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

Joseph Jacoby

9780786717118: Boy on a String: From Cast-Off Kid to Filmmaker Through the Magic of Dreams

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786717114 ISBN 13: 9780786717118

Publisher: Da Capo Press, 2006

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.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

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

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

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.