Jim Mallon - Early Career and Education

Early Career and Education

Mallon began producing television and comedy movies while still in high school, and continued while attending the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

At Madison, Mallon was elected President of the Wisconsin Student Association on the Pail and Shovel Party ticket. Along with WSA Vice-President Leon Varjian, Mallon oversaw the redirection of the groups budget away from various social causes in the direction of artistic projects, including several startling and amusing public neo-Dadaist stunts. One morning WSA filled Bascom Hill with hundreds of plastic pink flamingos. Perhaps the most memorable stunt created by Mallon's crew was the creation of a replica of the top of the Statue of Liberty. Placed on the frozen ice of Lake Mendota unannounced, it gave the appearance of the statue standing at the bottom of the lake and frozen in up to its nose. (Pail and Shovel had made a series of apparently ridiculous campaign promises, including installing escalators on campus hills, changing the school's name to The University of New Jersey, and bringing the Statue of Liberty to Madison.) The original Mendota Liberty was burned by vandals, reputedly a protest by campus feminists against WSA funding such projects instead of giving additional support to an agency that provided safe rides to women after dark. In response, WSA had the statue rebuilt, and placed back on the lake the next winter.

Mallon also produced and directed programs for CBS and PBS affiliates WISC-TV and WHA-TV in Madison and made his feature film debut in 1987 with Blood Hook, distributed worldwide by Troma, Inc.