Jack Foley
-By Travis Turner
Jack Foley
Jack Donovan Foley is the man known as the father of sound effects, his work is why we
have the detailed and immersive sound effects in film that we have today.
Early Life
Jack foley was born in Yorkville, N.Y in 1891, but moved to california when he
became an adult, as he was dissatisfied with the weather in NY.
Start in Theatre
Foley’s first job was as a stunt double, but this was brief and eventually Foley moved to
Bishop and started working in a hardware store, which peculiar as it is, is where he
became interested in theatre.
Universal Studios
Universal Studios hired Foley to work on directing and writing scripts for them, but they
also let him explore more new and up and coming fields such as sound effects
Film before Foley
Before Foley artists existed and changed the way we use sound effects in film,
most films were silent
Film after Foley
After Foley the immersiveness of cinema increased by leaps and bounds as shown by
some of the most classic old movies like Phantom of the Opera
Modern Foley Work
Nowadays it is a lot more rare to see or use foley in sound production because of
extensive sound libraries that have been created over the years and the use of
applications that can synthesise sounds from scratch.
Works Cited
Wolf, Daphne. Jack Foley and the Art of Sound. Web. Mar. 2015
https://www.irishamerica.com/2012/01/jack-foley-and-the-art-of-sound/
Singer, Philip. The Story of Jack Foley. Web.
http://www.marblehead.net/foley/jack.html
How the History of Foley can Help Your Film. Enhanced Media, Web. 23 June. 2021
https://enhanced.media/blog/2021/6/24/what-you-should-know-about-the-history-of-foley
Chalakoski, Martin. Jack Foley: The artist who brought natural sound into motion pictures. Web. 17 July. 2017
https://www.thevintagenews.com/2017/07/12/jack-foley-the-artist-who-brought-natural-sound-into-motion-pictures/?chrome=1&A1c=1
Jackson, Blair. New York Vol. 29, Iss. 9. Web. Sep. 2005
https://www.proquest.com/docview/196889867?parentSessionId=vwiNYNqj3Ba7Gk4d6IiAobl6iplkyoqujEuUjftHN2s%3D