Martha Smith

Choosing a career path isn’t a decision anyone makes lightly—including Playboy models. Take for example Playmate Martha Smith who thought she’d be a film maker, but now that the time has come to make a choice on where to go to school, she finds herself gun shy. “I've talked to a lot of people, and they all give me different advice,” says the young blonde from Cleveland, OH. “My dream is to do it all, write the script, direct, and be totally involved with the production of a film. That's a very large dream, I know, but I want to do it anyway. For now, I'm writing script outlines and, with a few friends, shooting some small productions around Detroit.” Detroit, a city with conflicting reputations, has been a source of fame and fortune for Martha. The busty blonde with the big blue eyes frequently travels from her parents’ home in Farmington to Detroit where she models in car commercials and in auto shows. How exactly did the all-natural beauty go from wanting to be a film maker to becoming a model? We have her photographer friend and her sister to thank for that. Martha was asked by a friend to pose for him in Mexico, but she would have needed to register as a model under an agency to do so. This was here her sister, who worked for a modeling agency at the time, came in handy. Since signing her first modeling contract, Martha has done quite well for herself—she’s posed by the most expensive cars, she’s become our Playmate of the Month and she also modeled during a Detroit Red Wings hockey game. “My agency told me to put on a bikini and go to Olympia Stadium, where I was to assist in a car presentation. I didn't know until I arrived that I was supposed to hop out of the car onto an ice-hockey rink between periods of a Red Wings game. When I jumped out of the car, the people started whistling and screaming at the top of their lungs. The announcer was talking about all the car's features and I was supposed to be pointing them out as he spoke, but the crowd noise was so loud I couldn't hear a word he was saying and I was pointing at a tire while he was describing the windshield. At the same time, I was slipping all over the ice, because I was wearing hard-soled sandals and couldn't keep my balance,” laughs our Miss July 1973. “Detroit, for all its negative publicity, isn’t that bad a place, especially if you’re a model, since the car companies do so much advertising. But, there’s not much night life.” No matter how successful Martha became working as a model, she couldn’t forget about her original goal: working in film and television. “My weak spot is my tendency to ‘put it off until tomorrow.’ I wish I could move at a faster pace,” states Martha. “My ambition has always been to write or edit a script for TV or film.” To help give her that push she needed to work her way to the top, our Miss July 1973 applied for any job she could find to do with big and small screen. She landed roles on television shows like Quincy M.E., Charlie’s Angels/i>, Happy Days, Fantasy Island and Dallas, but she still wanted to be on that big screen. It finally happened for her when she earned the role of the spoiled, Southern belle Babs Jansen in the comedy National Lampoon’s Animal House which eventually led to her having a regular spot on CBS’s Scarecrow and Mrs. King. “In my spare time, I study French and Swedish and I read, dance, pack and unpack,” gushes the overachiever. When Martha Smith sets her mind to something, nothing and no one can stand in her way.