Joseph Jacoby: On the Edge of Hollywood
March 16–20, 2006
After working with puppet masters Bil Baird and Morey Bunin and graduating from New York University’s film school with classmate Martin Scorsese, independent filmmaker Joseph Jacoby was determined to become a Hollywood player. His first film, Shame, Shame… Everybody Knows Her Name (1969), was shot in ten days, with unknown actors and a budget of $34,500, and was presented in one of MoMA’s first Cineprobe programs. Exhibiting a taste for realism and social satire, Jacoby produced four major works, including the autobiographically inspired Hurry Up, or I’ll Be 30 (1973), the ensemble comedy The Great Bank Hoax (1978), and the Children’s Video Theater musical Davy Jones’ Locker (1995). Jacoby introduces each of these films. Following the 8:00 p.m. screening on March 16, he signs copies of his memoir, Boy On A String: From Cast-Off Kid to Filmmaker through the Magic of Dreams (Carroll & Graf, 2006).
Organized by Ron Magliozzi, Assistant Curator, Research and Collections, Department of Film and Media. Special thanks to Warner Bros.
Shame, Shame… Everybody Knows Her Name. 1969. USA. Directed by Joseph Jacoby. With Karen Carlson, Getti Miller, Augustus Sultatos. In hard-edged black and white, this tale of a provincial girl falling prey to the sexual predators of the 42nd Street district scored a long run on the exploitation film circuit. 79 min.
Thursday, March 16, 6:00; Sunday, March 19, 3:00. T2
Hurry Up, or I’ll Be 30. 1973. USA. Cowritten and directed
by Joseph Jacoby. With John Lefkowitz, Linda De Coff, Danny DeVito. A Brooklyn printer’s struggle for identity takes him across the river to Manhattan in search of romance. DeVito’s first feature film. 88 min.
Thursday, March 16, 8:00;
Sunday, March 19, 1:00. T2
The Great Bank Hoax. 1978. USA. Written and directed by Joseph Jacoby. With Burgess Meredith, Richard Basehart, Ned Beatty. In this post-Watergate fable in the comic tradition of Robert Altman, a corrupt group of community leaders stage
a small-town bank heist. 89 min.
Friday, March 17, 6:00; Sunday, March 19, 5:00. T2
Puppet Program: Bunin, Baird, and Davy Jones’ Locker
Davy Jones’ Locker. 1995. USA. Cowritten and directed by Joseph Jacoby. With the Bil Baird marionettes. On the eve of the computer-animation revolution, Jacoby and Bil’s son Peter produced this ambitiously staged Bil Baird puppet musical about a child’s pirate adventure in an undersea kingdom of books. 52 min.
Orkin commercials. c. 1962. USA. Directed by Richard S. Dubelman. With the Bunin puppets, featuring Foodini and Pinhead. Television spots staged as blackout comedy. 10 min.
Bil Baird interviews. c. 1975. USA. Jacoby recalls his mentor Bil Baird. 15 min. Program 77 min.
Saturday, March 18, 2:00; Monday, March 20, 6:00. T2
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