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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Jan 1, 2005 10:02:54 GMT
St. Rita Catholic High School Chicago from 1953-1956.   Religious Studies was obviously compulsory at St Rita and was a part of students daily schedule
Here is Ray's homework from sometime in 1953      Ray was certainly into sports at High School such as running and baseball. 4th May 1954AS excuses for not going to school go this one is one of the best I've ever heard.
Ray (15 year old) can't come to school today as he has an audition with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
One thing was certain. This kid was one to watch and would do something extraordinary.  Junior Yearbook 1955 Ray in a Junior Debate Forum 1955 Prince Charming in school play
     
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Aug 19, 2023 15:25:37 GMT
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Sept 2, 2023 14:56:19 GMT
UCLA Los Angeles CA 1961--1965It gets a bit confusing as Ray had some time in the army after a bad breakup at UCLA and joined the army in 1961?
He is also working for Bank of America
He served in Thailand and Okinawa as an intelligence analyst and played piano to entertain his fellow soldiers. from his military passport PFC Raymond D Manczarek This seems to be what happened...."After dropping out of UCLA law school, and following a difficult break up, Ray whilst drunk in Times Square enlisted in the Army Signal Corps to study film.
He was eventually stationed on Okinawa at an Army Security Agency outpost, which intercepted and analysed analyse radio communication. Not quite film school.
Ray was trained as an Intelligence Analyst but fell foul of the US paranoia during the cold war.
Manzarek (of Polish descent) would not sign a security clearance required to analyse the intercepted radio traffic as it would disqualify him from visiting Poland, at the time considered a communist country.
The Army retaliated by assigning Manzarek to Torii Station’s casual or “holding” unit-where soldiers performed menial duties while awaiting reassignment or discharge-and frequently encouraged him to sign the clearance papers.
Instead Manzarek grew long hair and a full moustache. The Army punished him by sending Manzarek to Laos which was not a good assignment.
However Ray realised the climate was perfect for growing marijuana.
After nigh on a year refusing to sign he was (dishonourably) discharged and came back to UCLA. The main upshot for Ray was he did not have to be drafted for 'Nam like his 3 band mates. .
He bailed on UCLA Law department and transferred to the film school after his stint in the army where he got a BA in 'Theatre Arts' which wasn't exactly a degree in film making
which is the way it has always been spun.
Until I saw his actual degree status in the UCLA 47th Commencement roll, of those that were awarded a degree, I thought he studied film making.
Of course he produced 3 films in his time there so maybe Theatre Arts overlapped.  This is a photo of Ray Manczarek's UCLA trio live at the Lighthouse Jazz Club, Hermosa Beach, CA on 29th March 1961I've read that he enrolled in the UCLA Law school in late 1961 but we have a photo of him in March 1961.
He joined the army but was dishonourably discharged and must have come to California in early 1961.
It is hard to find actual facts as the waters of this period have always been murky.
So he left DePaul and joined the US Army serving in Thailand and then UCLA in at least March 1961 reading law and later Theatre Art/Film making.
I can't imagine Ray getting very far with a BA in Theatre Arts as LA was full of wannabee Alfred Hitchcock's. Ray Manzarek attended UCLA from late 1961 to 1965 and graduated with a master's degree in Film.
Jim Morrison attended UCLA from 1964 to 1965 and graduated with a bachelor's degree in film.
As his student work demonstrates, Manzarek was a talented filmmaker who could have had a career in film, had he not joined Morrison in forming The Doors in the summer of 1965.[/b][/i]  Here we see Jim get a BA in something. It does not say what unfortunately.
Ray is in the list Degrees Conferred but is this a level above BA and Ray gets a MA in Theatre Arts not FilmI will add any information about this and edit any new information I find.
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Sept 5, 2023 10:59:57 GMT
At film school Ray produced 3 films.
Not particularly any good but Historically valuable to Doors fans, especially the 2nd one.
I criticise Ray and also Jim for lack of talent as film makers but I'm a Doors fan so concede this stuff is History and as such I want to see it.
Only two of Rays films still exist (as far as we know) the third seeming lost but the one with the one Ray acts in is in the possession of Ray's archive which I'm sure you would want to see it as much as I do.1. Evergreen by Ray Manczarek 1964 
Made in 1964, this 12 minute, 16mm, black and white film stars his girlfriend Dorothy Fujikawa along with fellow film student Hank Olguin.
