Irving Jacoby

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Irving A. Jacoby (born May 28, 1909 in Manhattan , † December 1, 1985 in New Haven , Connecticut ) was an American film producer, writer and director.

Live and act

Irving Jacoby studied at the City College of New York , which he graduated in 1929. He then studied until 1930 at the University of Vienna under Max Reinhardt . He then returned to New York, where he worked as a stage manager at the Fifth Avenue Playhouse and participated in various theater projects. With John Hammond , he produced Broadway plays such as Jayhawker by Sinclair Lewis and Little Old Boy by Joseph Losey . He also worked as a writer, wrote advertising film scripts for Warner Brothers , musical texts, skits and, in collaboration with Theodor Seuss Geisel, several cartoons.

In 1936 Jacoby met John Grierson in London , through whom he developed an interest in documentary film. Two years later, he succeeded WH Auden as a writer at the British GPO Film Unit , whose first director was Grierson. Back in New York, Jacoby produced the short documentary film High Over the Borders (1942) for the National Film Board of Canada, which Grierson had since established . The documentary about migratory birds, created in collaboration with John Fernhout , was nominated for an Oscar . In February 1942, on Jacoby's initiative, the Institute of Film Techniques opened at City College, which made it possible to study the production of documentary films. Jacoby taught there and took over the management of the institute for two years. His successor was Hans Richter .

From 1943 Jacoby headed the non-theatrical section of the European branch of the Office of War Information (OWI). During this time he produced the film The Capital Story through the United States Public Health Service . In 1946 Jacoby founded Affiliated Film Producers Inc. with Fernhout, Henwar Rodakiewiecz and Willard Van Dyke in Manhattan, with Fernhout and Rodakiewiecz soon leaving. Initially treasurer, Jacoby later became president of the company, where he also worked as a producer and writer of various documentaries. The US State Department commissioned the film Journey Into Medicine (1946) about the career of a young medical student. While Jacoby wrote the script and acted as producer, Van Dyke took over the direction. The camera was directed by Boris Kaufman , whom Jacoby had already introduced as an employee at OWI. The Photographer , a short documentary about Van Dyke's mentor Edward Weston , followed the following year . Affiliated then produced the five-part series The Marriage for Moderns to accompany a book of the same name by Henry A. Bowman published by McGraw-Hill . The short film series showed conflict scenes from the everyday life of different couples and was used for screening in school classes.

In 1948 Jacoby met his future wife Alberta (née Smith, first married to Altmann; 1911-1992) know. With her he founded the Mental Health Film Board as a division of the National Committee for Mental Hygiene the following year. The company produced over 100 documentaries on topics such as mental illness, juvenile delinquency and substance abuse.

One of the better known of Jacoby's productions was Alexander Hammid's short film Angry Boy (1950), which positively portrayed the psychiatric treatment of a boy in a Child Guidance Clinic. With around 600 copies sold in the first three years, the film was very successful for its time. In contrast, the documentary The Lonely Night (1954) with Marian Seldes in the lead role of a mentally ill person, one of Jacoby's few full-length directorial works, did not achieve the artistic success he had hoped for.

In 1959 Jacoby worked as a co-producer on the short film Skyscraper , which shows the construction of a high-rise in New York. For this, Jacoby was nominated for an Oscar in the category Best Short Film in 1960, alongside Van Dyke and director Shirley Clarke .

Jacoby was a writer and producer on some of the earliest documentaries on the therapy of the mentally ill. In 1975 he received the American Psychiatric Association's Robert Morse Award for services in the field .

Jacoby last lived in Guilford , a town in Connecticut. He died at Yale-New Haven Hospital in 1985 at the age of 76. He left behind his wife and two children. His son Oren Jacoby is also a film producer.

Filmography (selection)

  • 1931: 'Neath the Bababa Tree
  • 1942: High Over the Borders (documentary short film)
  • 1945: The Capital Story
  • 1946: The Pale Horseman
  • 1947: Journey Into Medicine (documentary)
  • 1948: The Photographer (short documentary film)
  • 1950: This Charming Couple (short film from the Marriage for Moderns series)
  • 1950: Marriage Today (short film from the Marriage for Moderns series)
  • 1950: Angry Boy (short documentary film)
  • 1950: Choosing for Happiness (short film)
  • 1954: Who's Right? (Short film from the Marriage for Moderns series)
  • 1954: The Lonely Night (documentary)
  • 1954: Man to Man
  • 1955: Toby and the Tall Corn
  • 1955: Broken Appointment
  • 1959: Skyscraper (short film)
  • 1960: Children of Chance
  • 1960: The Hickory Stick
  • 1962: The Drop Out
  • 1966: Community Mental Health
  • 1968: Snow Treasure
  • 1970: I Just Don't Dig Him
  • 1972: Hitch
  • 1973: First Friends

literature

  • Cecile Starr: Jacoby, Irving In: Ian Aitken (Ed.): The Concise Routledge Encyclopedia of the Documentary Film. Routledge, New York 2013, ISBN 1-136-51206-3 , pp. 439-442.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Cecile Starr: Jacoby, Irving In: The Concise Routledge Encyclopedia of the Documentary Film. 2013, p. 441.
  2. ^ Cecile Starr: Jacoby, Irving In: The Concise Routledge Encyclopedia of the Documentary Film. 2013, p. 440.
  3. ^ Wolfgang Saxon: Alberta Jacoby, Film Maker, 80; Lecturer at Yale. In: The New York Times. July 10, 1992. Retrieved January 9, 2015.
  4. ^ Cecile Starr: Jacoby, Irving In: The Concise Routledge Encyclopedia of the Documentary Film. 2013, p. 442.
  5. ^ The 32nd Academy Awards 1960 oscars.org. Retrieved January 9, 2015.
  6. ↑ a b Irving Jacoby Is Dead at 76; Producer of Documentaries. In: The New York Times. December 3, 1985. Retrieved January 9, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Jacoby, Irving
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Jacoby, Irving A.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American film producer, writer, and director
DATE OF BIRTH May 28, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Manhattan
DATE OF DEATH 1st December 1985
Place of death New Haven , Connecticut