Series consists of moving images and sound recordings related to the life and career of Yousuf Karsh, as well as miscellaneous audio-visual items collected by Mr. Karsh. The audio recordings include interviews with Karsh and others about his life, work and career, from radio programmes, including CBC Radio, BBC Radio, CHML Radio (Hamilton), the Betty Kennedy Show, Listeners Digest(U.S.), and television programmes such as the Today Show (U.S.), the Mike Douglas Show (U.S.), 60 Minutes (U.S.), Toronto Today, and the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Telethon. Topics include books by Karsh including Portraits of Greatness, Faces of Our Time, his Canadian Cities Series for MacLean's Magazine, as well as the exhibit Karsh: A Fifty Year Retrospective, the Polish Art Treasures photographs, and the Armenian community and persecution. Some interviews include his first wife Solange. There are also recordings of speeches by Karsh at the Art Assembly of the Adult Education Council of Greater Chicago (1962), the College of Fine Arts at Ohio University, and the Fine Arts Festival at the University of Calgary (1973) where he talks about Canadian photographer Roloff Beny. The collection also includes other miscellaneous items of a personal interest to Karsh.
The films include a copy of a Hearst News of the day reel from 1959 covering the exhibition of Karsh photographs at the National Gallery of Canada, and featuring commentary by Gallery Director Charles Comfort; a CBC film on his life and work (1962); an interview (including outtakes) with Morley Safer of 60 Minutes (U.S.) at the Karsh home; and interview with Solange and Yousuf Karsh by Edward R. Murrow at the Karsh home; an interview of Karsh by the editor of the Chicago daily news; and views of some of Karsh's photographs. This material also includes an original Norman McLaren film, with the animation drawn directly on the film, and some other miscellaneous items which do not directly document the life and work of Karsh.
The videocassettes include three British television interviews of Karsh at the time of the exhibition of his work at the Barbican (1988) celebrating his 80th birthday; a video of the commencement ceremony at Yeshiva University at which Karsh received an honorary degree; a dub of the CTV programme Thrill of a lifetime, in which amateur photographer Allan Smith meets Yousuf Karsh and takes photographs with him; a video of the dedication ceremony at Boston University of the gift of portraits of the Warren Court Justices by Yousuf Karsh; a video of a dinner honouring Dean Schwartz, dean of the Law School of Boston University, featuring comments on portraits donated by Yousuf Karsh; and a video featuring 1985 Muscular Dystrophy National (U.S.) Poster Child Ben Teraberry. This material also includes videos not directly documenting Karsh's work, including an interview with Robert Pledge, curator of an exhibition of news photographs at the International Centre of Photography in New York City; a profile of Dr. F. Porsche, a dub of a T.V. programme on Bryan Adams; a program on the Jewish ghetto in Venice; and a documentary by Walter Cronkite on Henry Landsworth and his village for terminally ill children.