The film is a series of scenes that show Dorothy and Hank in different life situations, while the narration is a conversation between Hank and Dorothy discussing different topics.
The central theme is the life of a jazz musician and his girlfriend.
Portions of Evergreen are filmed at Ray and Dorothy’s upstairs apartment on Fraser Avenue on Venice Beach. This is the same apartment Ray and Dorothy would share with Jim after the famous “meeting on the beach”.
Robby Krieger would later move into this same apartment after Ray and Dorothy moved out.
This film was created as part of a “sync sound” project, thus all of the audio was recorded separately and synced to the film. Ray provides the male voice for Hank, and Dorothy provides her own voice.
Ray includes a “Rick and the Ravens” tune for the soundtrack, using “Henrietta” as the backdrop of the scene where they are driving past the Whisky a Go Go.
It's ironic that the final shot is of a door. Spooky.        21-5-1965 The UCLA Daily Bruin Ray's film Evergreen is part of this student film weekend at Royce Hall UCLA Friday 21st May until Saturday 22nd May 1965.
Ray also stars in The Wino & The Blindman by Jose Gonzalez.
 5-1965 The Catholic Standard and Times This is interesting.  On October 1st, 1965 UCLA presents the first National Student Film Festival at UCLA's Royce Hall.
Sponsored by the Graduate Student Association and the National Student Association, 75 films are chosen from universities across the country to be shown and judged by a panel of film experts and critics.
In a Newsweek article dated October 25th, 1965 the festival is profiled with an opening quote from Ray Manczarek, who likely had his film Evergreen submitted and shown in the festival.
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Sept 5, 2023 12:19:39 GMT
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Sept 8, 2023 11:10:19 GMT
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Post by TheWallsScreamedPoetry on Sept 9, 2023 10:13:27 GMT
The Wino And The Blindman 1964  In this 1964 student film by Jose Gonzalez, Ray plays the 'blind man' in a tale of a wino who comes into good fortune and ends up learning a lesson in the process.
Of all the student films associated with a Door this one has a pretty decent storyline and it is worth recounting..
It begins with a blind man (Ray) slowly making his way down an alley in Venice with his cane.
He stops and reaches into his pocket for something and a five dollar bill falls out onto the street. The blind man continues on his way.
The scene moves to that of the wino waking up from his drunken slumber on the front of a house.
He looks somewhat dazed, searching for his bottle for his morning drink.
After finishing off the bottle and tossing it aside, he gets up and stumbles down the alley to start his day of wandering the streets looking for his next drink.
He spots the five dollar bill that the blind man had dropped picks it up and is pleased with his good fortune.
He ponders this piece of luck, should he spend it all on alcohol, or should he use it to try and get his life back on the straight and narrow?
As he weighs it up he walks up to a store front. To the left a barbershop and to the right a liquor store.
The wino decides to get a haircut and turn his fortunes around.
Our wino is a new man and pleased with himself drops a quarter into the blind mans cup outside the barber shop.
The wino feeling invigorated decides to help the less fortunate blind man and puts the rest of his change into his cup.
As he is doing so a passing woman accuses the wino of trying to steal money out of the blind man’s cup.
The wino becomes confused and runs off this ruining his day and pushing him back to his old way of life.
Returning to the liquor store he buys some bottles of wine and proceeds to become totally rat arced drunk.
In his stupor he decides that he really does want to help out the blind man after all. Running can back to the barbershop where he remembers the blind man standing.
But he is so drunk he runs into the glass door of the barbershop and crashes onto the sidewalk.
Laying helpless on the ground he is surrounded by a crowd of people who laugh at him.
For a second time that day he is humiliated and the wino stumbles away from them back to the alley where all this began.
As he wanders through the back alleys of Venice trying to make sense of his day he sees the blind man walking across a parking lot.
Before he can speak he sees the blind man fold up his cane, take off his sunglasses and get into a convertible before driving away. The blind man winks to the camera.
The wino is flabbergasted at what he had just seen. He stands there trying to make sense of it all. Then the wino smiles.
Fast forward to the next day to the next day we see the wino now wearing sunglasses and holding a blind man’s cane walking down an alley towards a new day and a new life.
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