Interview With Author Pat Jankiewicz | Just When You Thought It Was Safe: A JAWS Companion
Published in 2015, Just When You Thought It Was Safe: A JAWS Companion was a very welcome addition to the Jaws books already out there. Expanding it’s scope to cover not just the original Steven Spielberg classic but also the sequels and some of the rip-offs, author Pat Jankiewicz’s book takes a broader look at the making of and legacy of the defining shark movie. The Daly Jaws caught up with Pat to learn more.
When/where did you first see Jaws?
On one of its many re-releases-- At The Troy drive-in in Troy, Michigan on a double bill with Orca The Killer Whale. Was thrilled we got in because it was sold out the first two nights.
Mom had seen it with Dad on its first run, so she would shout in the van s warning when my baby brothers should cover their eyes!
It was thrilling and scary, even with my Mom providing a "horror horn" to keep my little brothers from being traumatized.
Meanwhile, JAWS remained one of the 10 most often run movies on basic cable. In America, TV stations will have all day marathons of JAWS and its sequels on the 4th of July (*the important date in the film) and on Christmas day, so clearly, there was a need not being met for new JAWS material.
JAWS is my favourite film. It's scary, fun, clever and charming. It was the first horror film I had seen on the big screen. So it made a huge impression.
TDJ: Tell us about the book.
PJ: I decided to write my book Just When You Thought it Was Safe: A JAWS Companion because I felt JAWS wasn't being satisfactorily appreciated. Post Jurassic Park, that was being seen as Spielberg's big horror film and the people weren't referencing JAWS at all. Without the lessons he learned on JAWS, JURASSIC would not be as effective as it is. I wanted stories about the movie and the sequels that nobody knew.
I think the greatest book on JAWS and on the making of any film, is Carl Gottlieb's The JAWS Log. I wanted to cover things the JAWS Log didn't, I wanted to talk to every victim of the original shark, look at the original take on JAWS 2, the interesting dark John Hancock sequel that was never finished.
I wanted the book to show JAWS ' cultural relevance, in politics and pop culture. The Rocky Horror picture Show opened the same year' as JAWS and actually referenced it in their poster("A different set of JAWS ").
Fidel Castro actually mentioned JAWS in a speech--the fact that the biggest piece of pop culture forced a dictator in a closed off country to acknowledge it because it was too big to ignore is astonishing. Political cartoons, TV commercials, sitcoms, novelty records and comic books all became JAWS obsessed
TDJ: What can fans expect from the book?
PJ: Never before seen or heard JAWS stories and images. I run a shot of Joe Alves' tabletop model that sold Universal on the film. It's mentioned but not shown in Jaws Log and you won't see it in any other Jaws book or documentary because it fell and broke, so Roy Arbogast threw it away.
I did the body count for every shark in the series, including their sizes and stats, something that I personally always wanted to see. I cover all the legendary JAWS roofs like Grizzly and PIRANHA and the stories behind them.
I had the pleasure of interviewing James Cameron, twice in a month. During the first interview, I gave him a copy of the book. During the second, he told me he took it to his breakfast Steven Spielberg. (*the greatest moment of my life and I wasn't even there!)
Cameron said he was amazed that Spielberg' was almost resentful of his first blockbuster and only told him half jokingly, "That movie tried to kill me."
TDJ: How did the idea for the book came about?
PJ: I saw a hunger for JAWS that was not being met. When I wrote the book, I was writing for Starlog and Fangoria. It amazed me that JAWS, one of the most popular and influential horror films of all time, had never been a cover story in Fangoria. The mag came years after the film came along, but they didn't even want a retrospective. They since changed that stance.
I offered them a piece on the first JAWS fest, but one of the editors told me they didn't consider it horror. The only JAWS to make the cover of Fangoria was JAWS 3-D and that was just a sidebar.
I wanted the book to answer all the questions I had about the JAWS series. Why do the sharks in JAWS 3-D and JAWS THE REVENGE growl, even though sharks lack vocal cords? The answer's in the book.
Why does the TV version of JAWS THE REVENGE change the beginning and ending of that film? My book tells you why. Reshoots on the film started days after it came out and bombed domestically.
TDJ: What makes your book different from other Jaws books out there?
PJ: Most of the JAWS books ignore the sequels and pretend they didn't happen. My book embraces them and the stories behind them. No, they are not particularly good,, but they are canon.
Ellen Brody, Mrs. Taft and Alex Kintner"s Mom are all in JAWS THE REVENGE--that means its canon, the last shark swam to the Bahamas to eat the rest of the Brody family, that's official.
As goofy as the sequels are, they all have moments. Its important to see their strengths. Seeing JAWS 3-D in 3-D with an appreciative crowd gives you the film at full strength the blurry one dimensional print that runs on basic cable lacks.
You get to hear Jeanot Szwarc in his own words on fighting--physically fighting--a maddened Roy Scheider, cast members talking about Murray Hamilton's problems on JAWS 2, John Putch working on his first film with JAWS 3-D and being paid to make out with Lea Thompson, stories you have never heard before.
I was curious how each sequel got made and look at the ones that didn't, including JAWS 3, PEOPLE 0, which was cowritten by John Hughes (HOME ALONE).
There was a JAWS sequel that was actually supposed to start with Chief Brody being eaten by a shark! Who the hell wanted to see that?
TDJ: How did you manage to get so many great interviews from the wider jaws community?
Whenever I did an interview with someone who had a JAWS connection, I always made it a point to reserve a little time in the interview to discuss their JAWS experiences thoroughly.
