Nicholas Ray

by Patrick McGilligan

  Showing signs of dissolution, the director is captured in the 20th Century-Fox commissary with Elvis Presley; Robert Wagner, the star of The True Story of Jesse James; and actor Alan Hale Jr., who played Cole Younger in Ray’s 1957 film, among the group.

  With Bitter Victory, Ray began to make a specialty of grueling location experiences whose ordeals were mirrored in the finished films. He is seen here in the Libyan desert with Lucie Lichtig (holding the script).

  Rome, 1960. Mr. and Mrs. Ray, the former dancer Betty Utey, and daughter Julie Christina, their firstborn. As with Jean Evans and Gloria Grahame, Ray also began to depend on his third wife professionally.

  Madrid, 1960. Ray with writer-producer Philip Yordan, who had helped to rescue Johnny Guitar and now became his partner (and boss) on two extravagant Samuel Bronston epics filmed in Spain.

  Ray in deep-think mode with Rip Torn, who was playing Judas in King of Kings. As with many of Ray’s post-HUAC films, the director found ways to be sympathetic to the character of the betrayer.

  The onetime actor had performed cameos in his first Hollywood picture (while assistant directing for Elia Kazan) and in the last moments of his signature work, Rebel Without a Cause. For 55 Days at Peking, destined to be his last feature film, Ray donned a beard and costume to play an American diplomat—a brief scene that survived the emergency change of directors and final cut. Standing behind Ray is Lucy Lichtig and assistant director José Lopez Rodero.

  Ray chats with Charlton Heston at the London premiere of 55 Days at Peking, which was completed without his input. Betty Utey is seated next to the director. They would separate within the year.

  Ray with his young acolytes and keeper of the flame Susan Schwartz (cradling the director in her lap). They worked day and night on the student-professor film We Can’t Go Home Again. Harpur College, 1971–73.

  Ray had launched Dennis Hopper’s career in Rebel Without a Cause, but they clashed over Natalie Wood and other issues. Ray had a rapprochement with Hopper after he returned to America in 1969, appearing with him in Wim Wenders’s film An American Friend. Here they are seen during an appearance by Hopper at Harpur College.

  The director and his German admirer Wim Wenders at work on Lightning Over Water, the semi-fictionalized homage to Ray’s life. They finished shooting “Nick’s Movie” just a few weeks before his death in 1979.

  Ray and Susan Schwartz Ray—the fourth Mrs. Ray, although they may never have formally married. Forty years younger than the director, she stayed by his side through the worst of times. Thirty years after his death, she worked to complete a final version of We Can’t Go Home Again.

  About the Author

  PATRICK McGILLIGAN is the author of acclaimed biographies including Oscar Micheaux: The Great and Only, a New York Times Book to Remember; Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light, a finalist for the Edgar Allan Poe Award; and Fritz Lang: The Nature of the Beast and George Cukor: A Double Life, both New York Times Notable Books, as well as biographies of Clint Eastwood, Jack Nicholson, Robert Altman, and James Cagney. He is also the coauthor of the oral history Tender Comrades: A Backstory of the Hollywood Blacklist and created the highly regarded, five-volume Backstory series of interviews with Hollywood screenwriters. He lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

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  Notes

  Only key specific sources not listed in the acknowledgments are cited.

  ONE: THE IRON FIST, THE VELVET GLOVE

  Special collections: Oral History Project, University of Wisconsin–La Crosse.

