As the war came to an end in 1945, Jay with Lois produced the postwar lecture film Hickory Holiday.
Memorably, at the end of an 18,000 mile tour, the film was shown to 3,800 applauding members of
the National Geographic Society in Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. Jay went on to make
a film a year for an exciting 25 years. Equally successful was Jay's 1947 guide book and travel epic,
Skiing the Americas, North and South. Over 20,000 copies of the book have been sold.
Holiday on Skis was completed by Jay in 1956, and Los Angeles film critics applauded the witty results. Jay's 1958 Ski to Adventure showed Japanese skiers on the slopes colliding and bumbling into each other as Jay commentated over the scene as if it where the play by play of a football game. His coverage of the 1960 Olympics at Squaw Valley required the help of San Francisco film maker Marvin Becker and a 24-man crew. The much praised result was a one hour long jam-packed action sequence called Olympic Holiday. Jay's popularity soared as he appeared in hundreds of cities presenting to millions of enthralled viewers.
ABC network television picked up Jay's Olympic footage for presentation during the previews to the Innsbruck Games. Jay went on to produce 1965's Persian Powder, 1966's An Evening with John Jay, sold two of his past films to Westinghouse's Four Winds to Adventure, and pushed his second book Ski Down the Years. Ski Down the Years broke records, selling 40,000 copies, more than any other ski book. In 1968 Head for the Hills presented footage of Japan, Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and Mauna Kea, Hawaii. In 1970, Jay's World of Skiing captured shots of French Olympian Guy Perillat skiing at La Clusaz.
Jay had the honor to receive the Lifetime "Jerry," the Crested Butte International Ski Film Festival Ski Film Maker Legend Award, in January of 1996. In 1997 Jay received his greatest honor, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Ski History Association. Recognizing him for his outstanding record at preserving the history of skiing, the association introduced Jay as a "towering figure in the history of skiing who effectively communicates, records, and popularizes his love of the skiing life to countless thousands with his ski films."
Since 1939 Jay shared his talent and humor as a historian, capturing so cleverly the golden
years of American alpine skiing. We are fortunate to have had such an adventurer as John Jay in our
midst and such a picturesque record of skiing past. John, born December 11, 1915, died December 7, 2000 just four days from celebrating his 85th birthday.