Summary Information
Lewis Jacobs Papers
1930-1986
Mss 706; Micro 1104; PH 44
2.2 c.f. (1 record center carton, 3 archives boxes, and 1 flat box), 2 reels of microfilm (35mm), and photographs
Wisconsin Historical Society Archives / Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research Contact Information
Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)
Papers of Lewis Jacobs, a versatile film historian, teacher, and critic who was also a writer, designer, producer, and director of educational, experimental, and dramatic motion pictures and plays. Included are biographical materials and clippings; incoming and outgoing correspondence; scripts, storyboards, photographs, and other production materials for motion pictures and plays that Jacobs designed or wrote including Sweet Love, Bitter (1965) and Shootin' Star (1946); short articles and reviews on film history and criticism; and miscellany.
English
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00706 ↑ Bookmark this ↑
Biography/History
Few individuals in the motion picture industry have experienced a career as diverse as Lewis Jacobs. Although trained as a painter Jacobs went on to become a producer, director, writer, and designer for film, theater, and television. In addition, he wrote numerous books and articles concerning film history and criticism including the classic The Rise of American Film and has taught filmmaking at several institutions. During his career he has won over two dozen awards and citations for his film projects.
Jacobs was born in Philadelphia and trained there as an artist. However, during the 1920s he discovered the artistic challenge of film and turned to that medium. Largely self taught as a filmmaker, Jacobs experimented widely with 16mm film, and by 1940 he was regarded as one of the foremost American makers of experimental films. In 1931 Jacobs was involved in founding the short-lived magazine Experimental Cinema, the first American magazine devoted to film as a serious artistic and social force.
During the late 1930s Jacobs started the first film workshop in America at the New School for Social Research. Later in his career he also taught filmmaking and screen writing at the Philadelphia College of Art, Pratt Institute, New York University, and City College of New York.
Beginning in 1941 Jacobs became involved in the making of motion pictures for several major Hollywood studios. For four years he was under contract with MGM as a screenwriter and later as a director. At Columbia Pictures for two years he worked as a story editor and producer for new talent. He then worked for Security Pictures (UA) and various independent studios as a production designer. In 1946 Jacobs co-authored and co-produced the musical Shootin' Star.
In 1950 Jacobs left Hollywood and moved to New York City where he devoted himself to the production of documentary, experimental, educational, and industrial films and to teaching. On his own and for other companies (most notably MPO Productions) he worked on over 50 film projects and commercial advertisements. A filmography for this work, of which the single most recognized title was his 1954 film The Raven, is included in the collection. Jacobs also worked as associate producer at CBS on Out of Darkness, as director for Hutterites of Canada, and as author of the “John Carter Brown Story” for the Search program.
During this phase of his career Jacobs was also involved in a number of additional major motion pictures including Men at War (UA, 1945), for which he was producer, designer, and second unit director, and Sweet Love, Bitter (1965) a controversial film which he wrote and produced.
Jacobs' credits as a writer of film history and criticism include numerous articles and reviews, The Rise of American Film (first published in 1939), The Emergence of Film Art, Compound Cinema: the Film Writings of Harry Alan Potamkin, Film Writing Forms, Experimental Cinema in America, Introduction of the Art of Movies, and Movies as Medium.
Scope and Content Note
This is a small collection that suggests but unfortunately fails to fully document Jacob's diverse career in motion pictures and theater. The size of the collection is somewhat surprising because a 1976 article about Jacobs mentions his extensive archive.
Most complete in the collection are the materials on his work as a production designer and as a writer of motion pictures and plays and of film criticisms and histories. Even in these areas, however, the collection contains little on several significant aspects of his work such as the production design work which he did in Hollywood during the late 1930s and 1940s or his writing of The Rise of American Film. The collection consists of biographical material, correspondence, production files, non-dramatic writings, and miscellany. Because portions of the collection such as the outgoing correspondence and the biographical clippings were received in poor condition they have been microfilmed and the originals destroyed. The storyboards were also in deteriorating physical condition, but because of their unusual artistic quality and because many of the sketches were done in color, the originals have been retained for very selective use.
The BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIAL consists of clippings, articles about Jacobs, reviews of his films, resumes, and literature concerning his teaching.
CORRESPONDENCE comprises about one half of the papers. Although it spans the period 1930 to 1982, coverage is fragmentary and uneven. In the main the correspondence consists of personal and professional exchanges with friends and associates in the national and international film community. Many letters concern legal and production arrangements for his film work and writing. Some letters came from people who knew him solely through his books and writings. There are a few letters from some individuals with whom he worked such as Herman Boxer, Harry Clark, Sidney Harmon, Sam Jaffe, and Michael Levinson. Perhaps the most complete of these exchanges occurred in 1948 between Jacobs, Harmon, and Clark concerning difficulties in collaboration on an apparently uncompleted play. Unfortunately there are virtually no letters pertaining to his early experimental film work or to his work for the major Hollywood studios. The sole documentation pertaining to Experimental Cinema is a 1930 letter from Seymour Stern to Upton Sinclair and a handwritten reply from Mrs. Sinclair.
