A brief history of the Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss fan clubs

You can catch The Shark Is Broken from 25th July 2023 at the Golden Theater, New York, NYC.

Hello, Islanders!

Like many people that love certain films, I have written letters to members of the cast and crew, praising their work and requesting an autographed photo. When it comes to JAWS, two of those letters had an amazing impact on my life. The third gave me a great story to tell.

In early October 1975 – about a month after I had seen JAWS for the first time – I wrote separate fan letters to Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss, telling them how much I enjoyed the movie and asking if they had a fan club. I sent them all to Universal Studios, to an address provided to me after a long-distance call to the studio switchboard.

About three weeks later I received a note from Arlene Chain, who informed me that she was Richard Dreyfuss’ cousin and that she ran his official fan club. For $5.00 I could join the club. I quickly put a $5 bill in an envelope and sent it off. I told Arlene how happy I was to be joining the fan club and that, if she ever needed any help, I would be happy to lend a hand. I was not prepared for her reply.

A few weeks later a large package arrived at my door. Seeing a California postmark I assumed it was my fan club information. I was partially right. Inside were a series of snapshots of Richard Dreyfuss at his home, a collection of newspaper articles and a 4”x6” black and white negative of Richard Dreyfuss in a wetsuit, with his “autograph” also on the negative. Arlene thanked me for my offer to help and informed me that she would be sending me fan mail she received from the East coast (I lived in Florida) for me to answer. I would tell the letter writers that I was helping run the fan club and tell them that for $5.00 they could join. That price covered the printing of the “signed” photograph, as well as Xerox copies of the enclosed articles. The snapshots Arlene enclosed were for me for my help.

From the personal collection of Michael A Smith

For the next nine months I would receive packages from Arlene, each full of fan letters that, presumably, had been forwarded to her from Universal. Around this time, I finally received a reply from my letters to Roy Scheider and Robert Shaw. It came from Scheider’s agent and consisted of an orange card on which was written, “we only handle Scheider, not Shaw, and Roy is not interested in a fan club at this time.”

Oh well.

In early 1977 I learned from one of the Hollywood magazines I read – I’m assuming “Rona Barrett’s Hollywood” - that JAWS 2 was going to happen. I also learned that the film would be filming in both Martha’s Vineyard and Florida. Excited at the prospect of the film being shot in my backyard, I once again called the switchboard at Universal and asked for the Zanuck/Brown production offices. I was put through and asked the woman who answered the phone where and when in Florida JAWS 2 would be filming. She told me that there was nothing set yet but that I should contact the Screen Actors Guild and gave me a number to call. There I spoke to a woman who took my name and phone number and promised to call me when they heard something.

Jump ahead to late August 1977. I come home from work – not surprisingly, I worked at a movie theatre – to see that my stepmother had left a note on my bed that read, “Mike, they are filming JAWS 2 in Pensacola.” It also had a phone number, which I called. The number was for the Holiday Inn on Navarre Beach, where I learned a majority of the cast and crew were staying. “Even Roy Scheider,” I asked? Yes indeed. I got the address of the hotel and wrote another fan letter to Roy. I mentioned the previous response I had received from his representative and that, as I was helping to run Richard Dreyfuss’ fan club I’d be more than happy to start one for him.

A few weeks later I received a large envelope from New York City. Inside were a couple of photos and a letter from Nancy Seltzer, Roy’s publicist. The letter informed me that Roy was pleased to hear from me and had given me permission to start his official fan club. The final paragraph caught my eye – “sorry you got the run-around for the past two years.” Also enclosed was a note from Roy, dated September 17th (the day after my 17th birthday and almost two years to the day I first saw JAWS) thanking me. We were in business!

Richard’s fan club ran through September 1978. I had become friendly with Richard’s agent, Meyer Mishkin, since I started helping with the fan club. Whenever a new film was close to being released, Meyer would make sure I was sent a press kit containing photos and press information to share with the fans. I still have the press kits (Close Encounters, The Goodbye Girl and The Big Fix) in my files. Sadly, when I called Meyer after receiving the press kit for The Big Fix, I was told that it would be the last one I would receive. “Richard feels he is no longer in need of a fan club.” I have no idea if that was true. Richard had just won an Oscar. He couldn’t have been more popular. Over the years I have had numerous opportunities to ask Richard about this but never have. Whether it was what he wanted or what his representatives wanted, the fan club was no more. Fan club members received a new package from me four times a year (thank goodness postage wasn’t as high as it is now). The September 1978 package included news and notes about Richard post-Oscar, a photo of Richard from The Big Fix, and a letter from me informing them of the end of the fan club. I received many letters from fans afterwards, expressing disappointment in the fan club ending but thanking me for all I did, which I greatly appreciated. In July 2017, to promote the JAWS 2 book, I appeared as a guest at the Hollywood Show along with several of the “Amity Kids” and one Mr. Richard Dreyfuss. During a break I made my way over to him and handed him the snapshots that Arlene Chain had sent me 40-years earlier. He looked at them and smiled. When I told him he could have them he thanked me. Less than two years later I moderated my first Q&A session with him. Today I am proud to call he and his wife Svetlana my friends.

I ran Roy Scheider’s fan club through the summer of 1985. Roy was much more accessible than Richard had been. I was able to write him often and he would reply quickly. When the fan mail I received was of a personal nature – old school friends or people he had served in the Air Force with – I would forward those directly to Roy, who answered every one of them. He was very gracious and kind to me and actually surprised me with a phone call in December 1977 when, without prefacing his words with the warning SPOILER ALERT, he told me “well, I killed the shark today!”

Which brings me the great story about the third letter, written to Robert Shaw.

On August 28, 1978, my best friend (still) Matt Drinnenberg and I were walking out of what was probably our umpteenth time seeing the film Grease. As we both worked at movie theatres, we got in free, so we took great advantage of that perk. As we walked across the lobby, I spotted a man holding a copy of the evening newspaper (yes, back in the dark ages before 24-hour news channels and the internet, many cities had two newspapers). I read the headline – “Jaws star dies.” We rushed across the lobby and asked the man if we could see his paper. He handed it to us and that is how we learned of the passing of Robert Shaw. When I got home later that day there was an envelope on my bed. Inside was the autographed photo of Robert Shaw I had requested almost three years earlier.

Words by Michael A Smith. Michael is co-author of Jaws 2: The Making Of The Hollywood Sequel. You can order the book by contacting Michael at OsFanMike@aol.com.

If you would like to write for The Daily Jaws, please visit our ‘work with us’ page

For all the latest Jaws, shark and shark movie news, follow The Daily Jaws on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.