Margaret (Margie) Smilow

The year was 1973 when I visited New York City for the first time on a business trip for
TV Man Union (TV Production Company, Japan). As a 28-year-old, I was thrilled at the thought
of seeing the Statue of Liberty. But I knew not a soul there. The company had made
reservations for me at the Warwick, a midtown hotel at the corner of Sixth Avenue. I went to
the front desk to register, astonished to find that the room cost $28 per night. Since the
company had only provided me with $24 a day for expenses, I immediately moved to a $5 per-
night hotel on Fifth Avenue near Greenwich Village, then the epicenter of the city’s
counterculture movement and survived by eating one-dollar hot dogs from a cart three times a
day for the duration of the trip.

But New York City in the seventies left a strong and lasting impression on me. There was
a sense of freedom there where people of all nationalities could mingle at will. It was a time
when anti-war protest against the Vietnam War was in full swing, the Black Power movement
was gaining momentum and Hippies roamed the streets with their long hair.
I returned to Japan to find public demand for TV programs filmed outside Japan was
growing and I began to receive many requests for such programs. So, in 1976, I was looking for
a coordinator in New York for a two-hour docudrama about Hideyo Noguchi, a prominent
Japanese bacteriologist that I was directing. That is when I met Margaret (Margie) Smilow. She
was introduced to me by Ms. Sumiko Murashima, who was pursuing a career as a Broadway
performer in New York City at that time.

I met Margie for the first time in a second-floor restaurant with blue walls adjacent to
Radio City Music Hall. There she introduced herself saying she was 22 years-old and she was
available to do the job. We sat down to a lunch of crab legs while I laid out the details of the
docudrama that I was directing about Hideyo Noguchi; that he came from a poor farming family
who garnered international acclaim for his work on bacteriology at the Rockefeller Institute for
Medical Research; that the part of Noguchi would be performed by Tatsuya Nakadai
(Kagemusha, Ran) with Juzo Itami (The Funeral, Tampopo, A Taxing Woman) as the on-camera
reporter of the documentary segments --- two of the most prominent actor/directors of
Japanese cinema and that I wanted to film in New York City. Margie listened intently and
silently, nodding as I spoke.

Her setup was perfect. Also, as important for a successful production are meals. Her
choices of restaurants were also always impeccable. Once the meal started, she would wedge
herself without hesitation between the two famous Japanese actors and joined in on the
conversation, much to the surprise of the two. Mr. Itami, in admiration said, “Usually in Japan,
production staff sit at the far end of the table. Not so in America. She sat as our equal at the
table and she ordered each dish according to the taste of each individual. That’s what I call the
work of an American professional.”
When the location shoot had successfully concluded, I extended my hand to her. She
said confidentially, “I’m sorry. I lied to you Shigenobu-san. I’m really only nineteen. I was afraid
that if I told you the truth, you would not have hired me. I’m really sorry.” I burst out laughing.
“Oh, you were just a teenager? That makes your work even more remarkable, Margie.”

I believe that the success of my subsequent productions in America in my younger years
was all due to Margie. Without her, TransAmerica Ultra Quiz would not have been the mega-
hit that it was and continued to air for sixteen years. Since then, Margie and I have worked
together creating projects for fifty years with unequivocal trust in each other. No matter where
I was in the world --- Paris, Cannes, Berlin or Japan --- she would always appear waving her right
hand in the air with a big smile on her face. She always carried with her the air of the
wonderful artistic and cultural ambience that is New York City. For me she personified the
freedom of New York City. She would go on to produce and direct inspired film and television
projects all over the world. Whenever I caught a glimpse of her on the internet in lectures or
came across mentions of her various accomplishments it filled my heart with joy and pride as
though it was my own. I wanted to go to New York because Margie was there. I think now that
the Statue of Liberty I so wanted to see when I was young was in fact really Margie. With her
right hand waving a greeting, she was my Statue of Liberty. Margie, let’s meet again. In the
New York City of my dreams. Will you be waiting for me with your right hand held high?

Farewell, for a very brief time,

See you soon.

Taka
Yutaka Shigenobu
Chairman and Director of the Board of Director
TV Man Union