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Blue Grass of Kentucky

1950 film by William Beaudine

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 8, 2026
Entity authorityQ24053295 ↗
Source-derived summary

Blue Grass of Kentucky is a 1950 American sports drama film directed by William Beaudine and starring Bill Williams, Jane Nigh and Ralph Morgan.

Plot

Major Randolph McIvor's son Lin helps train his horses and his other son Sandy rides them. Their stable has fallen on hard times, but they are preparing their promising new thoroughbreds Encino and Tarzana for the Kentucky Derby.

Lin is in love with Armistead's daughter Pat, although her wealth intimidates him. Armistead has a star horse called Blue Grass that also will be a Kentucky Derby contender. No one but Pat knows that Blue Grass's sire was a different horse than the one that had been originally intended. A trainer named Layton files a formal complaint after Blue Grass wins the Kentucky Derby, claiming that the winner's pedigree can not be proven. However, he is fired and Pat agrees to marry Lin.

Cast

Bill Williams as Lin McIvor

Jane Nigh as Pat Armistead

Ralph Morgan as Maj. Randolph McIvor

Russell Hicks as James B. Armistead

Robert 'Buzz' Henry as Sandy McIvor

Ted Hecht as Layton

Dick Foote as Jim Brown

Jack Howard as Armistead Jockey

Bill Terrell as Pompey

Stephen S. Harrison as Attendant

Pierre Watkin as Head Steward

Harry Lauter as Dick Wentworth

Reception

In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic A. H. Weiler wrote: "Although it is basically fodder for the railbirds, 'Blue Grass of Kentucky' ...

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Blue Grass of Kentucky” is 1950 film by William Beaudine. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Blue, Grass and Kentucky, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1950—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1950-01-22. For this dossier, Blue, Grass and Kentucky is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “1950 film by William Beaudine” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q24053295. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1950.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Blue Grass of Kentucky”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Blue Grass of Kentucky primary sources, Blue Grass of Kentucky archive and Blue research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Blue Grass of Kentucky”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Blue Grass of Kentucky” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.