Editing Nicholas Ray (section)

==Early life and career==
Ray was born in [[Galesville, Wisconsin]], the youngest of four children and only son of Olene "Lena" (Toppen) and Raymond Nicholas Kienzle, a contractor and builder. His paternal grandparents were German and his maternal grandparents were Norwegian.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Eisenschitz|first=Bernard|title=Nicholas Ray: An American Journey|publisher=Faber and Faber|year=1993|isbn=0-571-14086-6|location=London|pages=3}}</ref> He grew up in [[La Crosse, Wisconsin]], also the home town of future fellow director [[Joseph Losey]].  A popular but erratic student prone to delinquency and [[alcohol abuse]], with his alcoholic father as an example, at age sixteen Ray was sent to live with his older, married sister in [[Chicago, Illinois]], where he attended [[Lincoln Park High School (Chicago)|Waller High School]] and immersed himself in the [[Al Capone]]-era nightlife. Upon his return to La Crosse in his senior year, he emerged as a talented orator, winning a contest at local radio station WKBH (now [[WIZM (AM)|WIZM]]) while also hanging around a local stock theater.<ref>{{Cite book|last=McGilligan|first=Patrick|title=Nicholas Ray: The Glorious Failure of an American Director|publisher=HarperCollins|year=2011|isbn=978-0-06-073137-3|location=New York|pages=3–14}}</ref>

With strong grades in English and [[public speaking]] alongside failures in [[Latin]], [[physics]], and [[geometry]], he graduated at the bottom (ranked 152nd in a class of 153) of his class at [[La Crosse Central High School]] in 1929. He studied drama at La Crosse State Teachers College (now the [[University of Wisconsin–La Crosse]]) for two years before earning the requisite grades to apply for admission to the [[University of Chicago]] in the fall of 1931. Although he spent only one semester at the institution because of excessive drinking and poor grades, Ray managed to cultivate a relationship with dramatist [[Thornton Wilder]], then a professor.<ref name="essential cinema">{{cite book | title = Essential Cinema | year = 2004 | publisher = JHU Press | url = https://archive.org/details/essentialcinemao0000rose| url-access = registration | page = [https://archive.org/details/essentialcinemao0000rose/page/334 334] | isbn = 9780801878404 | quote = nicholas ray bisexual. | access-date = October 30, 2008 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nicholas-Ray|title=Nicholas Ray {{!}} American author and director|work=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=December 6, 2017|language=en}}</ref>

Having been active in the Student Dramatic Association during his time in Chicago, Ray returned to his hometown and started the La Crosse Little Theatre Group, which presented several productions in 1932. He also briefly re-enrolled at the State Teachers College in the fall of that year. Before his stint at Chicago, he had contributed a regular column of musings, called "The Bullshevist," to the ''Racquet'', the college's weekly publication, and resumed writing for it when he returned, but, according to biographer [[Patrick McGilligan (biographer)|Patrick McGilligan]], Ray, with friend Clarence Hiskey, also arranged meetings to organize a La Crosse chapter of the [[Communist Party USA]]. By early 1933, he had left the State Teachers College and began to employ the moniker of "Nicholas Ray" in his correspondence.<ref>McGilligan, pp. 28–32.</ref>

Through his connections with Thornton Wilder and others in Chicago, Ray met [[Frank Lloyd Wright]] at Wright's home, [[Taliesin (studio)|Taliesin]], in [[Spring Green, Wisconsin]]. He cultivated a relationship with Wright in order to win an invitation to join "the Fellowship," as the community of Wright "apprentices" was known.  In late 1933 Wright asked Ray to organize the newly built Hillside Playhouse, a room at Taliesin dedicated to musical and dramatic performances. There, at regular film screenings often encompassing foreign productions, Ray likely had his first exposure to non-Hollywood cinema. However he and his mentor had a falling-out in spring 1934 with Wright directing him to leave the compound immediately.<ref>McGilligan, pp. 32–44.</ref>

