Grammy nominee pens JAWS love song for 49 year crush... Deputy Hendricks!

A 49-Year JAWS Crush

Like many other folks, I waited in line at the box office to get my ticket for JAWS on Friday, June 20, 1975. People who weren’t around back then can’t even imagine what an amazing experience this was; we didn’t know about Ben Gardner's head, we didn’t know about the chum scene, and we’d never heard “You’re going to need a bigger boat.” People jumped out of their seats. I needed to go back repeatedly, always with someone who hadn’t yet seen it, so I could enjoy their reaction.

I turned sixteen that summer, and I saw JAWS sixteen times. You see, there was another, secret reason I went to see JAWS so many times. I had a hard crush on Deputy Hendricks.

Fast forward to 2020 when Jeffrey Kramer participated in an online con, and I “met” my crush for the first time. When he appeared on my monitor I blurted out, “There you are!” to which he replied, “There YOU are!” I confessed my love to him and he said he’d never heard of anyone who had a crush on him. I found that hard to believe.

We connected on Twitter not long after that, and he valiantly supported my arguments with horror fans that JAWS isn’t a horror movie.

I was watching The Daily JAWS “Jaws 2 45th Anniversary” interview with Mr. Kramer on a hot July evening last summer, and when Dean asked him if he thought JAWS was a horror movie, he leaned back in his chair and said, “Well, Judy Pancoast on Twitter….” I didn’t hear the rest of what he said because I was screaming too loud. Even my husband couldn’t believe it. DEPUTY HENDRICKS SAID MY NAME!!! 16-year-old Judy was jumping for joy!

As I am a professional musician, there was only one way to respond. I wrote him a love song. I did a silly video of myself playing and singing it and posted it on YouTube, then let people on Twitter know about it. Mr. Kramer responded with “You da bomb!” I was delighted.

Just a few days later, I heard from Michael Smith of the JAWS 50 page on Facebook. He introduced himself and said Jeffrey Kramer had sent him my video. I was gobsmacked. He was sending my dumb little video around. What? (you know how to say that don’t you?)

Based on his reaction, I went into the studio and recorded a fully produced version of my JAWS love song, complete with background vocals, and then I had a crazy idea. I asked Jeffrey Kramer if he would record some lines as Hendricks for the track…and he said yes! When I received the 20-minute recording of him reading the lines and adlibbing I went bananas. I then set about the process of figuring out how to best use these nuggets of JAWS gold.

The result is “Deputy Hendricks (A JAWS Love Song),” produced by Grant Maloy Smith of Suburban Cowboy Studios in RI, and, of course, there is a wonderful video produced by the incredibly talented Jeff Whitmire, who creates horror movie musical parodies and videos and is also a massive JAWS fan. It’s live on YouTube now.

But wait…there’s more! I was in California last week and met my beloved deputy in person! He was so down-to-earth and genuine that we sat for nearly two hours just chatting about all kinds of things. Then I played the audio recording for him for the very first time, and his reaction was wonderful, and after that, we watched the video. The sound of his reactions and laughter will be in my mind and heart forever. He sincerely loved it and asked if he could have the link so he could share it with his sons.

To say that I am on cloud nine would be an understatement. I never thought that something so momentous would happen to me at my age. I’ve always believed in following your dreams and never giving up, but still, I could never have imagined a turn of events like this.

Thank you, Jeffrey Kramer, for giving 16-year-old AND 64-year-old Judy the thrill of a lifetime. You da bomb!

Words by Judy Pancoast

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.