  “A big yellow barn . . .” and other Ferdinand Sontag quotes from Howard Fredericks’s oral history with Sontag, 1979, Oral History Project, University of Wisconsin–La Crosse. “Bent towards incest . . .” and “Ever since I was four . . .” from Ray’s “I am concerned with the state . . .” in I Was Interrupted: Nicholas Ray on Making Movies, edited by Susan Ray (University of California Press, 1993). “The loneliness of man . . .” from “Interview with Nicholas Ray” by Adrian Apra, Barry Boys, Ian Cameron, Jose Luis Guarner, Paul Mayersberg, and V. F. Perkins, Movie (May 1963). Unless otherwise noted, Ray is quoted on the subjects of his father, drinking, his family, and his boyhood in La Crosse from “I hate to bore people . . .” in I Was Interrupted. “I hated my father . . .” from Ray’s “H.H.” in I Was Interrupted. “I’d been a member . . .” and “The president of an illegal . . .” from Cliff Jahr’s “Profile of Nicholas Ray,” televised on Camera Three (CBS, 1977), included among the “extras” with the Criterion DVD release of Bigger Than Life. “Gordian knot of unbelievably . . .” from Mark Rappaport’s “The Picture in Sal Mineo’s Locker,” www.sensesofcinema.com. “Nick didn’t have a father . . .” from the interview with Susan Ray in Live Fast, Die Young: The Wild Ride of Making “Rebel Without a Cause” (Touchstone, 2005). “His family had much more . . .” from Conversations with Losey by Michel Ciment (Methuen, 1985).

  “Maynard L: I spent ten dollars . . .” and “I got an A . . .” from the Booster, La Crosse Central High School Yearbook, 1929. Helen Kienzle quoted from Nicholas Ray: An American Journey by Bernard Eisenschitz (Faber and Faber, 1990). Background on Ray’s involvement with Guy Beach Stock Company from “Two Local Men Meet on RKO Sound Stages in Hollywood for Filming of New Production” in the La Crosse Tribune (Sept. 14, 1947). “Inflection, tone, volume, etc.” and other coverage of Ray’s radio contest from “Five Candidates Survive Radio Announcing Meet” (Mar. 22, 1929) and “Career of Radio Announcer Definitely Chosen by Youth Winning Contest Run Here” (July 21, 1929), La Crosse Tribune and Leader-Press. “Absolutely incapable” and “Did it come from . . . ?” from “Interview with Nicholas Ray,” Charles Bitsch, Cahiers du Cinéma (Nov. 1958). “Night school graduate” from the La Crosse Tribune and Leader-Press (June 5, 1929).

  Ray’s first college production is covered in “February Flurries of 1930 to Be Original Musical Comedy Revue” (Feb. 13, 1930) and “ ‘February Flurries’ Marks the Success of School Musical Revue” (Feb. 20, 1930), the Racquet. “A true expression of life” and other ideas attributed to Wilder from “Thornton Wilder Gives Unusual and Vivid Lecture” in the Racquet (Feb. 13, 1930). “The Bull-shevist” first appears in the Racquet on Feb. 20, 1931. “Thoughts while in Bath . . .” from the Feb. 27, 1931, issue; “Voting intelligence” and “our newly installed mayor . . .” from Apr. 24, 1931; “harp more on the environment . . .” from May 1, 1931; “The distribution of will-power . . .” from Feb. 20, 1931. “My first hitch-hike . . .” from Ray’s American Film Institute (AFI) seminar (Apr. 26, 1973), and “his luck as an extra” from a CBS press release quoted in Nicholas Ray: An American Journey.

  Books and other sources: George R. Gilkey, The First Seventy Years: A History of the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse, 1909–1979 (University of Wisconsin–La Crosse Foundation, 1981); H. Margaret Josten, La Crosse: A Century of Growth, 1842–1942 (La Crosse Business and Cultural Center, 1942); Myer Katz, Echoes of Our Past: Vignettes of Historic La Crosse (La Crosse Foundation, 1985); Walker D. Wyman, History of the Wisconsin State Universities (River Falls State University Press, 1968).

  TWO: “STRUGGLE IS GRAND”

  Special collections: Eliza Kazan papers, Wesleyan University; Thornton Wilder papers, Yale University; Frank Lloyd Wright correspondence, Getty Research Institute.