While negotiating with Wright, Ray visited [[New York City]], where he had his first encounters with the political theatre growing in response to the [[Great Depression]]. Returning after his ejection from Taliesin, Ray joined the Workers' Laboratory Theatre, a communal troupe formed in 1929, which had recently changed its name to the Theatre of Action. Briefly billing himself as Nik Ray, he acted in several productions, collaborating with a number of performers, some of whom he later cast in his films, including [[Will Lee]] and [[Curt Conway]], and some who became friends for life, including [[Elia Kazan]].<ref>Eisenschitz, pp. 22–25.</ref>  He was subsequently employed by the [[Federal Theatre Project]], part of the [[Works Progress Administration]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wwcd.org/policy/US/newdeal.html|title=New Deal Cultural Programs|website=www.wwcd.org|access-date=February 17, 2018}}</ref> He befriended folklorist [[Alan Lomax]] and traveled with him through rural America, collecting traditional [[vernacular music]].<ref>Deutsch, James I., and Lauren R. Shaw, "Citizen Nick: Civic Engagement and Folk Culture in the Life and Work of Nicholas Ray," in ''Lonely Places, Dangerous Ground: Nicholas Ray in American Cinema'', ed. Steven Rybin and Will Scheibel, Albany: State University of New York Press, pp. 110–15.  ISBN 978-1-4384-4981-4</ref> In 1940–41, Lomax produced and Ray directed ''Back Where I Come From'', a pioneering folk music radio program featuring such artists as [[Woody Guthrie]], [[Burl Ives]], [[Lead Belly]], the [[Golden Gate Quartet]], and [[Pete Seeger]], for CBS.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://hcl.harvard.edu/hfa/films/2010julsep/ray.html|title=Nicholas Ray: Hollywood's Last Romantic - Harvard Film Archive|website=hcl.harvard.edu|access-date=February 17, 2018|archive-date=June 4, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180604220456/http://www.hcl.harvard.edu/hfa/films/2010julsep/ray.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> American folk songs would later figure prominently in several of his films.

During the early years of [[World War II]], Ray directed and supervised radio propaganda programs for the [[United States Office of War Information]] and the [[Voice of America]] broadcasting service under the aegis of [[John Houseman]].<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nicholas-Ray Nicholas Ray] on ''[[Encyclopedia Britannica]]''. Retrieved February 23, 2020.</ref> In the summer of 1942 Ray was investigated by the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]], and was given its B-2 classification of "tentative dangerousness." Additionally, Director [[J. Edgar Hoover]] personally recommended "[[FBI Index|Custodial Detention]]." Though Hoover's scheme was later quashed by the [[United States Department of Justice|Justice Department]], in autumn 1943 Ray was among more than twenty OWI employees identified publicly as having Communist affiliations or sympathies, noting that he was "discharged from the WPA community service of Washington DC for Communist activities."  The FBI soon determined the case of "Nicholas K. Ray," however, "as not warranting investigation."<ref>Quoted in Eisenschitz, p. 70, McGilligan, pp. 97–98, 103–04, 519.</ref>  At the OWI, Ray renewed his acquaintance with [[Molly Kazan|Molly Day Thatcher]], Houseman's assistant, and her husband, Elia Kazan, from the New York theatre days. In 1944, heading to Hollywood to direct ''[[A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945 film)|A Tree Grows in Brooklyn]]'', Kazan suggested Ray go west, too, and hired him as an assistant on the production.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingAid.cfm?eadid=00544|title=Nicholas Ray: An Inventory of His Papers at the Harry Ransom Center|website=norman.hrc.utexas.edu|access-date=February 17, 2018}}</ref>

Returning east, Ray directed his first and only [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] production, the [[Duke Ellington]]-[[John La Touche (lyricist)|John Latouche]] [[musical theatre|musical]] ''[[Beggar's Holiday]]'', in 1946. Earlier that year he was assistant director, under director Houseman, of another Broadway musical, ''[[Lute Song (musical)|Lute Song]]'', with music by [[Raymond Scott]]. Also through Houseman, Ray had the opportunity to work in television, one of his few forays into the new medium. Houseman had agreed to direct an adaption of [[Lucille Fletcher]]'s radio thriller, ''[[Sorry, Wrong Number]]'', for [[CBS]], and took Ray on as his collaborator. They cast [[Mildred Natwick]] as the invalid woman who thinks that she's the object of a murder scheme she overhears on her phone. When ''Lute Song'' called on Houseman's time and attention, Ray took over the task of staging the broadcast, which aired on January 30, 1946.<ref>Eisenschitz, pp, 82–83.</ref><ref>McGilligan, pp. 114–15.</ref> The next year, Ray directed his first film, ''[[They Live by Night]]'' (1949), for [[RKO Pictures]].