William Ray Johnston was born in Bristow, Iowa
on January 2, 1888 and was the son of a Furniture Store merchant.
He learned early the value of hard work. After his graduation
from one year at the Waterloo College of Commerce, he worked his
way up over the next few years to become sales manager at the
Iowa Mausoleum Company and vice president of the Vaughn Land Company.
In 1913, he was approached by Charles Hite, who
was part owner of Mutual Film Co. Mr. Hite recognized his ability
and convinced Ray to become his auditor over a new film company
that they had just purchased (Thanhouser).
With Rays' aptitude for management and mathmatics, he soon was
also handling all of Mr. Hite's personal affairs.
On May 16, 1914, Ray married Violet Hite, Charles
Hite's sister and became part of the family. Ray worked constantly
promoting and working out marketing details between Mutual and
Thanhouser as well as becoming treasurer and director of the Delta
Theatre Corporation of New York, which operates the Broadway Rose
Gardens; assistant treasurer of the Syndicate Film Corporation
of New York, distributors of Thanhouser's The Million Dollar Mystery
and other Mutual holdings.
When the so-called "Thanhouser 'Big'
Productions" were announced, Johnston was named president
of the branch set up to distribute them. In 1916 he was the financial
manager of Thanhouser's short-lived Jacksonville (Florida) studio.
In 1917, Ray left Mutual
and joined W.E. Shallenberger, a Thanhouser Film Corporation stockholder
who had organized the Arrow Film Corporation. He remained with
Arrow for seven years and served as a vice president.
1924 he organized Rayart Pictures for production
and formed Syndicate Film Exchange for distribution, distributing
for Anchor films as well. 
Ray also formed Raytone and Continental
Talking Pictures.
Ray ran Tiffany Pictures from 1929 until
1931 when he formed Monogram
Pictures with Trem Carr. By 1933, Monogram had 36 exchanges
across the country.
In 1935, Monogram merged with Chesterfield,
Imperial, Liberty, Mascot and Consolidated Film Industries (who
was a film processor) to form Republic Pictures. Ray was President
with Trem Carr head of production.
This only lasted a short time when conflicts
in personalities arose. In 1936 Ray and Trem Carr left Republic
and worked to reorganize Monogram.
From August 1936 until March 1937 his use
of the Monogram name was barred by court action, so Ray did business
under the name of Sterling Pictures Corporation, which was owned
by Trem Carr.
In
1939, Ray restored the Monogram name by merging the assets that
he had left in Syndicate Film Exchange and Trem Carr's Sterling
Pictures.
Ray resumed duties as president and Trem
became vice president in charge of production.
By 1941, they had built distribution back
to having 37 exchanges across the US as shown from the 1941 exchange
list shown on the left.
At Trem Carr's death in 1946, Ray stepped
down as president and turned the company over to their sales manager,
Steve Broidy.
Ray died in Los Angeles on October 14, 1966,
leaving a major mark on a growing industry.
additional information provided by Thanhouser
Company Film Preservation, Inc.
