"Shaft" centers around a cool Black private eye hired by a crime Lord to retrieve his daughter who was kidnapped. Gordon Park's son, David Parks, fondly remembers working with his dad on the film.
Parks on filming "Shaft" in New York
Well, they'd been in, pre-production, and he was called. Producers wanted to change the location from New York to LA. And so, my father refused to do that because it would not have been the same, number one. And number two, it's not an LA film. It's a New York film, it had that kind of texture to it.
Parks on meeting Richard Roundtree and the audition process
Dad calls me over to the desk and whispers quietly, "take him home and put some clothes on him and bring him back." So that's what we did. We got in the cab, went up to his apartment and I say, "Richard, go ahead and put some clothes, some serious clothes on."
He had some boots, some black boots shoes, and black pants and a blue turtleneck and a leather jacket. And, I said, "yeah, that'll work. Let's go back to the old man." The minute we walked through the door, the old man looked up and he says, "That's 'Shaft!' That's 'Shaft!'" It just clicked.
Parks on working with a Black crew
There were a lot of Black actors, a lot of Black crew that were brought in on the set to be able to get them qualified as production people for the unions. Black electricians and, production assistants and stuff. He got a lot of people in there and as well as my brother [Gordon Parks, Jr]. He brought in some younger people and got them into the industry.
Parks on Issac Hayes's "The Theme from Shaft"
The opening night, when that thing came on and Richard walks up the steps from the subway and all of a sudden, you know, it went crazy. I mean, everybody got up and started dancing in the aisles. I mean, it was fantastic.
—
Information provided by: Wichita State University Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives.
Gordon Parks at work on Shaft (film and musical score) from the publication https://cdm15942.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15942coll8/id/484/rec/28
Shaft casting letter (suggestion of actors to play lead role)
https://cdm15942.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15942coll8/id/421/rec/26
David Parks 1971 interview - pg. 27
https://cdm15942.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15942coll8/id/527/rec/30.
