An Icon from Milwaukee
Most people don’t know that they’re going to become an icon, but it also doesn’t just happen by mistake. It takes someone to have a dream or goal and make it happen. And that’s what happened to Milwaukee native Michael Schultz when he made the decision to become a director.
Schultz has directed over a dozen feature-length projects and over 100 television shows since the 1970s. Some of his most well-known films include The Last Dragon, Car Wash, and Cooley High.
At 86 years old, Schultz will be returning to his hometown of Milwaukee after 50 years to receive the Milwaukee Film’s Inaugural Michael Schultz Award, an annual award presented to a luminary Black filmmaker, starting with Schultz himself. Along with the award ceremony, Milwaukee Film has curated a selection of Schultz’s films to screen at the Oriental Theatre.
Schultz chatted with Carvd N Stone about his legacy and his childhood in Milwaukee, starting with how he originally wanted to be in the Air Force. He graduated from Milwaukee’s Riverside University High School in 1957 and was one of only eight or nine Black students in the entire school. At the time, the Air Force Academy was recruiting for its first class (1959), and Schultz wanted to join. Although he said he was the second-highest scoring person in the state of Wisconsin, the Air Force was only taking the highest scorer. Schultz joked that if the other person had turned down the Air Force and he had been chosen instead, this interview wouldn’t be happening.
Since he couldn’t join the Air Force, the next possible track was the military, which Schultz said was not something he wanted to do.
“I wanted to fly. I wasn’t think about killing people,” said Schultz, so he then went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison for astronautical engineering to become an astronaut. He quickly found out that he came in second for the Air Force because of his math skills. According to him, calculus was kicking his butt.
He decided his Sophomore year that engineering wasn’t for him and took a year off to work at a steel mill. While in Madison, Wisconsin, Schultz frequently found himself in a local movie theater. He didn’t know it at the time, but he was taking an unofficial film class by watching other directors. He said the films shown there weren’t like the ones in Hollywood, and he liked that. While in that movie theater, he decided that he would become a director who told the stories of his people.
He couldn’t afford to attend a big film school like USC, NYU, or UCLA, so he took the suggestion of a colleague and attended Marquette University in Milwaukee, which only offered theater. Schultz wanted to leave his hometown because he felt it was too small, but those years at Marquette became the best training of his life. By learning all aspects of theater, including voice work, dance, set building, and more, he gained the skills to work with any actor in the industry.
Schultz eventually left Milwaukee to attend Princeton University, where he directed his first play, a production of Waiting for Godot. Since then, he has won a 1969 Obie and a Tony nomination for directing Song of the Lusitanian Bogey. He’s the first African American director nominated for Cannes Film Festival awards. When making Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Schultz had the largest film budget of any Black director until that time. He helped launch the careers of Denzel Washington and Samuel L. Jackson, he worked repeatedly with Richard Pryor, and he was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1991. Plus a whole bunch more.
With all his success, Schultz said he is humbled to be honored and recognized, especially from his hometown.
“It’s kind of humbling. It really makes me appreciate the gift I’ve been given,” said Schultz.
Inspiration for Milwaukee Kids
As a young Black kid in Milwaukee, Schultz grew up on 10th and Vine Street in Milwaukee. According to the City of Milwaukee, that street, along with other Milwaukee streets, was destroyed by the Park East Freeway; the freeway project was never completed. Schultz spent most of his time outside, attended the elementary school across from his home, joined the Boy Scouts, and lived with his mother and brother downstairs from his grandmother, who helped raise them while his mother was at work.
He has fond memories of his childhood, and to any kid from Milwaukee, he encourages youth to dream and explore the world outside of the city.
“If you have a dream, and I hope you have a dream, that you just follow it, and pursue it, and that’s going to make you happy…and do whatever it takes to get there,” said Schultz. “Because you’re the only one in your own way.”
Schultz gave us a prime example of going for one’s dreams, featuring 17-year-old LL Cool J, who was on the set of Schultz’s film Krush Groove. LL Cool J just wanted a chance to be heard by Schultz, and so he offered any help he could, like brushing a broom on set. Through courage, LL Cool J played Schultz his project My Radio, and that led to LL Cool J debuting in his first feature film. Schultz said it’s about ‘getting in the mix’ and seeking out the best in your field and finding ways to work with or for them.
He added he loved the desire and bravery LL Cool J displayed.
Schultz is about to return to Milwaukee after 50 years, and he’s excited to see how the city has grown.
Schultz is about to return to Milwaukee after 50 years and he’s excited to see how the city has grown.
Nyesha Stone founded Carvd N Stone in 2017 to cover positive news while attending the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Stone has a B.A. in Journalism. She has raised over $30,000 to award grants and scholarships. She has also been featured in ESSENCE and worked with the American Black Film Festival.
