Editing Mike Nichols (section)

==Early life==
Nichols was born Igor Mikhail Peschkowsky<ref name="facssf1">{{cite book|last1=Carter|first1=Ash|title=Life Isn't Everything: Mike Nichols, As Remembered by 150 of His Closest Friends|date=2019|publisher=Henry Holt and Co|location=New York|isbn=978-1250112873|pages=Chapter 2}}</ref> on November 6, 1931, in Berlin, [[Weimar Republic|Germany]]. He was a son of Brigitte Claudia (née Landauer) and Pavel Peschkowsky, a physician.<ref name="facssf1" /> His father was born in [[Vienna]], Austria, to a [[Russian-Jewish]] immigrant family. Nichols's father's family had been wealthy and lived in [[Siberia]], leaving after the [[Russian Revolution]], and settling in Germany around 1920.<ref name="facssf1" /> Nichols's mother's family were [[German Jews]].<ref name="facssf1" /> His maternal grandparents were [[Gustav Landauer]],<ref name="Weber" /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/mike-nichols-mike-nichols-biography-and-career-timeline/6155/|title=Mike Nichols - Timeline|author=American Masters|date=5 January 2016|website=pbs.org|access-date=28 July 2018}}</ref> a leading theorist on [[anarchism]], and author [[Hedwig Lachmann]].

Around age four, Nichols had lost his hair following an allergic reaction to an inoculation for [[whooping cough]]; consequently, when he reached adulthood he wore wigs and false eyebrows for the rest of his life.<ref name="Weber">{{cite news|last1=Weber|first1=Bruce|title=Mike Nichols, Urbane Director Loved by Crowds and Critics, Dies at 83|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/21/movies/mike-nichols-celebrated-director-dies-at-83.html |access-date=November 21, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141211025703/https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/21/movies/mike-nichols-celebrated-director-dies-at-83.html|archive-date=2014-12-11|work=The New York Times |date=November 20, 2014}}</ref><ref>Callow, Simon (September 24, 2020). "Charm Defensive". ''The New York Review of Books'' '''67''' (14): 40–42.</ref>

In April 1939, when the Nazis were arresting Jews in Berlin, seven-year-old Mikhail and his three-year-old brother Robert were sent alone to the United States to join their father, who had fled months earlier. His mother joined the family by escaping through Italy in 1940.<ref name="PBS">{{cite web|title=Faces of America: Mike Nichols|date=January 4, 2010|url=https://www.pbs.org/wnet/facesofamerica/profiles/mike-nichols/5/|publisher=Public Broadcasting Service|access-date=November 21, 2014}}</ref> The family moved to New York City on April 28, 1939.<ref name="facssf1" /><ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-dec-16-ca-nichols16-story.html |title= Mike Nichols' life in the trenches |first= Glenn |last= Kenny |newspaper= [[Los Angeles Times]] |date= December 16, 2007|access-date=November 21, 2014}}</ref> His father, whose original name was Pavel Nikolaevich Peschkowsky, changed his name to Paul Nichols, Nichols derived from his Russian [[patronymic]]. Before Paul Nichols had received his U.S. medical license, he was employed by a union on 42nd Street, X-raying union members.<ref name="archive.org">{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/opinion/sunday/dowd-how-oedipus-wrecks.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180130220421/http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/opinion/sunday/dowd-how-oedipus-wrecks.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 30, 2018|title=How Oedipus Wrecks - The New York Times|website=[[The New York Times]]|date=January 30, 2018|access-date=July 27, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BQsVCgAAQBAJ&q=union&pg=PA20|title=Faces of America: How 12 Extraordinary People Discovered Their Pasts|first=Henry Louis Jr.|last=Gates|date=July 6, 2010|publisher=NYU Press|isbn=9780814732649|access-date=July 27, 2018|via=Google Books}}</ref> He later had a successful medical practice in [[Manhattan]], enabling the family to live near [[Central Park]].<ref>{{citation| url=https://www.npr.org/2012/03/09/148305666/mike-nichols-salesman-by-day-always-an-artist | publisher=National Public Radio| date=March 9, 2012 |title= Mike Nichols: 'Salesman' By Day, Artist Always | newspaper=NPR.org|access-date= September 24, 2012}}</ref><ref name= "autogenerated1988">{{cite book|last1=Wakeman|first1=John|title=World Film Directors 2 : 1945–1985|date=1988|publisher=H.W. Wilson|location=New York|isbn=978-0-8242-0763-2|pages=704–710}}</ref>

<blockquote>Before he established his practice, he was a union doctor, and part of his job was X-raying union members. They didn't know about shielding X-ray machines, and he died of leukemia at 44. [in 1944<ref>''Becoming Mike Nichols'' (2016, Documentary)</ref>]
:– Mike Nichols<ref name="archive.org"/></blockquote>

In 1944, Mike Nichols became a naturalized citizen of the United States and attended public elementary school in Manhattan ([[List of public elementary schools in New York City#Region 2: The Bronx|PS 87]]).<ref>Stated on an episode of ''[[Faces of America (PBS series)|Faces of America]]'', in 2010</ref> After graduating from the [[Walden School (New York City)|Walden School]], a private progressive school on Central Park West, Nichols briefly attended [[New York University]] before dropping out. In 1950, he enrolled in the pre-med program at the [[University of Chicago]].<ref name="autogenerated1988"/> He later described this college period as "paradise", recalling how "I never had a friend from the time I came to this country until I got to the University of Chicago."<ref name="Weber" />

While in Chicago in 1953, Nichols joined the staff of struggling classical music station [[WFMT]], 98.7 FM, as an announcer. Co-owner Rita Jacobs asked Nichols to create a folk music program on Saturday nights, which he named ''[[The Midnight Special (radio)|The Midnight Special]]''. He hosted the program for two years before leaving for New York City. Nichols frequently invited musicians to perform live in the studio and eventually created a unique blend of "folk music and farce, showtunes and satire, odds and ends", along with his successor Norm Pellegrini. The program celebrated its 70th anniversary in the same time slot in 2023.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Cohen|first1=Ronald D.|title=Rainbow Quest: The Folk Music Revival and American Society, 1940–1970|url=https://archive.org/details/rainbowquestfolk00cohe|url-access=registration|date=2002|publisher=University of Massachusetts press|location=Amherst|isbn=978-1-55849-348-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/rainbowquestfolk00cohe/page/115 115]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.wfmt.com/about-us/our-history|title= WFMT history|access-date= May 21, 2023}}</ref>