Coleman Jacoby
comedy writer
Coleman Jacoby (April 16, 1915 – October 20, 2010) was an American comedy writer for radio and television.
Early life
Born Coleman Jacobs in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, his mother died when he was young and his father abandoned the family. Because of this, he was raised at the Jewish Home for Babies and Children from age 7.
Career
After studying art, he moved to New York City, New York, where he worked in a parking lot, was a doorman at a cafe and painted murals for nightclubs. He also started writing jokes for comedians. Joke writing for Bob Hope and Fred Allen paved the way for steady work in radio. He changed his name to Jacoby on the recommendation of columnist Earl Wilson.
He wrote for Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca on Your Show of Shows. Later, after teaming up with his longtime partner Arnie Rosen, he wrote extensively for Jackie Gleason and Art Carney. The team also wrote for Phil Silvers's character Sergeant Ernie Bilko for You'll Never Get Rich (later renamed The Phil Silvers Show).
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Coleman Jacoby” is comedy writer. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Coleman, Jacoby and comedy, not as a finished interpretation.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 3, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q5143009. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1915 and 2010.
A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Coleman Jacoby” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.