Jacobs Deserves Credit

Richard Zanuck is to be credited for greenlighting the original 1968 “Planet of the Apes” (“Exploring His World,” by George F. Custen, Aug. 1).

However, as I detail in my book “Planet of the Apes as American Myth: Race, Politics and Popular Culture,” the real hero of the “Apes” series was producer Arthur P. Jacobs. The tenacious Jacobs fought for five years to realize his vision and was turned down repeatedly before 20th Century Fox signed on. Jacobs brought together talents like producer Mort Abrahams, writers Michael Wilson and Rod Serling, director Franklin J. Schaffner and, later, writer Paul Dehn and director J. Lee Thompson, among others, to help him create the influential film series.

While the “Apes” films are not as elaborate as today’s spectacles, the best of them (“Planet,” “Escape” and “Conquest”) showed that entertainment can be morally complex, politically daring and financially successful all at the same time. Jacobs and company deserve a round of applause from today’s film fans and filmmakers.

ERIC GREENE

Los Angeles