By the time most people lose treasured and aged parents, their adult children intimately know their life stories, familiar with every anecdote and memory heard over decades of sharing. This was not the experience of Anita Jacoby, the much-respected television producer behind such shows as Andrew Denton’s Enough Rope, 60 Minutes and many other popular interview programs of investigative journalism. It’s one that she’s detailed in her new memoir, Secrets Beyond the Screen.
Anita Jacoby
It was at a dinner party years after her beloved father Phillip had died that a lawyer guest asked her if she knew about his infamous and long-running court case of the 1950s. Anita looked blank. “What court case?”
So began the most personal project of investigation Anita had undertaken in her long, impressive career: uncovering the mystery of Phillip Jacoby. A supportive, ever-encouraging father, she’d spent hours on end with him discussing life and world events, yet he never revealed the trauma and tragedies of his own past.
Anita knew he had emigrated from Nazi Germany in 1934 and made a successful life in business, culminating in his heading Sony Australia. She had never known, however, that he’d been arrested by the Nazis in 1933 for his opposition to the regime, nor that Phillip’s father was Jewish. She was also in the dark about details of his internment as an ‘enemy alien’ in 1940 and subsequent release on appeal. Apparently, Phillip was ‘too Jewish’ for safety in Nazi Germany but ‘not Jewish enough’ for protection in wartime Australia.
As Anita had an older half-sister, she knew he had been previously married. She did not know that he had, in fact, been married four times in total and had also had a live-in relationship with Emmy Lewy, the woman for whom he’d left wife #1. As if that wasn’t surprise enough, she learned that Emmy, as well as Phillip’s second wife, Phyllis, had taken their own lives. The aforementioned court case surrounded the controversy of his disastrous, short marriage to an alcoholic third wife, Bonnie.
How do such revelations affect one’s feelings for, and understanding of, a parent previously held on a pedestal, whose flaws and demons had never surfaced or been explained? As the subject of one of her interviews, President Bill Clinton said, “Sooner or later, every child learns that her (or his) parents aren’t perfect … and that’s a terrifying thing.”
The challenge for Anita was to uncomfortably turn the tables, making herself and her family the subject of investigation. After decades of professionally shining the spotlight only on others, this was not easy. The result of her perseverance is a compelling and touching family story of truth and acceptance.
It is, in fact, two books in one. Secrets Beyond the Screen provides behind-the-scenes insight into television news production and the work that goes into the delivery of our favourite programs. It outlines the battle of a young woman determined to succeed despite hitting ‘the glass ceiling’ in a profession which was filled with bias against women, despite obvious ability equal to their male counterparts. The book is also a gripping true life mystery filled with romance, family, history and overcoming adversity. Most of all, it’s a touching portrait of courage, compassion and family love, filled with welcome life lessons for us all.
—Secrets Beyond the Screen by Anita Jacoby (Ventura Press) is out now.
Secrets Beyond the Screen
Anita Jacoby AM is one of Australia’s most distinguished television producers. Now she uncovers one of the most extraordinary stories of all, long hidden within her own family.
The father Anita knew had fled persecution in Nazi Germany to settle in Australia and become a pioneer of the Australian communications industry. He was known and respected in the entertainment, political and business worlds.
But he also had a devastating secret life...
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