{"id":77735,"date":"2023-11-04T18:42:18","date_gmt":"2023-11-04T23:42:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=77735"},"modified":"2023-11-04T19:10:11","modified_gmt":"2023-11-05T00:10:11","slug":"shaft-richard-roundtree-r-i-p","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/shaft-richard-roundtree-r-i-p\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Shaft&#8221;\/Richard Roundtree, R.I.P."},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"v2 ps2 s3 c2\">\n<h2 class=\"p1\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Actor Richard Roundtree died last week at the age of 81. He was best known for his portrayal of detective John Shaft in the movie <\/span><span class=\"f4\" style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Shaft<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">&nbsp;as well as two sequels,&nbsp;<\/span><span class=\"f4\" style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Shaft\u2019s Big Score!<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">&nbsp;and&nbsp;<\/span><span class=\"f4\" style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Shaft in Africa<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">, after which he played the same character in seven made-for-TV movies. The&nbsp;<\/span><span class=\"f4\" style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Shaft<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">&nbsp;movies and TV films grew out of the publication of the novel&nbsp;<\/span><span class=\"f4\" style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Shaft<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">&nbsp;in 1970, written by author Ernest Tidyman. Tidyman wrote six more&nbsp;<\/span><span class=\"f4\" style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Shaft<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">&nbsp;novels, the second of which was titled&nbsp;<\/span><span class=\"f4\" style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Shaft Among the Jews<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">. The book was very well received but was never made into a movie. Tidyman based this novel on a real-life story that he had read in the&nbsp;<\/span><span class=\"f4\" style=\"font-size: 16px;\">New York Times<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">. What was the news story that inspired Tidyman to write&nbsp;<\/span><span class=\"f4\" style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Shaft Among the Jews<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">?<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_77736\" style=\"width: 245px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/richard_roundtree_as_john_shaft_1973_002-352.webp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-77736\" class=\"wp-image-77736 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/richard_roundtree_as_john_shaft_1973_002-352-235x300.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"235\" height=\"300\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/richard_roundtree_as_john_shaft_1973_002-352-235x300.webp 235w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/richard_roundtree_as_john_shaft_1973_002-352.webp 352w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 235px) 100vw, 235px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 235px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 235\/300;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-77736\" class=\"wp-image-77736 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/richard_roundtree_as_john_shaft_1973_002-352-235x300.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"235\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/richard_roundtree_as_john_shaft_1973_002-352-235x300.webp 235w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/richard_roundtree_as_john_shaft_1973_002-352.webp 352w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 235px) 100vw, 235px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-77736\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Richard Roundtree as John Shaft 1973 002&nbsp;is in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"v2 ps7 s8 c7\">\n<p class=\"p3 f7\">A.<span class=\"f8\">&nbsp;<\/span><span class=\"f8\">The 1968 news story was about three separate murders of New York diamond merchants in New York City within a 3-month period. The story inspired Tidyman to write&nbsp;<\/span><span class=\"f9\">Shaft Among the Jews<\/span><span class=\"f8\">&nbsp;about a group of seven Chassidic diamond merchants who reach out to Shaft to help solve some murders as well as a crime where crooked diamond merchants are making synthetic diamonds and passing them off as real.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3 f10\">B.<span class=\"f8\">&nbsp;<\/span><span class=\"f8\">Tidyman read an article in the&nbsp;<\/span><span class=\"f9\">New York Times<\/span><span class=\"f8\">&nbsp;about Meir Kahane, the founder of the Jewish Defense League, whose aim was to protect Jews against antisemitism through faith and force (this was before Kahane\u2019s move to Israel where he pursued a racist anti-Arab agenda). In the novel&nbsp;<\/span><span class=\"f9\">Shaft Among the Jews<\/span><span class=\"f8\">, John Shaft teams up with the so-called Jewish Safety League to protect Jewish merchants in Brooklyn. It is because of Kahane\u2019s subsequent behavior in Israel that the novel was not turned into a movie.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3 f11\">C.<span class=\"f8\">&nbsp;<\/span><span class=\"f8\">Tidyman read a 1970 article in the&nbsp;<\/span><span class=\"f9\">New York Times<\/span><span class=\"f8\">&nbsp;about Jewish gangster Meyer Lansky, who had fled to Israel to avoid arrest on tax evasion charges. The plot of&nbsp;<\/span><span class=\"f9\">Shaft Among the Jews<\/span><span class=\"f8\">&nbsp;features a Jewish mobster based on Meyer Lansky, and Shaft\u2019s efforts to fight both the Italian Mafia and the Jewish Mafia in order to bring the Lansky-like figure to justice.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3 f12\">D.<span class=\"f13\">&nbsp;<\/span><span class=\"f8\">Tidyman read an article about the 1964 murders of civil rights activists James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner as they worked across the South to promote desegregation and an end to discriminatory practices against Black citizens. Tidyman was struck by the fact that Goodman and Schwerner were Jewish, and wrote&nbsp;<\/span><span class=\"f9\">Shaft Among the Jews<\/span><span class=\"f8\">, which features detective John Shaft working together with the Urban League, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Anti-Defamation League to bring white supremacists in Mississippi to justice.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3 f14\">E.<span class=\"f8\">&nbsp;<\/span><span class=\"f8\">Tidyman read a review in the&nbsp;<\/span><span class=\"f9\">New York Times<\/span><span class=\"f8\">&nbsp;of the 1971&nbsp;<\/span><span class=\"f9\">Fiddler on the Roof<\/span><span class=\"f8\">&nbsp;movie, starring Topol as Tevye. He then went to see the movie, and as a result wrote&nbsp;<\/span><span class=\"f9\">Shaft Among the Jews<\/span><span class=\"f8\">. In the novel, Golde learns from the priest that their daughter Chava has run off with a Russian Orthodox Christian named Fyedka. Tevye hires Shaft to find them and bring Chava back home, but when Shaft finds them he learns that they are in love, so he tells Tevye that he will not bring her home. Sadly, the film version of this novel never came to fruition, despite the theme song that Tidyman wrote, including the lines \u201cThey say this cat Shaft is a nudnik\/(Shut your mouth)\/He\u2019s a complicated mensch\/But no one understands him but his bubbie.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"f15\"><a href=\"http:\/\/rrrjewishtrivia.com\/answers-2023\/shaft-richard-roundtree-rip-answer.html\">Click here for the answer.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"%22Shaft%22%2FRichard%20Roundtree%2C%20R.I.P.\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5841],"tags":[13432,8795,13433],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77735"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77735"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77737,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77735\/revisions\/77737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}