  Kazan’s description of Thornton Wilder and all other Kazan quotes, unless otherwise noted, from his autobiography, A Life (Knopf, 1988). Ray’s reminiscences of the University of Chicago from “I hate to bore people . . .” and his sexual encounter with a professor from “In a Peapod . . .” in I Was Interrupted. “Wilder on stage” and coverage of the one-acts from Cap & Gown, the University of Chicago yearbook, 1932. “I didn’t know whether I wanted to be a homosexual . . .” from “I hate to bore people . . .” in I Was Interrupted. “I’m not sure whether you mean . . .” from Camera Three.

  “No way commercial” and
the announcement of Ray’s Little Theatre Group from the La Crosse Tribune and Leader-Press (Jan. 17, 1932). “Entirely on the ability . . .” and the local review of The Happy Journey to Camden and Trenton from the La Crosse Tribune and Leader-Press (Feb. 17, 1932). “A ticklish part . . .” and the review of Hay Fever from the La Crosse Tribune and Leader-Press (May 1, 1932). Ray’s home school for child actors reported in “Opening Private School in Drama” in the La Crosse Tribune and Leader-Press (June 17, 1932). “Young George Washington” and the July Fourth festivities from a series of articles in the La Crosse Tribune and Leader-Press (June 26 and 28, and July 3, 1932).

  “Bazaar Bizarre” makes its first appearance (without a byline) in the Oct. 21, 1932, Racquet, which includes “I have been known . . .” and “apparently free of amorous entanglements.” Ray’s “r.n.k.” byline first graces the Nov. 18, 1932, column ruminating on Homecoming. His thoughts on the prostitution of art are from the Dec. 2, 1932, issue. Ray’s performance in Candida was extolled on the front page of the same edition.

  “Those with the money . . .” and much of the background of life at Taliesin is drawn from the invaluable The Fellowship: The Untold Story of Frank Lloyd Wright and the Taliesin Fellowship by Roger Friedland and Harold Zellman (ReganBooks, 2006).

  “I can’t draw . . .” from Ray’s AFI seminar. Details of Ray’s life in 1933–34 come from the letters between him and Wright itemized in the five-volume Frank Lloyd Wright: An Index to the Taliesin Correspondence by Anthony Alofsin (Garland, 1988).

  “Thrashed over. . . ,” “dark years . . .” and “very stimulating . . .” from Ray’s Aug. 10, 1933, letter to Wright. “I continue to battle . . .” and "I’ll work like the devil . . .” from Ray’s Sept. 29, 1933, letter to Wright. “Thoroughly broke” and “rather difficult . . .” from Ray’s Oct. 25, 1933, letter to Wright. “That phase of modern architecture . . .” from Harold Stark’s Aug. 7, 1933, letter to Wright. “Struggle is grand . . .” from Ray’s Nov. 2, 1933, letter to Wright. “I am sorry that you lost . . .” from Ray’s Sept. 15, 1933, letter to Wright. Wright wrote “my head is under” and “It is very difficult . . .” in a Sept. 18, 1933, reply to Ray. “Making a pest” and “I begin eating regularly” from Ray’s Oct. 14, 1933, letter. “A stupid art class” from Ray’s Oct. 25, 1933, letter to Karl E. Jensen.

  “The drama of his life . . .” from “Rebel—The Life Story of a Film” by Nicholas Ray, Daily Variety (Oct. 31, 1956). All Jean Evans quotes, except where otherwise noted, from Bernard Eisenschitz’s book. Taliesin’s “orthodox” schedule from Ray’s Feb. 16, 1934, “At Taliesin” newspaper column, reprinted in “At Taliesin”: Newspaper Columns by Frank Lloyd Wright and the Taliesin Fellowship, 1934–1937, edited by Randolph C. Henning (Southern Illinois University Press, 1992). “A station for the flight of the soul” from Frank Lloyd Wright and the Taliesin Fellowship. “Mr. Wright believed . . .” from Ray’s AFI seminar. “An interpretation of the play . . .” from the Jan. 25, 1934, Weekly Home News, a Spring Green newspaper, which also misidentifies “Nicholas Bay.” “First attempt . . .” and “The medium of the celluloid strip . . .” from Ray’s Feb. 16, 1934, “At Taliesin” column. “Neither temple nor brothel . . .” from “Taliesin Student Calls Theater ‘Idiot Child of a Sane Yesterday,’ ” carrying Ray’s byline, in the Apr. 2, 1934, Wisconsin State Journal. “Movies taken in Greenland . . .” from “Taliesin’s Winter Charm Described by Student” by Phillip Holliday in Madison’s Wisconsin State Journal (Feb. 2, 1934). The “art and beauty” lecture recounted in the “Taliesin” column in the Weekly Home News (Apr. 19, 1934).

