How seeing JAWS for the first time changed my life
I was 11 years old in 1975 when I first beheld that image on the cover of the book; that amazing image of a massive, monstrous shark on its way to devour a naked girl. The Peter Benchley novel JAWS had become a best seller and the paperback was boldly displayed at check out lines in every grocery store. I’ll never forget picking up the book and imagining what was about to transpire between that horrifying creature and that poor girl. To say I was intrigued would be an understatement.
I was already a young filmmaker having been inspired by the classic Universal monster movies and the disaster film craze of the early ‘70s. So it wasn’t long before I was thrilled to discover JAWS was being made into a major motion picture in the pages of American Cinematographer Magazine. My fellow movie freak friend and I couldn’t wait to see it.
On a warm summer night I saw JAWS for the first time at a packed drive in movie theater. I still remember hearing muffled screams coming from the cars around us and the sight of people jumping in their car seats when Ben Gardener’s head appeared on screen. That experience totally changed my life.
Up to that point I was a movie fan; but that night I became a movie fanatic. JAWS was more than just an amazing monster movie; it was a perfect film. JAWS was a masterpiece of filmmaking. It forever changed they way I thought about movies; and watching the way it impacted culture was all part of the excitement.
The main title theme from JAWS became a top 40 hit; being playing on pop radio stations between songs by Elton John and Paul McCartney. The brilliant John Williams soundtrack album was the first of many I would come to purchase from that day forward. My friend and I even attempted to build a “mechanical shark” out of our obsession to make our own shark movie.
I turned my bedroom into a movie theater and began charging neighborhood kids 25 cents to watch JAWS on Super 8. In 1978 I carried my cassette tape recorder into a sci-fi convention where Jeannot Szwarc presented the world debut of the trailer for Jaws 2 to a theater full of anticipating movie fans. My recording of the audience reaction still gives me the same chills I had as a 13 year old kid.
These are just a few of the memories I share in “The JAWS Phenomenon”; a two part series from my new video podcast “Only Kid With a Camera”. In my podcast I share my experiences growing up in the 1970s.
Using my personal archive of Super 8 movies and audio recordings to present a fun and vivid account of those incredible times. I hope you’ll check out my episodes about JAWS, Star Wars and many other wonderful recollections from the life of a kid in the “Super Seventies”.
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