You’re gonna need a bigger book shelf for this new offering from Titan Books. Jaws: Memories from Martha’s Vineyard
This book captures what it was like to live on Martha’s Vineyard when Hollywood came to town. It seems like every resident of the island was affected in some way and most of them have their own stories and snapshots. While interviewing those people, the author tracked down plenty of their old Polaroid and Instamatic images and compiled them in this book. In fact, the ideal audience for this book is possibly residents of Martha’s Vineyard first, and fans of the movie second.
This book is loaded with photos and concept drawings that show how “Bruce” was brought to life and became a pop culture legend, and would be a great addition to your “history in film making” book collection.
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Titan Books was kind enough to send me this copy for review and now I am going to pass it on to a visitor to Cool & Collected. Just enter a comment below with your favorite Jaws trivia (go ahead and wikipedia it) and I’ll pick a random winner on Friday September 28, 2012. Make sure to include your email address in the form so that I can contact you if you are selected (U.S. addresses only please!). THIS CONTEST IS NOW OVER. THANKS FOR PLAYING ALONG!
Very cool! Books like these are always an interesting read. And here’s an interesting tidbit.
Steven Spielberg named the shark “Bruce” after his lawyer. How fitting! 😉
Spielberg’s own dog played the role of Brody’s dog. This one I knew without looking.
Very cool! I’ve only been to the Vineyard a couple times but never with Jaws in mind. It’s a couple hours drive (and 30 minute boat) ride from where I live.
No trivia because I have nowhere to keep this beast =)
“Although he goes uncredited, the baseball announcer we hear over the radio during one of the beach scenes is sports announcer, Charlie Jones. He was mostly known for football. All of the players he announces here are fictional.”
Thanks for your site! I visit it daily!!
I’m probably totally going to flub this bit of trivia, but my favorite story of the filming was how often the shark didn’t work and how this actually enhanced the tone of the film. Having the shark unseen for so much of the film made it so much more menacing, particularly in the opening sequence with the girl night swimming. Time and time again, when I look at the flicks that I love the most, the ones that really stand out do so because of the limitations the filmmakers had to deal with and get creative to solve…
Nice!
I’m still trying to find time to pop in the Jaws Blu-ray I picked up.
As far as trivia, besides Shaw being drunk all the time he was also in trouble with the IRS and had to leave the country after he finished all of his scenes.
Shaw wasn’t the first choice for the role, he replaced another actor who also had IRS trouble, Sterling Hayden. Lee Marvin was first choice but turned it down.
Peter Benchley, the author of Jaws, has a cameo as the reporter on the beach.
Quints boat is the Orca. the only predator of the great white. It was also the name of the movie made to try to cash in on the Jaws craze and released in 1977.
At the beginning of Escape from LA, Snake swims over the old JAWS amusement ride and it tries to bite him.
my favorite piece of trivia is that the wonky mechanical shark was dubbed “flaws.”
Being part of the League, I’m not even sure I’m eligible, but there’s a torn JAWS poster on a wall in the movie The Hills Have Eyes (which led Sam Raimi to stick a torn Hills Have Eyes poster on a wall in The Evil Dead, which led to the Evil Dead being on a TV in A Nightmare of Elm Street, which led to a Freddy glove being on a wall in Evil Dead II).
League members are ALWAYS eligible!
Hooper only lived in the film because of the accidental footage of the shark thrashing the cage being due to a real shark getting snagged in the cage when they filmed it.. with the wee stunt dude fortunately not in the cage at the time! 😀
Jeffrey Kramer played Deputy Hendricks, of course. He also played the coroner in “Halloween 2,” making him the only actor to exist in (and be employed by) both the fictional towns of Amity and Haddonfield.