  Ray was announced as “Director of the Taliesin Playhouse” in his hometown La Crosse Tribune and Leader-Press (Apr. 24, 1934). “Our way back . . .” from Ray’s Feb. 16, 1934, “At Taliesin” column. “Frightfully eager to make good” from Frank Lloyd Wright’s April 22, 1934, letter to Harold Stark. “Nick cut a handsome figure . . .” from In Spite of Myself: A Memoir by Christopher Plummer (Knopf, 2008). Henry Schubart is quoted from Nicholas Ray: An American Journey. “Big fellow—looks strong” from Wright’s “Joke-Boy” column in the Weekly Home News (Apr. 20, 1934).

  Ray’s “battle” with Wright, quotes from his letter to Jean Evans, and Evans’s account of her later “moralistic and vindictive” impression of Wright from Nicholas Ray: An American Journey. The sandstone façade/oak panels version of Ray’s exit from Taliesin from “Nicholas Ray Hits Hollywood” by Robert LaBrasca in Madison’s Capital Times (Mar. 16, 1973). Jonathan Rosenbaum’s version of events from his article “Looking for Nicholas Ray” in American Film (Dec. 1981). “The horizontal was essential . . .” from Ray’s Nov. 1958 interview in Cahiers du Cinéma. Ray’s own sparse account of his sojourn in Mexico from Nicholas Ray: An American Journey. Ray’s letter to Wright from Acapulco is dated June 1934; the one from 1937 is dated Aug. 27, while Wright’s reply (by telegram) is dated Sept. 6.

  Books and other sources: Richard H. Goldstone, Thornton Wilder: An Intimate Portrait (Dutton, 1975); Gilbert A. Harrison, The Enthusiast: A Life of Thornton Wilder (Ticknor & Fields, 1983); Edgar Tafel, About Wright: An Album of Recollections by Those Who Knew Frank Lloyd Wright (John Wiley & Sons, 1993); Frank Lloyd Wright, Letters to Apprentices (University California State Press, 1982).

  THREE: AGITATION OF THE ESSENCE

  Special Collections: Alan Lomax papers, Library of Congress; John Houseman papers, UCLA; Esther McCoy papers, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution; the Mercury Theatre/Theatre Union Oral History Project of Columbia University.

  “Advancing with true Marxist fervor . . .” from “Theatre of the Left” by Bosley Crowther, New York Times (Apr. 14, 1935). “Probably the single greatest group . . .” is from the author’s interview with Martin Ritt in Tender Comrades by Patrick McGilligan and Paul Buhle (St. Martin’s Press, 1997). “Not beautiful” and “It was more realistic . . .” from Norman Lloyd’s memoir Stages: Of Life in Theatre, Film and Television (Limelight, 1993). “Like a fresh wind blowing” is Will Lee from Nicholas Ray: An American Journey. “Sometimes we’d get testy . . .” from Ballad of an American: The Autobiography of Earl Robinson with Eric A. Gordon (Scarecrow Press, 1998). “He was always interesting, strange . . .” and “really burning” from Lloyd’s interview with Ronald Davis in the Southern Methodist University Oral History Collection. “I never liked him much” from Conversations with Losey.