PRODUCTION FILES primarily consist of stills and photographs, scripts, and storyboards, together with some advertising material and playbills. The storyboards, which are of exceptional quality because of Jacob's background and training as an artist, are also available on microfilm. These, however, primarily document Jacob's work in industrial and educational film rather than his work for major motion pictures, although his studio work is represented by storyboards for Sleep My Love and Men at Sea. Scripts, some of which are extensively annotated, primarily concern Jacobs' collaboration with Walter Hart. These include Shootin' Star, Sweet Love, Bitter, and two unproduced titles. Production stills are included for Hopi, Hutterites of Canada, and Sweet Love, Bitter.
NON-DRAMATIC WRITINGS contain no files on his numerous books on film history and criticism. There are, however, four rare issues of Experimental Cinema, reviews and articles which he wrote, and an issue of Photo History which he designed. The MISCELLANY consists of handwritten notes and information on the many film awards which Jacobs received.
Administrative/Restriction Information
Presented by Lewis Jacobs, Great Neck, New York, December 8, 1983.
Accession Number: MCHC83-83
Processed by Hans Kaiser, 1987.
Contents List
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Mss 706
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Series: Biographical Material
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Box
1
Folder
1
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Filmographies, resumes, interviews, etc., undated
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Biographical clippings
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Micro 1104
Reel
1
Frame
1
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Loose clippings, 1934-1981, undated
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Reel
1
Frame
140
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Scrapbook, 1934-1935
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Mss 706
Box
1
Folder
2-3
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Brochures, flyers, etc. concerning film work, undated
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Series: Correspondence
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Micro 1104
Reel
1
Frame
153
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Outgoing, 1940-1979, undated
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Mss 706
Box
1
Folder
4-13
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Incoming, 1930-1982, undated
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Box
1
Folder
14
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Contract correspondence, 1949-1978
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Series: Production Files
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Hopi (, 1934)
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WCFTR PH 44
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Photographs
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Men at Sea (MGM , 1942)
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Mss 706/Micro 1104
Box-folder
1-15
Reel-frame
1-711
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Script, with production designs by Lewis Jacobs
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Shootin' Star (, 1946)
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Mss 706
Box
1
Folder
16
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Script (annotated) by Walter Hart and Lewis Jacobs
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Box
1
Folder
16
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Playbills
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Sleep My Love (UA, 1948)
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Mss 706/Micro 1104
Box-folder
5-1
Reel-frame
1-906
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Storyboard by Lewis Jacobs
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Light and Shade (, 1949)
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Box-folder
3-1
Reel-frame
2-1
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Storyboard by Lewis Jacobs
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The World that Nature Forgot (, 1955)
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Mss 706
Box
1
Folder
17
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Advertising material
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Mss 706/Micro 1104
Box-folder
3-2
Reel-frame
2-27
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Storyboard by Lewis Jacobs
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Box-folder
3-3
Reel-frame
2-104
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Untitled storyboard (, 1955?)
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Hutterites of Canada (, 1956)
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WCFTR PH 44
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Photographs
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Men At War (, circa 1956)
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Mss 706/Micro 1104
Box-folder
3-4
Reel-frame
2-116
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Storyboard by Lewis Jacobs (incomplete?)
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Fibers and Civilization (, circa 1959)
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WCFTR PH 44
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Photographs
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Rise of Greek Art (McGraw Hill, circa 1961)
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Mss 706/Micro 1104
Box-folder
3-5
Reel-frame
2-241
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Storyboard by Lewis Jacobs
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Face of the World (Life/Rand McNally, circa 1961)
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Box-folder
4-1
Reel-frame
2-400
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Atlas storyboard and additional sequences by Lewis Jacobs
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Another Time, Another Voice
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Mss 706
Box
1
Folder
18
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Notes, circa 1964
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Sweet Love, Bitter ( 1965)
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Box
1
Folder
19
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Script by Herbert Danska and Lewis Jacobs, 1963
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Box
1
Folder
19
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Clippings, 1967
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WCFTR PH 44
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Photographs
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Marcel Duchamp in His Own Words (, 1978)
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Mss 706
Box
2
Folder
1
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Notes, ideas, drawings
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Box
2
Folder
2
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Narration (annotated), undated
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Monuments to Mankind (U.S. Steel, undated)
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Mss 706/Micro 1104
Box-folder
4-2
Reel-frame
2-487
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Storyboard by Lewis Jacobs
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Night After Night
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Mss 706
Box
2
Folder
3-4
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Two draft script (annotated) by Lewis Jacobs and Walter Hart, undated
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Casanova Affair
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Box
2
Folder
5
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Script by Lewis Jacobs and Walter Hart from Bookhunter's Holiday by A.S.W. Rosenbach, undated
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Series: Non-Dramatic Writings
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Box
2
Folder
6
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Experimental Cinema, history and 4 issues, 1930-1934, 1978
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Box
2
Folder
7
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Reviews, articles, stories by LJ, 1938-1947, 1968
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Box
5
Folder
2
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Photo-History “War In Spain,” 1937, Designed by LJ (damaged copy)
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Box
2
Folder
8
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Reviews and brochures for books by LJ, 1939-1980
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Series: Miscellany
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Box
2
Folder
9-10
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Notes and drawings, undated
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Box
2
Folder
11
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Awards, 1954-1986
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