Ernest Ralph Tidyman and the Creation of Shaft

Ernest Ralph Tidyman (1928-1984) created John Shaft for the 1970 novel of the same name and co-wrote the screenplay for the 1971 film version of Shaft. It was Ronald Hobbs, one of the very few Black literary agents at the time and the only one in New York City, who - in 1968 - had recommended to commission Tidyman to write Shaft (via and via and via and via). More books and more film sequels followed.

"Encouraged by his literary agent, Ronald Hobbs, Tidyman took up a commission on a $1,800 advance from Macmillan mystery editor, Alan Rinzler. Rinzler had been looking to spice up the publisher’s mystery output and had been looking for something new in the field. He had the idea of creating a black detective hero in the Sam Spade/Philip Marlowe mould. After reviewing the initial pages Rinzler encouraged Tidyman to toughen up the lead character deeming Tidyman’s initial version too soft. He suggested a gesture of violence by having the hero throw a gangster out of his office window." (via)

Reading black fiction, you see that the central figure is either super hero or super victim, as in [William] Styron's book. The blacks I knew were smart and sophisticated, and I thought, what about a black hero who thinks of himself as a human being, but who uses his black rage as one of his resources, along with intelligence and courage.
Ernest Tidyman

"Tidyman’s true skill was an ability to define the hero and the bad guys without ever allowing racism to bump into itself. Everyone, black and white, was rooting for Shaft, the hero. The fact that he was black had nothing to do with it . . . and, of course, everything to do with it. Blacks and whites could root side by side, but in Shaft territory it was always going to be hipper to be black." (via)

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photograph of Ernest Tidyman via 

"Hotter than Bond, cooler than Bullitt"

“Ghetto kids were coming downtown to see their hero, Shaft, and here was a Black man on the screen they didn’t have to be ashamed of. We need movies about the history of our people, yes, but we need heroic fantasies about our people, too. We all need a little James Bond now and then.”

Gordon Parks (1972)

- image of Richard Roundtree (1942-2023) via 

- "Hotter than Bond, cooler than Bullitt!" was the blurb on the paperback the film was based on (via)

Quoting Pam Grier

"Well who's black and what is a black person?"
Pam Grier


"Does a black person make them an African American? No. There are Hispanics that are very, very dark skinned so the word has lost its meaning, it's not a very concise or proper word to use even today and it wasn't then."
Pam Grier

"There are things we have to do to protect ourselves in a climate where people are facilitating hatred and discrimination. This support of white supremacists reminded me of the ’60s and Jim Crow and all we left behind. Within Los Angeles and the industry, people don’t see it, but I live in the Heartland and I see it. I’m very community minded. I’m an activist. And then I hurt more and I cry more when I hear people calling me a nigger to my face. What did I do to deserve you to say that to me? When I’m helping probably more white people than black people right now.
Well, I won’t let it hurt me. It’s gonna take a whole lot more than that to hurt me, after all I’ve been through."
Pam Grier

"When Roger Corman was looking for women to do his biker and nurse movies, he looked for women who were rebels, outsiders, who could hold their own. They hadn’t used a woman of color yet, but Roger being a filmmaker with a foothold in European culture, where women had a bit more equality and freedom in society, he brought that element to his movie making."
Pam Grier

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Interview excerpts:

Coffy, Foxy Brown and their ilk were exploitative, but arguably also progressive. As a heroine enacting revenge fantasies, your influence on modern films like Kill Bill is now obvious, yet in the early ‘ 70s these movies were labeled as racist blaxploitation by black activist groups. There was a political backlash.

"The only political backlash was that white producers were making films about black life. Well, then why don’t the black producers get together and produce them? There were very few. So maybe they felt disenfranchised. But I would go to them and say, “What can we do? How can we leverage?” They didn’t have the projects; they didn’t really know what to do. And so I said, “I’m trying to build enough leverage and find an audience.” With these exploitation films, they were about the worst life in the community, good versus evil — these were just regular things that go on. I said, “We can’t solve our community problems until we show them. And if we show them and you get embarrassed enough, maybe you’ll change and do something about it.” And that’s when they’d sit there and look at me. I said, “Stop having communities eat their own, and maybe we can write about great things. I’m trying to get the Dorothy Dandridge story done, but I can’t get it done. We don’t have the studios. If you want to build black studios where we can make films about black life, build them."

Hollywood’s version of black life is still mostly rooted in stereotyped characters and white savior movies like The Blind Side. Forty years later there are still few black studio movies.

