Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Petrie, Daniel 1920-2004
- Abstract:
- Daniel Petrie, born in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia in 1920, was a Canadian film, television and stage director. This collection comprises a wide variety of documents and objects related to his prolific career. The majority of these items relate to films and television programs directed or produced by Petrie between 1950 and 2001. Additionally, the collection contains a variety of personal ephemera with no direct connection to specific projects. The collection is arranged in four series: Feature Films, Made for Television Films, Television and Stage Projects, and Personal Ephemera.
- Extent:
- 29 linear ft. (54 document boxes, 6 Paige boxes, 1 storage box)
- Language:
- and Materials are primarily in English, with some materials in French.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Daniel Petrie Papers (Collection PASC 262-M). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
This collection comprises a wide variety of documents and objects related to Daniel Petrie’s prolific career. The majority of these items relate to films, television shows, miniseries and stage productions directed or produced by Petrie between 1947 and 2001. Such items include production reports, background research, awards, casting notes, contact sheets for cast and crew, budget information, plot synopses, film and television reviews, scripts, publicity materials, and photographs. They also include oversize materials such as film clappers and promotional posters. Additionally, the collection includes documents related to film or television projects conceived by or pitched to Petrie that never ultimately came to fruition, including scripts, correspondence and proposed budgets. Finally, the collection contains a variety of personal ephemera with no direct connection to specific projects, including correspondence with friends and family, personal photographs, scrapbooks and press clippings about Petrie, as well as legal documents and documents related to the Screen Director’s Guild.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Daniel Petrie (November 26, 1920- August 22, 2004) was a Canadian film, television and stage director. He was born the youngest of six children in remote Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, and his childhood there played an inspirational role in one of his most successful films, the semi-autobiographical The Bay Boy (1984). After serving in the Canadian military during World War II, Petrie enrolled at Columbia University, and, while in New York, a chance encounter with producer Herman Shumlin led to a job as an actor in the Broadway production of "Kiss Them For Me," with Richard Widmark and Judy Holiday. His acting career was short-lived, and after completing his doctorate at Northwestern University he took a job directing television programs at NBC.
In 1958 Dan directed his first feature, The Bramble Bush, followed by the critically acclaimed A Raisin in the Sun in 1961. At the Cannes Film Festival that year, A Raisin in the Sun earned a Palm d'Or nomination and secured Petrie the Gary Cooper Award for Human Values. During these years Petrie was also involved in stage and especially television projects, directing numerous TV programs during what is termed “the Golden Age of television” (ranging approximately from the late 1940s until the early 1960s).
Throughout his career, Petrie continued to direct successful films and TV shows, excelling especially in the genre of made-for-television movies. He made television history in 1977 when he directed three of the five Emmy Award nominees for Best Production- Sybil, Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years and Harry Truman: Plain Speaking. All three programs garnered Emmys, and, for the second consecutive year, Daniel Petrie was voted Best Director by both the Academy and the Directors Guild. Through the 80s and 90s, Petrie directed a wide variety of projects, ranging from science fiction films, like Cocoon: The Return, to heartwarming family classics, such as Lassie.
Daniel Petrie died of cancer at his home in Los Angeles in 2004. His corpus included nearly 100 directing and producing credits at the time of his death.
- Acquisition information:
- Gift of Mrs. Dorothea Petrie; 2007 and 2010.
- Processing information:
-
Processed by Alessandra Amin in 2014 in the Center for Primary Research and Training (CFPRT), with assistance from Jasmine Jones. Processing of this collection was generously supported by Arcadia.
- Physical location:
- Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact the UCLA Library Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF: Open for research. Advance notice required for access. Contact the UCLA Library Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.
Use of archival audiovisual recordings with no duplicate access copy requires advance notice.
- Terms of access:
-
Property rights to the physical object belong to the UCLA Library Special Collections. Literary rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Daniel Petrie Papers (Collection PASC 262-M). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.
- Location of this collection:
-
A1713 Charles E. Young Research LibraryBox 951575Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575, US
- Contact:
- (310) 825-4988