JAWS: The Original 1975 Movie Brochure

Jaws - the official film brochure

The cinema going experience may have advanced for many, with the likes of IMAX and 4DX, but in other ways it is much poorer - people texting on their phones, the fall of the (picture) house of ushers to police the screen, and the disappearance of the film brochure.

Today’s cinema goers don’t know what they are missing, it’s like capturing the essence of your just viewed film forever. I still remember my first film brochure, for the James Bond film, Octopussy.

I would have only been 7, but that brochure - words and pictures - were practically memorised. It fell apart it was lovingly leafed through that much.

Imagine my palpable excitement then, when I was finally able to get my city hands on the 1975 brochure for Jaws. Or, to give it its full grandiose title Jaws: the official souvenir brochure of the world's most successful film.

It may have been a bit like a great white shark’s tooth - a little rough around the edges - but it had been loved.

It was great to see it full of so many images of Chief Brody, Matt Hooper, Quint and the shark from the film that have become so imprinted on my mind, complete with the jagged lettering for the film that is displayed throughout. Something which I had never seen before.

We even get short biographies of Roy Scheider, Lorraine Gary, Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss. Strange ordering, as it’s not in credited order and a shame they missed out Murray Hamilton. We also get nothing on John Williams, Peter Benchley or Carl Gottlieb, all pivotal to the success of the picture.

We do get short pieces of the producers, Zanuck and Brown and the director, Spielberg’s the name. Wonder whatever happened to him? Naturally though, the whole publication is a thing of beauty.

Here’s my video journey through it now.

Words and video by Dean Newman 

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