Showing results by author "Joseph Jacoby" in All Categories

Once upon a time, there lived a poor woodsman whose name was Ali Baba. While going to work one morning in the forest, Ali hears an approaching band of thieves. As he and his donkey, Poorba, hide, the marauding thieves stash their ill-gotten treasures into a huge rock that looks like a skull. "Open Sesame!" is the Chief Thief's cry, as the rock magically opens. After they leave, Ali tries it out for himself: "Open, Sesame!" and he and Poorba are soon inside a cave of treasures beyond their wildest dreams.

Joseph Jacoby, screenwriter, director, producer and NYU Film School classmate of Martin Scorsese, began his career as a writer and creator of television game shows and as a professional puppeteer. Jacoby, who worked in the early days of live TV and went on to become a pioneering filmmaker, has until now never revealed that most of his early years were spent as a ward of the state. He survived a childhood shadowed by his mother's unpredictable and dangerous behavior, which forced friends to commit her. Jacoby then grew up in seven foster homes in Brooklyn, and two institutions.