Editing Arthur Laurents (section)

==Early life==
Born '''Arthur Levine''', Laurents was the son of middle-class Jewish parents, his father a lawyer and his mother a schoolteacher, who gave up her career when she married.<ref name=Mag>[https://nymag.com/arts/theater/profiles/55341/index3.html "When You’re a Shark You’re a Shark All the Way"]. ''[[New York (magazine)|New York]]''.</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Hawtree|first=Christopher|title=Arthur Laurents obituary: Playwright and screenwriter who wrote the book for West Side Story|url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2011/may/06/arthur-laurents-obituary|access-date=6 August 2012|newspaper=The Guardian|date=May 6, 2011}}</ref> He was born and raised in the [[Flatbush, Brooklyn|Flatbush]] section of [[Brooklyn]], a [[borough (New York City)|borough of New York City]], New York, the elder of two children, and attended [[Erasmus Hall High School]].<ref>Hutchinson, Bill (May 6, 2011). [http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music/2011/05/06/2011-05-06_playwright_behind_west_side_story_and_gypsy_arthur_laurents_dies_at_age_93.html "Playwright Behind 'West Side Story' and 'Gypsy,' Arthur Laurents, Dies at Age 93"]. ''[[Daily News (New York)|Daily News]]''.</ref><ref name=bloomberg>Arnold, Laurence (May 5, 2011). [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-06/arthur-laurents-writer-of-west-side-story-gypsy-scripts-dies-at-93.html "Arthur Laurents, Writer of 'West Side Story,' 'Gypsy' Scripts, Dies at 93"]. [[Bloomberg L.P.|Bloomberg News]].</ref> His sister Edith suffered from [[Chorea (disease)|chorea]] as a child.<ref>Laurents, Arthur. [https://books.google.com/books?id=0XbXeMf8LOsC&q=Chorea&pg=PA34 "Beginnings"] ''Original Story By Arthur Laurents: A Memoir of Broadway and Hollywood'', Hal Leonard Corporation, 2001, {{ISBN|1-55783-467-9}}, pp. 10–11, 34–35.</ref>

His paternal grandparents were [[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox Jews]], and his mother's parents, although born Jewish, were [[Atheism|atheists]]. His mother kept a [[Kashrut|kosher]] home for her husband's sake, but was lax about attending synagogue and observing the [[Jewish holiday]]s. His [[Bar and Bat Mitzvah|Bar Mitzvah]] marked the end of Laurents's religious education and the beginning of his rejection of all fundamentalist religions,<ref>Laurents, Arthur. ''Original Story By''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf (2000). {{ISBN|0-375-40055-9}}, pp. 6–7.</ref> although he continued to identify himself as Jewish.<ref>Laurents, p. 133.</ref> However, late in life he admitted to having changed his last name from Levine to the less Jewish-sounding Laurents, "to get a job."<ref name=Mag />

After graduating from [[Cornell University]], Laurents took an evening class in radio writing at [[New York University]]. [[William N. Robson]], his instructor, a [[CBS Radio]] director/producer, submitted his script ''Now Playing Tomorrow'', a comedic fantasy about [[clairvoyance]], to the network, and it was produced in the [[Columbia Workshop]] series on January 30, 1939, with [[Shirley Booth]] in the lead role. It was Laurents' first professional credit. The show's success led to him being hired to write scripts for various radio shows, among them ''[[Lux Radio Theater]]''.<ref>Laurents, pp. 12–13.</ref> Laurents' career was interrupted when he was drafted into the U.S. Army in the middle of World War II. Through a series of clerical errors, he never saw battle, but instead was assigned to the U.S. Army Pictorial Service located in a [[Kaufman Astoria Studios|film studio]] in [[Astoria, Queens]], where he wrote [[training film]]s and met, among others, [[George Cukor]] and [[William Holden]]. He later was reassigned to write plays for ''Armed Service Force Presents'', a radio show that dramatized the contributions of all branches of the armed forces.<ref>Laurents, pp. 22–28.</ref>