Cabin Fever: How local log cabin helped Steven Spielberg forge shark classic Jaws

During the extended shoot of Jaws its director Steven Spielberg called Martha’s Vineyard his home, a place he shared with Jaws co-screenwriter Carl Gottlieb, meaning it was the nightly creative hub of the constantly evolving shark film.

For seven months Gottlieb and Spielberg thrashed out fresh changes on a daily basis on the way to set, on the way from set and in a log cabin, called the Oxbow Lodge.

Also stopping there was Rick Fields, the son of Jaws editor Verna Fields, and was Spielberg’s assistant during the 159 day shoot.

It was built in the 1930's and could be found on the outskirts of Edgartown, high on a hill with sea views of Nantucket Sound.

The Jaws we know and love today was shaped and crafted there, and it was the dining table where much of the magic happened. Around it you would often find Spielberg, Gottlieb and the likes of Robert Shaw, Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss.

All were there to talk Jaws and the script, with Carl Gottlieb then hammering out any changes or alterations on his typewriter.

Scheider spoke about those evenings in the cabin as part of an interview with Nigel Andrews for his book, Nigel Andrews on Jaws.

The Chief Brody actor said: “We were always invited up to Steven’s in the evening. He had the cook, and the editor there, Verna Fields, and the main cast, me, Dreyfuss, Shaw. It was the best cooking on the island and we’d sit around and shoot the shit about the movie and talk about what we’d do the next day. Before you knew it, we’d all be on our feet doing doing improv about how funny it would get if we did this in the movie. For instance the scene where Dreyfuss insists I go out on to the far edge of the boat so he can get a comparative-size picture with his camera, that was improvised one day in the kitchen.”

This made it a mecca for Jaws fans, with many getting their photographs stood in front of it or on the porch, or even getting to rent it if they were really lucky. However, the Martha’s Vineyard photo opportunity ceased to be in 2006, when it was demolished.

Things made of wood associated with Jaws don’t seem to have a great survival rate, just look at the fate of the original screen-used Orca from the Universal backlot. Although Spielberg used to regularly sneak onto it to face his Jaws demons it ended up in the chipper due to rot. Surely such a big screen icon could – and indeed should – have been repaired and saved?

As with other Jaws items, such as the Orca II and Alex Kintner’s raft, small sections of the Jaws cabin have since been made available for avid Jaws collectors to collect. At a price.

The cabin was replaced with a bigger building (insert your own Jaws joke here) and does retain some of the Jaws cabin, as one hallway has walls made of logs salvaged from the old cabin. And if those walls could talk, just think of the tales they could tell.

Words by Dean Newman

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