You would hit paydirt when you least expected it, as the legendary Richard Matheson would share great stories, like the note from a Universal executive asking if the shark in 3-D could be the burned up, one-eyed shark from the ending of JAWS 2.
The book was a side project of mine and was rejected by a lot of publishers, who would bluntly note "All the sequels are terrible, who cares why they were made." As a JAWS nerd, I cared and wanted to know. Matheson's script is great by the way.
Universal finally embraced JAWS for the film's 30th anniversary and staged a big JAWSfest on Martha's Vineyard. I was too busy to go, my brother Don kept telling me that would give my book a big finish.
By the time I finally listened to him, tickets were prohibitively expensive. Just three days before the event, my brother Don had set us up with a series of driveways across country. It was literally from one end of the country to the other. We left California in a driveaway Honda to Chicago and we arrived in New Jersey in a Horizon cable truck for the Chicago Wolves.
From there, we took the train into Manhattan and grabbed a Chinatown bus to Woods Hole, where we caught the ferry to Martha's Vineyard. All the hotels were booked up, so we camped there in the middle of skunk season and rain storms. Walking back from the campground showers using my cellphone as a flashlight to avoid the cute skunks was pretty surreal.
That trip to The Vineyard made all the difference, because it gave us all of the islanders who worked on the film, including Alex Kintner Jeffrey Voorhees and his movie Mom Lee Fierro as well as islanders who never told their story before, like schoolteacher Cathy Weiss, who tells one of my favorite stories in the book...Spielberg asks her to drop her three year old daughter during the fake shark attack and she balls him out! That was from a beloved schoolteacher on the island on my last day there and wound up being quoted in every single review of the book. A great JAWS story no one had ever heard before.
Six hours of interviews on that island made the book special. Talking to townsfolk during JAWSfest gave the last chapter color.
I made friends with a Bostonian named Scott Rumrill, who had been to JAWS locations all over the island and made sure I saw all the must do JAWS locations there.
I then made it back in time to serve as Best Man in our brother Steve's wedding and more importantly, throw his bachelor party in Vegas.
TDJ: You have so many awesome photos in the book - how did you manage to include these?
PJ: By going back to Martha's Vineyard, I was able to photograph the town as it stands today and that gave a whole new dimension to the book.
To actually photograph the harness Susan Backlinie wore as Chrissy or Ben Gardner's head, which I actually got to hold, gave the book an extra depth.
TDJ: Did Universal Studios help you at all?
PJ: A Universal publicist, went above and beyond the call of duty at The Vineyard and made sure I got everything and everyone I needed for my book. She even gave me a replica of Quint's Narganasset beer can, which sits in my office to this day. Michelle made sure that I was given care blanche and most of my interviews were done in the town hall at the exact desk where Brody unsuccessfully tried to close the beaches. I can't thank her enough.
TDJ: What’s your favourite part/fact in the book?
PJ: I have a couple. Revealing that June Foray, the voice of Rocky The Flying Squirrel, dubbed Mike Brody's voice in "The pond's for old ladies"scene was something nobody ever revealed before.
June, sharp as a tack in her nineties, was excited to talk about it and told me in the dubbing room, Steven Spielberg asked her to do Talking Tina lines from her Twilight Zone.
The other was revealing that the JAWS 3-D shark broke into Florida SeaWorld, which is five miles inland and landlocked is hilarious.
There was also a hilarious scene in JAWS 2 where Brody gets fired and Deputy Lenny Hendricks ' comes over to console him. Throughout the scene, Roy Scheider and Lorraine Gary repeatedly call the actor by his real name, Jeffrey. Neither JAWS 2 director Jeanot Szwarc or actor Jeffrey Kramer could believe that slipped by them.
TDJ: Any advice for anyone wanting to write their movie companion book?
PJ: Be passionate about it. Write it for yourself and get answers to questions you always wanted to know. People want to know as badly as you di. Get people who have never talked about their experiences. When you get people who don't really wanna rehash their experiences, ask interesting questions change their minds about talking by making it as interesting as possible for them.
Joe Alves and Carl Gottlieb were my first two interviews for the book and the first two to get my book. When Carl told me there was stuff in the book even he didn't know about the JAWS franchise even he didn't know, my heart swelled with pride. His opinion meant more to me than anything.
(L-R) Jaws screenwrter Carl Gottlieb, Pat and Jefferey Kramer (Deputy Hendricks)
TDJ: What do you think makes a good film companion books?
PJ: Details, the Devil (& God) are always, always in the details. Anybody who worked on the film your book is about will have a story you will want to hear.
TDJ: How can people get their hands on a copy of your jawsome companion book?
PJ: You can order it from Amazon, Bear Manor Books or Barnes and Noble. Com. It makes a perfect Christmas/Hannukah gift, Pat added.
I have written You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry: A Hulk Companion, which actually features a lot of people from the JAWS franchise, including original JAWS 2 writer Dorothy Tristan and Deputy Hendricks himself, Jeffrey Kramer. I did one on Buck Rogers, which includes the show's JAWS references.
I will have another book out in 2020. Not gonna name it yet, I want it to be a surprise.
I have a page for my book on Facebook, Just When You Thought It Was Safe: A JAWS Companion and I frequently share things from The Daily Jaws, a site I love.
When our mutual friend, Steve Joiner, mentioned you wanted an interview, I excitedly told him I have long followed TDJ and honored to be interviewed by you.
Author Pat Jankiewicz lives in Southern California and honed his writing skills while working in PR and copywriting. Pat continues to write for a range of magazines in the U.S. and England, .
