Boy on a String: From Cast-Off Kid to Filmmaker Through the Magic of Dreams - Hardcover

Joseph Jacoby

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786717114 ISBN 13: 9780786717118

Publisher: Da Capo Press, 2006

Synopsis

Boy on a String is the inspirational memoir of Joe Jacoby who worked in the early days of live TV and went on to become a pioneering filmmaker. Jacoby has never before revealed that his childhood was spent in foster homes and institutions. A New York University film school colleague of Martin Scorsese, Jacoby survived a childhood wrought with abuse and neglect. His mother's unpredictable and sometimes dangerous behavior forced friends to commit her, which then led Jacoby to grow up in seven foster homes in Brooklyn, and two institutions (one for emotionally disturbed children). Yet, propelled by the power of his dreams, Jacoby came to realize his passion for puppetry and movies and made his first feature at the age of twenty-seven (now in the Museum of Modern Art's permanent archives). He also recounts, often with hilarity, his dealings with the last of the movie moguls, Joseph E. Levine.

About this title

About the Author

Mr. Jacoby is the author of some half-dozen theatrical screenplays.

Joseph Jacoby has been a contributing essayist to New York Woman Magazine and is a subject of biographical record in Marquis' WHO'S WHO IN ENTERTAINMENT.
EDUCATION: B.A. New York University, Washington Square College of Arts & Science.
(Major: Television/Motion Pictures.) AWARDS/HONORS: Dean's List; Griffith Hughes Award

From the Back Cover

"Joe was the kind of friend you could count on he knew the score, and you knew that he would always be straight with you . As I read this frank, touching book, I was astonished to learn that Joe was in and out of foster homes and various institutions from the time he was seven until his eighteenth birthday. That experience that range of experience must have played a big part in his solitude, and in his worldliness." from the Introduction by Martin Scorsese

"Joseph Jacoby combines a compelling narrative of parental abandonment with a vivid account of his experiences as an independent filmmaker in New York in the 1960s and 70s a uniquely 20th century story recalling the glory days of exploitation on 42nd street and the struggles of a maverick in a dying Hollywood studio system." Ron Magliozzi, Assistant Curator Research and Collections Department of Film and Media, Museum of Modern Art

Reviews

Throughout a childhood spent being shuttled among foster homes and a "school for wayward boys," filmmaker Jacoby was buoyed by a passion for entertainment that grabbed hold of him at age seven when he first saw a television set. Witnessing his mother being taken to an institution marked the beginning of Jacoby's "childhood of perpetual loss" that caused him to behave like "a kid throwing jabs in anticipation of being knocked out," never feeling deserving of any praise or affection. This defensiveness proved useful during his nearly three-year stay at a home for troubled adolescents that Jacoby resented because it "simply straitjacketed the underlying causes" of his emotionally disturbed state "and directed them inward." He then went on to a successful career as a puppeteer, screenwriter, director and producer, but he dwells on and analyzes everything, writes in psych-speak and invokes childhood memories so frequently the book feels like a therapy session. Readers interested in foster children's stories might find Jacoby's experiences interesting, but his unfiltered reminiscing about his therapy progress, lists of his favorite childhood TV shows and the observation during a visit to one of his foster homes that "I remembered the front door being a bit wider" are superfluous at best. Jacoby clearly found revisiting his past therapeutic, and his success is impressive given the neglect he suffered in his youth; unfortunately, his insights on his upbringing and his noteworthy experiences in the entertainment business take a backseat to excessive introspection.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0786717114
• ISBN 13: 9780786717118
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304