'Jaws' at 50: 50 things you need to know about Hollywood's first summer blockbuster

Few movies have made an impact on American culture — and Hollywood economics — like Steven Spielberg’s "Jaws."

Based on Peter Benchley’s 1974 novel about a great white shark that terrorizes an East Coast beach town, it featured Roy Scheider as local police chief Brody, Richard Dreyfuss as the oceanographer Hooper and Robert Shaw as the shark-hunter Quint. Released in June 1975, the movie thrilled audiences, broke box office records and sparked a fascination for sharks that’s still with us today. (See Discovery Channel’s Shark Week, launched in 1988, for proof.) For better or worse, "Jaws" also helped invent the summer blockbuster, changing Hollywood’s idea of what a movie could — and should — be.

As "Jaws" celebrates its 50th anniversary, here are 50 things to know about the now-legendary film.

1. Benchley’s book was inspired by a Long Islander. 

In 1964, the author spotted a news story about a Long Island fisherman who caught a 4,500-pound shark, according to The New York Times. Locals knew it was Frank Mundus, a Montauk-based charter captain. "I've been thinking about a novel about a great white shark that appears off a Long Island resort and afflicts it," Benchley said later.

2. Quint was probably inspired by Mundus!

Both are weather-beaten sea captains who hunt sharks with harpoons attached to floating barrels.

3. But Benchley never gave Mundus credit.

Though the author reportedly joined Mundus on several fishing trips, he insisted Quint was a composite character.

4. The story was originally set on Long Island.

The novel takes place in the fictional town of Amity, between Bridgehampton and East Hampton.

5. "Jaws" was not the original title.

Benchley’s early suggestion was "A Stillness in the Water," according to a 1974 article in The New York Times. Other suggestions: "The Summer of the Shark," "The Year They Closed the Beaches," "The Jaws of the Leviathan" and "Why Us?"

6. Cosmopolitan magazine helped the movie get made.

According to the website TheDailyJaws, editor-in-chief Helen Gurley Brown received an advance copy of the novel from another editor with a card that read, "Might make a good movie." She gave the book to her husband, Universal producer David Brown.

7. Universal bought the book before it came out.

The purchase price for film rights was $150,000, plus $25,000 for Benchley’s screenplay adaptation.

8. Spielberg wasn’t the first choice as director.

In a 2023 interview with Vanity Fair, Spielberg said another director — unnamed — repeatedly called the shark "the white whale," which offended Benchley. "And that’s how the project finally came to me," Spielberg said.

9. Jon Voight was the first choice to play Hooper.

Spielberg also considered Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges and Jan-Michael Vincent, according to reports.

10. George Lucas had a hand in casting.

"Why don’t you cast Ricky Dreyfuss?" Lucas said, according to Spielberg’s Vanity Fair interview. The young actor had recently appeared in Lucas’ "American Graffiti" (1973).

11. Dreyfuss initially turned Spielberg down.

The actor worried that "Jaws" might be "the turkey of the year," according to a 1975 article in Time magazine. Dismayed by his lead performance in 1974’s "The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz," however, Dreyfuss called Spielberg back and took the part. ("Duddy" went on to earn rave reviews.)

12. Scheider asked to play Brody.

In a 2011 interview with Ain’t It Cool News, Spielberg recalled meeting Scheider during a party at the home of casting director Andrea Eastman. After telling Scheider about his casting difficulties, "He actually said, ‘What about ME?!?’ in only the way Roy could," Spielberg recounted. He offered Scheider the role on the spot.

13. Shaw hated the book.

“ ‘Jaws’ is not a novel," he sniffed in an interview with Time, adding an unprintable insult. He took the part because his wife and secretary both liked the script.

14. Spielberg considered filming in the Hamptons.

Production designer Joe Alves, however, scouted the area and deemed it "too opulent," according to Time.

15. Filming took place on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. 

Principal photography began May 2, 1974.

16. The famous shark was fake.

Designed by Alves, it was 25 feet long, built of fiberglass and steel — with a urethane topcoat — and weighed more than 1,200 pounds.

