Day 14789 Gordon Parks, busboy to fame

By John Thomas
April 17, 1990 Tuesday

Shortly after arriving to work, a striking older lady wearing a knit outfit with purple highlights came up to my desk. She said, “I am in the hotel visiting a guest of yours and would like to inform my escort that I had walked over from Minnesota Public Radio.” That lady was Shanna Alexander, famous journalist, who did a segment on 60 Minutes called ‘Point and Counterpoint’. She had just done an interview about her new book about the life of Bess Meyerson. Her publisher, Random House, had arranged accommodations at the Omni Hotel in Minneapolis, instead of the Saint Paul. While reading an article in the paper about an old friend, Gordon Parks, she set up a meeting. For 20 years the two of them worked together at Life magazine. With it being only a couple blocks away she walked over. I informed MPR of her location.

The day before, a distinguished looking black man wanted to find out about purchasing a pipe. I made some suggestions, then we talked a little. That evening he was dropped off by some of his relatives, a nephew and niece that lived in St. Paul. Meeting him as he came out of the car, we conversed as he entered the front door. Stopping in the lobby, we got on the subject of the hotel. He reminisced about a couple of his memories.

In his youth he worked as a busboy at the Saint Paul Hotel. While clearing dishes at a banquet, a fortune teller was performing on stage. He asked a question to all in attendance, “Who in this room is going to become famous.” After a few moments of silence the man replied,” The young man in the back of the room with the white hat and coat on.” That was Mr. Parks.

Then he told the composing story. One night while working after everyone had left, he began playing the grand piano in the ballroom. The band leader of the group that played that night heard him playing and came up to him. Noticing the unique tune he asked, “Who’s piece is it?” Gordon said, “Mine!” The bands arranger sat down with him, working it out for the entire band and they played his tune the next day. Shortly after that he went on the road with the band, he was 17 at the time.

This leds me to the picture I cut out of the Pioneer Press newspaper. One of his true loves was photography, particularly fashion photography. One day after work he walked across St. Peter Street into Frank Murphy’s, an exclusive woman clothing store. Asking Mr. Murphy, the owner, if he would hire him to take some pictures of their fashions, he said no. Mrs. Murphy stopped him before getting out the door. Recently they had spent 100’s of dollars on pictures but she gave him a chance. The next day he took shots of their models, most of them ended up double exposed, except for the shot in this article. That one photo made him famous. His move into photography brought him to Life magazine and his mutual association with Shanna Alexander.

We said Good Bye. For the next 3 days he lectured at Carleton College in Northfield.