Jack moved to Bishop during World War I, and served his country as part of The American Defense Society, a group guarding the water supply of Los Angeles to prevent sabotage-poison being put into the water. Jack raised his family in Bishop and went to work in a local hardware store. Here Jack became interested in little theater and wrote articles for the local newspaper. A rival newspaper in Lone Pine reported one of Jack's theatrical endeavors, "'Stop Thief', a play, is being put on by Jack Foley, the only non-henpecked Irish husband in America, is a member of the cast. That fact, within itself, is worth the price of admission."
When the farmers of the Owens Valley sold their farms to the City of Los Angeles for water rights, the people of Bishop faced a bleak future.
Jack soon convinced the town's storekeepers that Bishop had much to gain by luring filmmakers to that area, and he mounted a publicity campaign to attract the studios northward. He was very successful, and became a location scout for numerous productions. The area, bound by snow capped mountains, beautiful valleys, and a scarcity of people, made it ideal for westerns.
Making the most of his studio contacts, Jack became Benny's director. Now Jack revealed another talent. He sold a number of scripts to Universal which were produced. When not busy directing silent films, Jack kept himself busy directing inserts for the studio. Inserts are the close-ups of movements, such as a hand picking up a gun, which are not bothered with during normal shooting. Jack prepared the sets, graphics, props, models, whatever was necessary, either doing it himself or arranging for it to be done.
Almost overnight, sound was introduced. In the forefront was Warner Brothers with its Vitaphone recording system. In the wings, Western Electric was readying it's photographic system. Jack, writing in 1952 in the Universal International Studio Club News, had this to say in retrospect about these exciting times: "The Warner kids on the neighboring ranch had just come up with a sound picture 'The Jazz Singer' while the hard riding, cliff-hanging shoot-from-the-hip boys on the U ranch were complacently rounding up the last few scenes of the great American musical, 'Showboat', a SILENT picture. Faces around here were so red someone yelled 'The Indians are going!' Someone asked, 'are we still in business?'"
Jack continued, "Most of the studios were in the same fix. Western Electric could only promise equipment in the future, but there was one Fox-Case portable unit that was being loaned here and there for a week's study and tests so that the studios could start breaking in men for sound procedure." Jack described the studio's hunt through all departments for personnel even remotely knowledgeable about radio and applied arts. Then, "...the volunteers cautiously advanced and surrounded the Fox-Case. After three days of watchful waiting, the strain started to tell on a group that was used to shooting sixty or more scenes a day, and someone said 'Let's shoot craps or shoot a picture.' And so they spent the next three days and nights making "Melody Of Love..."
"The industry was not so happy about the U camp jumping the gun, and all we could say was 'Hell, we didn't know it was loaded!' or words to that effect."
Jack's article was not so clear as to actual sequence of events, but evidently a composite music and effects track was then added to the hitherto silent "Showboat". The music and effects were added simultaneously and the first "Foley" session was born. Jack describes it: "Then Stage 10 swayed to the rhythm of a 40-piece orchestra under the direction of Joe Cherniavsky as he scored "Showboat" and the rest of us watched the screen with him putting in the sound effects of the 'Showboat', 'Dat Ole' Ribber' and the laughter and cheers as it jus' kept rolling along. And with 'Showboat' on it's way, other pictures on the silent stages came in for sound shots." Jack illustrated his article with the accompanying drawing, which also shows his talent as an artist. Jack had a regular (usually illustrated) column in the Universal International Studio Club News.
He was a humorist and wrote under the synonym of Joe Hyde. To understand the significance, you must know that Joe Hyde was a studio cleanup man, who spent his working time pushing his cart around the studio lot sweeping up cigarettes and other debris. Joe enjoyed the notoriety, and Jack Foley continued the charade until Joe's death. At that pint, Jack revealed himself and henceforth called his column "And That's The Way I Heard It." He continued his pointed humor lampooning studio people, technicians, actors, stunt men, and executives alike.
As sound was added to picture after picture, Jack was called upon to add the sound effects. "Jack's technique was to record all the effects for a reel at one time," explained George Pal, who used Jack's talent on some of his pictures. "Jack added the footsteps, the movement, the sound o