Remembering an awestruck beauty before her fame

It's hard to believe that the wide-eyed beauty I met on a Chicago winter's night in 1993 was the same woman who became a bizarre celebrity freak show -- known to millions by the time of her untimely death Thursday at age 39.

Though I interviewed Anna Nicole Smith on a number of occasions after that, I much prefer to remember her the way I first saw her -- incredibly beautiful, totally awestruck by sophisticated conversation and a intriguing combination of simple charm and savvy street smarts.

''This is all so unbelievable to me,'' Smith told me that night. ''Only about a year ago I was working as a checkout girl at Kmart!''

We were together for a small dinner that Chicago International Film Festival founder Michael Kutza organized at the long-shuttered Mirador restaurant, then located at 1400 N. Wells. It was a late-night celebration following the unveiling of the latest festival poster, a sexy pose featuring Smith and male model Mark Kleckner, shot by famed Chicago photographer Victor Skrebneski in late 1992.

On Thursday, phoning from the opening night of the Berlin Film Festival, Kutza remembered Smith from that period as being ''a dream. ... I liked her. We got her for the poster after Playboy's Marilyn Grabowski recommended her, and she had just done that Guess jeans work.''

Kutza remembered picking her up at the airport for the photo session and Smith telling him, ''I've got all this money [from Guess], I've got to do something with it.''

That something turned out to be a $2,000 shoe-shopping spree on Michigan Avenue -- even before she checked into her suite at the Swissotel on East Wacker Drive.

Once ensconced in her posh digs, Kutza said, ''she was more fascinated by the fact there was a button on the fireplace that could turn the flames on and off. ... I know some people thought she was stupid, but she wasn't. She was calculating. You could tell that -- even then. But she was funny, gorgeous and wonderful to be around.''

Without question, there was a Marilyn Monroe-esque quality about Anna Nicole Smith -- something she knew was important for her to promote. For her photo shoot with Skrebneski she even brought along her own recording of Monroe singing ''Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend,'' just to ''put her in the right frame of mind while Victor shot her,'' said Kutza.

Though Skrebneski did not see Smith after that Mirador dinner 14 years ago, he clearly remembers her as ''a sweet, charming girl who really wanted to be a model. She gave it her all and with such enthusiasm, which is not true of many models who just come in, do their thing and then leave. With Anna, you could tell she really wanted to be the best she could be.''

In later years, I chatted with Smith about her reality TV show and her Trim-Spa endorsement and even ran into her on a red carpet or two. But it was never the same. By that point she had morphed into the strange personality that unfortunately will be her enduring image in the annals of American celebrity history.

I prefer to think back to memories of a freewheeling girl from 1993 -- not afraid to flirt with men she had just met while ordering mashed potatoes and ketchup in a fancy Chicago eatery.

''That was so hysterical,'' Kutza recalled with a laugh. ''The restaurant people were so horrified. Ketchup! I don't think they even had any in the place and had to send out for some just to give to her.''