HAS JAWS FAN FOUND MAYOR VAUGHN'S ORIGINAL ANCHOR JACKET?

"You yell cotton, everybody says 'Huh? What?' You yell polyester, we've got a panic on our hands on the fourth of July."

 Mayor Vaughn's jacket, it’s as iconic to Jaws fans as the Orca or the yellow barrels, but what happened to the anchor jacket worn by Amity Island's snappiest dresser?

It now looks like the jacket has turned up in the hands of Matt from RandomVideoCircus, he's even got a video that features it. In it he explains that the jacket fell into his lap almost by accident and was given to him by a local art teacher.

Now, the jacket does have a striking similarity and does look the same, right down to the pattern, but could this really be the very same jacket that Murray Hamilton wore in so many iconic Jaws scenes?

It was worn in the scene where Mayor Vaughn speaks to Chief Brody on the car ferry and takes him aside and utters those famous lines about yelling barracuda, that we riff on in the opening to this article.

And in the scene where Vaughn is confronted by Brody and Hooper in front of the graffitied Amity Island Regatta sign where the Mayor talks paint happy bastards being hung up by their buster browns and telling Matt Hooper he’d love to prove his shark theory and get his name into the National Geographic.

Could Matt have an iconic piece if cinematic and Jaws history hanging in his wardrobe? He says that no other jackets, replicas or lookalike jackets have surfaced since the filming of Jaws, but that isn't conclusive proof that it is the real deal. It doesn't mean it isn't, either.

Through research he has been told that the jacket as worn by Hamilton in the film was purchased in a second-hand store in Martha's Vineyard, where Jaws was filmed.

He asserts that if it isn't the genuine article then it is a very close twin, and is cut from the same cloth, as the anchors are the same and it does appear screen accurate. Mostly.

Which Matt suggests could be down to the jacket being restored at some point, after all it is almost 50 years old. One unseen repair in the video switches anchors for tennis rackets.

But he admits he cannot be sure if it is the jacket, rather than just a jacket. And that is where Jaws fans come in.

Do you know about the existence of a jacket that is claiming to be the Mayor's one from Jaws?

Matt freely admits that the video probably raises more questions than answers, but it is certainly an intriguing story, and he'd love to prove that, get his name in the National GeoJacket.

So, what is the onscreen jacket likely made from? Bamfstyle.com fills in the blanks on the details of the jacket, with a description that wouldn’t look out of place on the Oscars red carpet.

Mayor Vaughn’s jacket is suited in a navy and white twill, likely polyester based on prevailing trends of the mid-’70s.

The overlaying anchors are embroidered in white with a navy border. The single-breasted jacket has fashionably broad notch lapels, detailed with appropriately sporty “swelled edges” that roll to two flat mother-of-pearl four-hole sew-through buttons which match the three buttons on the cuff of each sleeve.

The long single vent also follows the fashions of the ’70s, and the welted breast pocket and hip pocket’s wide flaps reflect the same welted edge as seen on the lapels.

Do you think it is the real Mayor Vaughn jacket from Jaws?

Words by Dean Newman

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