"It is a business, and mainstream movies are made for the audience that supports the business. That’s all it is. Theater is theater; they’re two totally different dynamics. When it comes to filmmaking, you have to understand it’s a business. They don’t have to put black people in the movies."

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photograph via

"We reserve the right to smoke for the young, the poor, the black and stupid."

“We don’t smoke that s***. We just sell it. We reserve the right to smoke for the young, the poor, the black and stupid.” 
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company Executive

"Smoking is a plague on all Americans, but it hits African-Americans especially hard. The tobacco companies target African-Americans with the intensity of fanatical hunters on the trail of very special game."
New York Times, 1993



"To say that the black community has been overrun with tobacco advertising is an understatement." (via)

At the end of World War II, tobacco companies decided to expand to so-called "new" markets in order to keep growing, discovered black Americans and started targeting them in their campaigns. After WWII, there was more "minor advertising" in weekly African American newspapers.



The sudden interest developed because of post-war changes: urban migration and increasing incomes of black Americans in the 1940s. Between 1920 and 1943, their annual income increased threefold, i.e., from $3 billion to more than $10 billion ... an income that made black Americans attractive for the tobacco industry.



Advertising and marketing magazines called the "emerging Negro market" profitable and published a great many articles. One of them, published in 1944, was titled "The American Negro-An 'Export' Market at Home". And the plan worked out: From 1920 to 1943, the amount of money black Americans spent on tobacco products increased six-fold.



Another development that helped the tobacco industry was that during the 1940s, glossy monthly magazines targeting African Americans were introduced (e.g. Negro Digest, Ebony, and Negro Achievements). They were more attractive to advertisers than the pre-war African American daily newspapers as they had glossy pages and a much larger national distribution. In addition, advertisers could feature black models "away from the eyes of white consumers" (via Stanford School of Medicine). They were, however, not the only medium advertisers used. Inducements to smoke were present on billboards, buses, underground trains; sports and cultural events were sponsored. A disproportionate amount of tobacco companies' promotional budget was spent on attracting black smokers (via).



Winston, owned by Imperial Tobacco Company and Japan Tobacco and originally introduced by R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in 1954, is one of the top selling cigarette brands. In fact, it became the number one cigarette sold worlwide by 1966 - a position it held until 1972 (via). It was not the only brand that discovered black Americans. In 1995, Menthol X was introduced (and was soon pulled off the shelves after protests), in 1997, R. J. Reynolds introduced a mentholed version of Camel denying that the company was targeting black consumers (and had to withdraw after protests) - just to name a few.

“Marlboro would probably have a very difficult time getting anywhere in the young black market. The odds against it there are heavy. Young blacks have found their thing, and it's menthol in general and Kool in particular.” Philip Morris

"Since younger adult Blacks overwhelmingly prefer menthol cigarettes, continued emphasis on Salem within the Black market is recommended. Salem is already positioned against younger adults. With emphasis on the younger adult Black market, Salem may be able to provide an alternative to Newport* and capitalize on Kool’s decline."
R. J. Reynolds

*Newport is a brand of menthol cigarettes owned by R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, introduced in 1957. According to a 2005 survey, about 50% of all cigarette sales to black Americans were Newport cigarettes (via).



Potential black consumers were discovered after WWII and still seem to be defined as "the" target group. According to studies carried out in the 1980s, there are twice as many billboards in black neighbourhoods of St. Louis as white, about 60% of them advertising cigarettes and alcohol. In Philadelphia, out of 73 billboards along 19 blocks in a black neighbourhood, 60 advertised cigarettes or alcohol; in Baltimore 70% of the 2.015 billboards. Three fourth of the billboards were found in predominantly poor black neighbourhoods. Marketing to win the "lungs of Blacks . . . [by] playing on the image of success, upward mobility, stokes fantasies of wealth and power. . . . They design socially conscious ads in Black publications that tout Black leaders and celebrities, praise Black historical figures, scientists, artists and events and promote their sponsorship of scholarship, business and equal opportunity promotional programs for Blacks. . . ." (via). And things have not changed. According to a 2013 study of tobacco retail outlets in St. Louis, for instance, there is more tobacco advertising (including more menthol advertising) in areas with a higher rate of black American residents. A study carried out in California shows: The more black high school students in a neighbourhood, the more menthol advertising. When it comes to menthol cigarette brands, disparities in advertising are particularly evident (via).



Related posting: You've come a long way, baby (Philip Morris targeting women)

Winston images via Stanford School of Medicine, inspired by Flashbak; other images via and via and via and via and via and via and via and via and via