Jaws Turns 50!
- gregorymaness
- Mar 12
- 3 min read
Jaws came out in the summer of 1975. Back then, I was a young child and relatively new to the North Carolina coast. As such, I didn’t see it in a movie theater until decades later (at which point I had already seen it countless times via cable television and VCR player).
I remember that the Wave Theater at Carolina Beach showed the movie for some time. Sadly, the movie theater later burned to the ground in the dark of night one winter and I never got to see Jaws or any other movie there. It must have been wild to see Jaws in the Wave Theater on the Carolina Beach Boardwalk and then walk a short distance from there to the beach and look out on the ocean. I imagine that the beach was likely to be a little more crowded than usual when the movie was being shown in theaters and that the water was likely to be a little less crowded than usual when the movie was being shown in theaters.
A few years back, I vacationed on Cape Cod and visited both Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket via ferry service from Hyannis. Jaws was filmed on Martha’s Vineyard. My girlfriend and I took a bus tour that included sites from the movie. Later that day, I rented a Jeep and we tooled around the island and ended up revisiting some of the film locations during our drive. One of sites we returned to was “Jaws Bridge” or the American Legion Memorial Bridge where people gather to jump from the bridge into the water below. The bridge crosses the inlet that “bridges” the Atlantic Ocean and the pond that was the scene of a memorable attack by the movie’s great white shark. It should be noted that signs were posted indicating that diving and jumping from the bridge is illegal. But given the crowds that we witnessed partaking in the activity, it was pretty obvious that enforcement is spotty at best.
One highlight of that particular Cape Cod vacation was enjoying a showing of Jaws in Chatham at the Chatham Orpheum Theater after visiting Martha’s Vineyard. My girlfriend had not seen the movie before in its entirety. So in addition to enjoying my first time watching the movie in a theater, I got to enjoy watching her experience a number of the surprises and startle-inducing scares such as Mr. Hooper’s frightening experience during his dive on the damaged, half-sunken wreck of a local fisherman’s boat.
Chatham itself has gained a reputation for the number of white sharks in its waters and in addition to the signs at Lighthouse Beach and other beaches on the Cape warning residents and visitors alike of the presence of large predatory fish, it isn’t difficult to find a t-shirt or other souvenir with Chatham’s prominence as a great white hotspot prominently displayed.
As you might expect, the people of Martha’s Vineyard are celebrating the 50th anniversary of Jaws. It certainly promises to be a fun event and I wouldn’t be surprised if other Cape Cod communities join in the celebration.
Below is a link to the Martha’s Vineyard Chamber of Commerce webpage for the upcoming celebration and a link to a video of people jumping from “Jaws Bridge.” Enjoy! And if you decide to make the journey to the island for the event, have a great time. Just remember that we are not at the top of the food chain if you decide to jump from the bridge yourself. And if I see you there, maybe we’ll go out for a seafood dinner.
🦈 🌊 🎬🎥🎞️🤩
“JAWS 50TH ANNIVERSARY MARTHA’S VINEYARD
“Jaws Bridge Martha’s Vineyard”
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