  Vakhtangov is quoted from David Krasner’s Method Acting Reconsidered: Theory, Practice, Future (Palgrave Macmillan, 2000). Ray discusses Vakhtangov as his “principal guideline” for directing actors in “In Class” in I Was Interrupted. “A powerhouse on wheels” is Earl Robinson quoted in Nicholas Ray: An American Journey. “Every strike, every picket line . . .” from the “Nicholas Ray: Rebel!” interview by Michael Goodwin and Naomi Wise in Take One (Jan. 1977). “Guerilla theater” is from “Rebel’s Progress” by Andrew Kopkind in the Real Paper (Jan. 15, 1975). “Our lives obeyed the slogan . . .” from Ballad of an American. “We were a Communist theatre . . .” from Nicholas Ray: An American Journey. Ray is quoted on the influence of Al Saxe from Nicholas Ray: An American Journey. The genesis of the script for The Young Go First recounted in Ballad of an American. “Worshipped” but also “was frightened of him” is Perry Bruskin from Nicholas Ray: An American Journey. “This tremendous energy and this tremendous interest in you . . .” from Norman Lloyd’s Southern Methodist University oral history. “Mr. Lawson Protests,” John Howard Lawson’s letter to the editor protesting the review of The Young Go First, is in the June 16, 1935, New York Times.

  “All very indefinite” from “Future Book on the New Season,” in the New York Times (Sept. 1, 1935). “One of the first theater groups . . . ,” “We were in a sense . . . ,” and “Al Saxe would start an improvisation . . .” from Stages. “It dawned on us . . .” from Ballad of an American. “Very unhappy” is David Kerman from Harry Goldman’s 1982 interview with the actor, part of the Mercury Theatre/Theatre Union Oral His
tory Project. “Approaching a movie technique” from Conversations with Losey. “I was not a member . . .” is Losey quoted in David Caute’s Joseph Losey: A Revenge on Life (Faber and Faber, 1994). “Head the professional . . .” from “News of the Stage,” the New York Times (Oct. 7, 1936). “We had two hours a day ” from Nicholas Ray: An American Journey.

  “Cabbage soup . . .” is Ray quoted in Nicholas Ray: An American Journey. “I lit a show . . .” is from “Film as Experience” by Joseph Lederer, American Film (Nov. 1975). “By quoting poetry . . .” from “The Federal Diary,” Scott Hart, Washington Post (Nov. 24, 1937). “With stowaway which will gain air . . .” from Ray’s Sept. 27, 1937, letter to Frank Lloyd Wright. “Was certainly one of the most splendid young men . . .” and “like Damon and Pythias . . .” are Alan Lomax from Nicholas Ray: An American Journey. Lenore Thomas also quoted from Nicholas Ray: An American Journey. Ray’s Washington, D.C., Political cabaret described in “Capital Night Clubs,” Washington Post (Mar. 10, 1939), “War Tensity Puts Pall on D.C. Social Gaiety” by Hope Ridings Miller, Washington Post (Mar. 19, 1939), and “Non-Profit Cabaret Makes Bow in Washington; Non-Profit Revue Plays to a Capacity House,” New York Times (Mar. 19, 1939). “I was very irritated . . . ,” “confined to the Mitchell area . . . ,” and “I have made several . . .” from Ray’s Oct. 30, 1939, letter, dictated on WPA stationery, during a stopover in Jefferson City, Missouri, to Dr. Harold Spivack, chief of the Music Division, Library of Congress.

  “Rushing around . . .” from Jean Evans’s May 11, 1941, letter to Esther McCoy. “He wasn’t true to her” and “I pitied his wife” from Pete Seeger’s Jan. 24 and Feb. 12, 2008, correspondence with the author. “Out of the blue . . .” from Gavin Lambert’s Mainly About Lindsay Anderson (Knopf, 2000). “The growth of jazz . . .” and “the Holiness Church . . .” from John Szwed’s Alan Lomax: The Man Who Recorded the World (Viking, 2010). “Life was hell . . .” from Jean Evans’s Apr. 1, 1977, letter to Esther McCoy. “The experiment . . .” is Alan Lomax quoted in Ronald D. Cohen’s Rainbow Quest: The Folk Music Revival and American Society, 1940–1970 (University of Massachusetts Press, 2002). “His homosexual experiences . . .” is John Houseman from Nicholas Ray: An American Journey.