Identity Statement
Title | Lord Killanin Document Collection |
Archive Reference | IE IFA/9 |
Web Link to this Entry | https://iar.ie/archive/lord-killanin-document-collection |
Creation Dates | 1945-1993 |
Extent Medium | 5 boxes of paper material + 626 stills |
Context
Creator(s): Michael Morris, Third Baron Killanin and Four Provinces Productions
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Administrative History ↴
Lord Killanin was born in 1914 in London, the son of Lieutenant Colonel the Honourable George Morris and Dora Wesley Hall. He was educated at Eton, in the Sorbonne, Paris, and at Magdalene College, Cambridge. After graduating he had a varied career, and he began as a journalist working at both the Daily Express and the Daily Mail. He is probably best known as the Head of the Olympic Council of Ireland (1950-1967) and as the President of the International Olympic Committee (1972-1980). Aside from his association with sport, Lord Killanin was also heavily involved in Irish film production. In 1951 he set up the production company Four Provinces Productions, with Brian Desmond Hurst and John Ford on the board of directors. Killanin was a close friend and distant cousin of John Ford, and worked with him on his film “The Quiet Man” (1952). Killanin is credited as producer for a number of other Irish films, including “The Rising of the Moon” (1957), “Gideon’s Day” (1958),“The Playboy of the Western World” (1962) and “Young Cassidy” (1965). Killanin wrote an autobiography “My Olympic Years” regarding his time working with the International Olympic Committee, and began to write a second autobiography on his association with the Irish film industry which was never completed or published. He died at his home in Dublin on April 25th 1999 at the age of 84. -
Archival History ↴
Unknown -
Immediate Source Acquisition ↴
Unknown
Content & Structure
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Scope & Content: Michael Morris, Third Baron Killanin and Four Provinces Productions ↴
The collection is comprised mainly of personal and business correspondence between Killanin and various others associated with the film industry, including the directors John Ford and Brian Desmond Hurst, screenwriter Frank Nugent and actor Tyrone Power.
Correspondence generally relates to the business of Four Provinces Ltd and its film productions. The potential films mentioned include “The White Company”, “The Judge and His Hangman”, “The Long Day”, “Drama at Inish”, “Demi Gods”, “The Irish R. M.”, “Lady into Fox”, “The Familiar”, “Country Dance”, “The Golden Barque” and “The Jackboot in Ireland”. The production of the films “The Rising of the Moon” (1957), “The Quiet Man” (1952), “Innisfree”(1990), “Gideon’s Day”(1958), “Alfred the Great”, “Young Cassidy” and “Playboy of the Western World” is also discussed. The correspondence in many cases includes annotated screenplays and discussion on financing, casting and set designs, giving a detailed background to the production of films by Four Provinces from the 1950s-1960s.
The collection also holds material relating to the writing of three books, “Pappy: The Life of John Ford” by Dan Ford, “John Ford” by Andrew Sinclair, and the second volume of Killanin’s memoirs which were never published. This material includes correspondence between the authors and Lord Killanin on a variety of topics, including the Ford/Feeney genealogy with a Feeney family tree, lists of contacts for John Ford and requests for interviews with Killanin. Some draft manuscripts are also present.
As well as documents, the collection also contains over 600 stills, photographs and contact sheets taken from the films “Playboy of the Western World”, “The Rising of the Moon”, “Young Cassidy”, “The Quiet Man” and “Gideon’s Day”. -
Appraisal Destruction ↴
Permanent Retention -
Arrangement ↴
The collection is comprised mainly of personal and business correspondence between Killanin and various others associated with the film industry, including the directors John Ford and Brian Desmond Hurst, screenwriter Frank Nugent and actor Tyrone Power.
Correspondence generally relates to the business of Four Provinces Ltd and its film productions. The potential films mentioned include “The White Company”, “The Judge and His Hangman”, “The Long Day”, “Drama at Inish”, “Demi Gods”, “The Irish R. M.”, “Lady into Fox”, “The Familiar”, “Country Dance”, “The Golden Barque” and “The Jackboot in Ireland”. The production of the films “The Rising of the Moon” (1957), “The Quiet Man” (1952), “Innisfree”(1990), “Gideon’s Day”(1958), “Alfred the Great”, “Young Cassidy” and “Playboy of the Western World” is also discussed. The correspondence in many cases includes annotated screenplays and discussion on financing, casting and set designs, giving a detailed background to the production of films by Four Provinces from the 1950s-1960s.
The collection also holds material relating to the writing of three books, “Pappy: The Life of John Ford” by Dan Ford, “John Ford” by Andrew Sinclair, and the second volume of Killanin’s memoirs which were never published. This material includes correspondence between the authors and Lord Killanin on a variety of topics, including the Ford/Feeney genealogy with a Feeney family tree, lists of contacts for John Ford and requests for interviews with Killanin. Some draft manuscripts are also present.
As well as documents, the collection also contains over 600 stills, photographs and contact sheets taken from the films “Playboy of the Western World”, “The Rising of the Moon”, “Young Cassidy”, “The Quiet Man” and “Gideon’s Day”.
Conditions of Access & Use
Access Conditions | Accessible at the Irish Film Archive with an appointment. |
Conditions Governing Reproduction | Copyright and other restrictions may apply. |
Creation Dates | 1945-1993 |
Extent Medium | 5 boxes of paper material + 626 stills |
Finding Aids | Electronic catalogue Archive Web Link → |
Allied Materials
Related Material | The Archive also holds copies of the films “The Quiet Man”, “The Rising of the Moon”, “Young Cassidy” and “Playboy of the Western World”. |
Descriptive Control Area
Archivist Note | Emma Keogh; Rebecca Grant |
Rules/Conventions | ISAD(G): General International Standard Archival Description. 2nd ed. Ottawa: International Council on Archives, 2000. |
Date of Descriptions | 2000, Revised 2008 |