The Life of Jack Henry Moore

Jack Henry Moore was born in Oklahoma in 1940, he was an openly gay man which at the time was illegal in Oklahoma. This resulted in him moving to New York where he worked on and off broadway before accepting a job as a Stage Manager in Dublin. Shortly afterwards he approached Jim Haynes at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh asking for work. They soon became close friends and started collaborating together.

While at the Traverse, Moore directed a controversial version of Macbeth which included nude witches, the theatre soon grew tired of him and Haynes was asked to fire him, but he refused and quit instead. Moore and Haynes then moved to London. This is where they became a part of the magazine The International Times and also where they became involved in UFO an underground Club in London in the 60’s. UFO had a short run and closed due to no profit being made, but while open Jack captured some performances by now famous bands and musicians such as Pink Floyd and Soft Machine.

Over the years Moore compiled a huge archive of films, footage, posters and flyers from the various events that he had been to over different parts of his life. Eventually Moore moved to Amsterdam where he opened the Milkyway (also known as the Milkweg) a popular music venue. He lived there for the remainder of his life. At some point during this time and after 40 years of friendship Moore fell out with Haynes for unknown reasons. In 2014 Moore died in Paris of liver cancer.

Moore lives on through his work and his archive of footage which our trainees have been digitising over the last few months. The result of there hard work was put into a Documentary Teaser about Moore’s life, complete with interviews from Jim Haynes, Lee Harris and so many others who remember Jack and his large archive.