JACOBS Arthur
Arthur Percival Jacobs Jr
Date of birth : March 7, 1922, Los Angeles, California ().
Date of death : June 27, 1973, Beverly Hills, California ().
Profession director of the agency Arthur P.Jacobs Company, whose head office was in New York City and
which had branch offices on the East and West Coast .
He was also producer.
Addresses
* in 1930 : 134 North Mansfield Avenue, Los Angeles ()
* in 1950 : 358 Doheny Drive, Los Angeles (,)
* in 1952 : 360 North Bedford Drive, Beverly Hills
Portrait
Story
His parents Arthur Percival Jacobs (May 24, 1879, San Francisco -May 15, 1938, Los Angeles) and Natalie
Ankel (May 9, 1887, San Francisco-May 28, 1937, Los Angeles)() had 2 children.
Arthur and a stillborn sister Beatrice (,).
His father remarried on October 14, 1937 (-), but died the following year
He graduated in movie section at the University of Southern California in 1942.
He started as a courier at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1943, then promoted to their publicity department before going to work for Warner Bros. as publicist in 1946. In 1947 he left Warner Bros. and opened his own public relations agency; in 1955, he formed the Arthur P.Jacobs Co.Inc. Among his clients were Gregory Peck, James Stewart, Judy Garland and Marilyn Monroe.In 1963 he formed the feature film production company APJAC Productions which released its first film "What A Way to Go!", through the20th-Century-Fox the following year.
He
had been able to secure financing for the projection on the strength of
Fox contract star Monroe's agreement to star in it, but her death in 1962 forced Jacobs to replace her with Shirley MacLaine.
"What A Way to Go!" became one of Fox's highest-grossing releases of 1964,
earning Jacobs enough credibility for the studio to finance "Dr
Doolittle", ultimately a much-maligned movie that failed both
critically and ceommercially upon its release in 1967.
In 1966, Natalie Trundy (August 5, 1940, Boston-December 5, 2019, Los Angeles) lived in London. Through her roommate, she met Arthur Jacobs who produced the musical "Dr Doolittle" which was shot in London at that time. It was a true love at first sight between them. Their wedding, announced for February 29, 1968, was postponed on May 5, then June 8.
They married on June 8, 1968 in London (-,); both the Hollywood royalty and London's elite attended.
Pictures with Natalie Trundy
Shortly after, production began on the first of the 5 apes movies, "Planet of the Apes" (). Arthur had spent many years attempting to find financial backing for the film. He had recently connected with Richard Zanuck of 20th-Century-Fox, who had agreed with his estimate of the script, and offered the support of his studio in filming movie. It became a box office hit in 1968.
A the same time, APJAC merged with Jerome Hellman Productions and produced the musical "Goodbye Mr Chips" for Jacob's former employer, MGM. Despite being cheaper and less troublesome to produce than "Dr Doolittle", it too, went mostly unnoticed at the box office.Jacobs gave, for free, the rights of "Midnight Cowboy" to his associate Jerome Hellman. The movie won the 1969 Academy Awards for Best Picture.
In 1973 APJAC was renamed APJAC International. He produced the Readers Digest-finance"Tom Sawyer", a musical which featured both a script and musical score by the Sherman Brothers.It was to be the first in a five-picture deal with the prolific composers. But on June 27, 1973, during the production of the second film "Huckleberry Finn", Jacobs died during his sleep of a heart attack.
In addition to producing "Huckleberry Finn", Jacobs was working on a number of projects at the same time.Natalie Trundy who was filming in Natchez, Mississippi, "Huckleberry Finn" at the time of her husband's death, assumed control of APJAC Productions, and sold all rights and financial particpation in the "Planet of the Apes" franchise to Fox, choosing to concentrate on other projects.
Link with
Marilyn
He was in charge of Marilyn's publicity from 1955 until her death.
On February 9, 1956, press conference announcing Marilyn's cooperation with Laurence Olivier for "The Prince
and the Showgirl", at the Plaza Hotel, New York ;.
On February 25, 1956, he was there when Marilyn arrived in Los Angeles, where she was about to start the
shooting of "Bus Stop" .
His position was ideal to serve Marilyn in her new independant producer career, at the head of the Marilyn Monroe Productions. The year after the beginning of their collaboration, he went with Marilyn in London (1956)
On July 15, 1956, press conference before the shooting of "The Prince and the Showgirl", at the London Savoy
Production of The Prince and the Showgirl
With his associate John Springer, he employed in New York the press agents Lois Weber and Warren Fisher, and in Los
Angeles Rupert Allan, Pat Newcomb (,) and Michael Selsman (,
According to Anthony Summers,
Jacobs was the first to be informed about Marilyn's death.
With his wife, he attended a concert at the Hollywood
Bowl, when they were informed about the news.
She said : "We knew the news long before its diffusion. Immediately we
left the concert and Arthur dropped me home. He went to Marilyn's house
and I haven's seen him during 2 days. He tried to avoid the press".
Invoices