17. The shark was extremely complicated.

"A twelve-ton steel platform, to which the mechanical shark was attached by a 100-ft.-long umbilical cable, had to be sunk to the ocean floor," Time reported. "The controls on the platform were operated by 13 technicians wearing scuba equipment."

18. There were actually three sharks.

One was full-bodied, but the other two were "platform" models designed to be seen from only one side. (Stock footage of real sharks was edited into some scenes.)

19. The sharks were called Bruce.

The name came from Spielberg’s lawyer Bruce Ramer. "I think sharks serve their purpose," Ramer said in a 2009 interview with Superlawyers.com. "But it still has a slightly pejorative ring to it, don’t you think?"

20. You can visit the shark.

The fourth and final casting of the full-bodied creature is on display at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles. It’s the largest item in the collection.

21. "Jaws" is considered the first major movie filmed on the open ocean.

"None of us understood the water," Spielberg told Vanity Fair. "I didn’t see the insanity of it. I saw the authenticity of it."

22. Waves became a problem.

With the actors on one boat and the camera on another, shooting stopped whenever waves pushed the boats out of position. "All we could do was wait and bounce up and down on the waves and watch each other vomiting over the side," Spielberg told Ain't It Cool News.

23. Saltwater became a problem.

It corroded the shark’s mechanical innards, got into its hydraulic hoses and ate away its skin.

24. The shark became a problem.

On its first shot, it sank, according to Time, and later its hydraulic hoses exploded. Throughout the production, crew members announced over radio, "The shark is not working — repeat — the shark is not working," Dreyfuss recalled in the documentary "The Shark is Still Working." "That was the constant refrain."

25.  The shark didn’t look real.

"Bruce’s eyes crossed, and his jaws wouldn’t close right," director Brian DePalma, who visited the set, told Time. When Spielberg and others came away from watching each day’s footage, DePalma said, "It was like a wake."

26. The shark forced Spielberg to get creative.

By either cutting away from the fake creature or adopting a shark’s-eye point of view, Spielberg developed a less-is-more technique that built dread and suspense. "The shark not working was a godsend," he told Ain’t It Cool News. "It made me become more like Alfred Hitchcock."

27. One famous scene was filmed in a swimming pool.

The movie’s memorable jump-scare, when a fisherman’s rotted head pops out of a sunken hull, was filmed in the backyard swimming pool at the home of editor Verna Fields in Encino, California. according to Entertainment Weekly. To make pool water look like ocean water, the crew poured in a gallon of milk.

28. "You’re gonna need a bigger boat" was already a catchphrase.

Crew members used it whenever things went awry or the producers complained about money, co-writer Carl Gottlieb said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. "If lunch was late or the swells were rocking the camera," he recalled, "someone would say, ‘You’re gonna need a bigger boat.’ " Scheider reportedly ad-libbed the now-famous line.

29. Quint’s "USS Indiana" monologue was a group effort.

According to various reports, the haunting speech about soulless sharks eating Navy sailors was conceived by an uncredited writer (Howard Sackler, of "The Great White Hope"), expanded by another (John Milius, later of "Apocalypse Now") and boiled down by Shaw (an occasional playwright). Gottlieb, however, has disputed Milius’ involvement, and Scheider said he came up with the metaphor "like a doll’s eye."

30. Shaw initially botched it.

The actor thought he could do the monologue best after a few drinks, which turned out not to be the case. The next morning, however, Shaw "was ready at 7:30 out of makeup and it was like watching Olivier on stage," Spielberg told Ain't It Cool News.

31. The Shaw-Dreyfuss feud might be overblown.

Some reports say Shaw needled the younger actor constantly. Dreyfuss admits he once threw a glass of Shaw’s bourbon overboard, only for Shaw to spray him down with a hose, according to Vanity Fair. Their supposed feud became the basis for a Broadway play, "The Shark Is Broken" (cowritten by Shaw’s son Ian Shaw), but Dreyfuss objected to its version of events. "We never had any bad feeling between us, ever," he said of his co-star.

