 Within days of his first jump, Smitty was jumping again, for an audience, collecting pay for the effort.While his original career was as a sign-painter, he soon began finding money in exhibition parachuting.Borrowing gear from others until 1934, he eventually was given an old parachute, with hemp lines, and fashioned additional rigging and harness for it from leather and a Ford Model A (some say "Model T") steering wheel.