difficult edit of my career.

A day after her death, Richard called and asked if I could come in and edit a little memorial video for her services. Of course, I agreed. When I got to the office, Richard greeted me with a sad, "She saved my life, but I couldn't save hers."

We went to the computer. He had dozens of potential photographs prepared. He picked the acoustic Beatles song "Julia," from The White Album, as the soundtrack. Interestingly, Richard chose very few photos of them as a couple. He said he wanted the focus to be on her. It was very emotional. I had just seen her a few days ago pretending that nothing was wrong. I had to stop and talk.

"Richard, I feel terrible about working with her every day and never taking the chance to talk to her about what she was going through or what she meant to me," I said.

"That was the way she wanted it," he replied. "It might've been good for you to talk to her, but it wouldn't have been good for her. She wanted everyone to treat her normally right up until the end. She didn't want to hear anything that sounded like a goodbye."

We continued working on the video. It ended with a shot of Julia. I typed in the words: Julia Giancristoforo Smith 1956 - 2006. When I closed the titling tool, Richard sat back. "Typing in those years really made it real," he said softly.

I'm surprised neither of us broke into tears.

That was the toughest edit of my career.

Richard and I drifted away soon afterwards. Smith & Associates closed. He opened Gaga Marketing with two of his old friends, and former Smith Burke & Azzamers, Mark Elmore and Earl Galleher. I don't think I ever did any editing work for them, but Richard and I continued to talk periodically. Mainly around election time. He liked to talk politics and I was always interested in his opinions. Eventually those conversations dwindled too.

About a week before his death, I was driving around their old stomping grounds of Stevenson, Maryland, with my wife and mother. We found ourselves talking about Richard and Julia as we drove by their former home and haunts. It made me want to call him again. But I didn't have any sense of urgency. After all, there was plenty of time to catch up with him later....

I'm sure if Richard could see me typing this now, he'd be rolling his eyes. I don't think he'd be angry, but I'm sure he would think I was wasting my time. Trusty Anita perhaps said it best: "I think he would be appalled that people are talking about him and spending work hours on Facebook." Yup. That sounds about right.

But I don't think Julia would have minded.

I hope Gussie doesn't either.

Rest In Peace, Richard. Say hi to Julia for me. And Old King Cole too.

Here's the memorial video:

Here's a more traditional obituary: Richard Louis Smith, III

Here's his bio from the Gaga website: ECD Richard Smith

Photographs courtesy of Augusta Smith. My condolences on our loss, and my congratulations on your recent engagement.

Be sure to check out my memoir The Promise, or the Pros and Cons of Talking with God, published by TouchPoint Press. It is my true story of first faith and first love and how the two became almost fatally intertwined.

Here are some sample chapters of The Promise:

Chapter 1 - A Photograph

Chapter 2 - My Death

Chapter 3 - Childhood

Chapter 4 - Saved!

Chapter 5 - The Promise

Chapter 6 - The Mission

Chapter 7 - Mission Accomplished
Chapter 15 - Quarter To Midnight

Be sure to check out my novel Chapel Street. It tells the story of a young man straddling the line between sanity and madness while battling a demonic entity that has driven his family members to suicide for generations. It was inspired by an actual haunting my family experienced.

You can buy the Kindle and paperback at Amazon and the Nook, paperback and hardcover at Barnes & Noble.

Learn more about the book, click Here.

Watch the book trailer: