Oliver Smith (3)

Oliver Smith (13 February 1918, Waupun, Wisconsin — 23 January 1994, Brooklyn, New York City) was an American stage designer, dance/film/Broadway producer, and a distant cousin of composer Paul Bowles (1910—1999). He was best known as the artistic co-director of the American Ballet Theatre company between 1945 and 1980. Smith held numerous professional accolades, including ten Tony Awards and the "Best Art Direction" Academy Award nomination. Besides his stage career, Oliver Smith was the ballroom's interior during the Waldorf Astoria Hotel renovation in the early 1960s. Smith first gained prominence with Ballet Russe De Monte Carlo company, creating stage design for Leonide Massine's Saratoga (1941) and Agnes de Mille's Rodeo (1942) ballets premiered at The Metropolitan Opera House. Two years later, Oliver Smith first partnered with the New York-based Ballet Theatre company, collaborating with composer Leonard Bernstein and choreographer Jerome Robbins on the Fancy Free ballet. In 1945, he joined the company permanently, serving as the artistic co-director alongside one of the co-founders, ballerina Lucia Chase (1897—1986), for the next 35 years. They rebranded the troupe as American Ballet Theatre in 1957. Smith also taught stage and scenic design masterclasses at the Tisch School Of The Arts. He was openly gay and had a relationship with a renowned poet, W. H. Auden, and novelist George Davis (1906—1957) in his early twenties when Oliver lived and worked at the February House in Brooklyn. In later years, Smith dated Jack V. Brown (1907—1993), Spanish-born Hollywood film studio gaffer and husband of the actress Josephine Hill (1899—1989), and lived together with Broadway dancer, choreographer, and film actor Dick D'Arcy (1917—2006).