32. The movie went over budget.

Initially estimated at $3.5 million over 55 days, the production reportedly ballooned to $8 million over 159 days, according to reports. "We thought we were going to be there for the rest of our lives," Scheider later said in "The Shark Is Still Working."

33. Spielberg was traumatized by the experience.

"I never left the island because I knew that, if I did, I would never come back," he told Vanity Fair. "Show Me the Way to Go Home," the 1925 ditty sung by the three main characters on Quint’s boat, caused the homesick Spielberg and even some crew members to tear up during filming, he said.

34. The crew was traumatized, too.

"We really had people crack up," Spielberg said in an interview with Dick Cavett. The film’s gaffer, he said, one day put on a hat, picked up a bullhorn and began loudly narrating whatever was happening around him. "It was too much pressure. We had people go back to L.A. with their eyes swimming."

35. Composer John Williams called his shark theme "primordial."

"We fear beasts of the sea," he told Classic FM. He added when Spielberg first heard his simple, two-note theme, his reaction was, "You can’t be serious?"

36. The movie poster began as the book cover.

The striking visual of a toothsome shark, a female swimmer and a one-word title was illustrated by Bantam’s Roger Kastel for the paperback edition. The film’s producers insisted that it be used as a consistent logo in all advertising and promotion, according to a 1975 article in The Hollywood Reporter.

37. But the poster is based on the wrong shark.

According to the fan website TheDailyJaws, Kastel’s illustration is based on photographs he took of a shark at the American Museum of Natural History — but it was a mako, not a great white.

38. The film was promoted aggressively.

The producers generated word-of-mouth by sending the book to influential people in media, the corporate world and even the food industry, according to The Hollywood Reporter. They also spent an unprecedented $700,000 on television ads, according to BBC News.

39. "Jaws" was released June 20, 1975.

According to Variety, it opened at 409 U.S. theaters, then expanded to 464 venues 17 days later. By day 59, it was almost ubiquitous, playing at 954 theaters nationwide.

40. Audiences were terrified.

"There were people screaming in there, and it wasn’t just me," says Judy Gentile, 71, who recalls seeing it at the Floral Theatre in Floral Park. "You’d hear the music and you’d be like, ‘Oh, God.’ " Vito LaSorella Jr., 60, of Fire Island, says he saw it as a 10-year-old in the Bronx and was never the same. "Even to this day I never enter the water without that thought in my mind," he says.

41. Critics loved it.

New York Magazine called it "exhilarating," The New York Times judged it "a good deal of fun, if you like to have the wits scared out of you" and Roger Ebert described it as "one hell of a good story, brilliantly told." Newsday's Joseph Gelmis wrote " 'Jaws' does for ocean bathing what 'Psycho' did for taking a shower."

42. The movie broke records.

It earned roughly $14 million in its first week (surpassing the $10 million of "The Godfather"), became the first film to cross the $100 million mark and eventually became the highest-grossing film of all time with $260 million.

43. The movie also boosted book sales.

Bantam ordered a rush print of 1 million copies, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

44. America developed "Jawsmania."

According to reports, stores sold "Jaws" beach towels, while ice-cream shops came up with flavors like "finilla" and "jawberry." Newspapers ran shark-themed editorial cartoons. A TV spot for Colt 45 Malt Liquor featured a shark-attack victim who recovers by reaching for a cold one. And "Saturday Night Live" ran a 1975 skit about a Land Shark (Chevy Chase) that gobbles up Manhattan apartment dwellers.

45. But "Jaws" spelled death for sharks.

"Thousands of fishers set out to catch trophy sharks after seeing ‘Jaws,’ " a Florida researcher recalled in a 2019 BBC News article, adding that the East Coast’s population of large sharks probably fell by half after the movie’s release. Speaking later about the decimation, Spielberg told The Hollywood Reporter, "I really, truly regret that." Likewise, Benchley became a vocal shark advocate, and even Mundus began to promote catch-and-release fishing.

46. "Jaws" won three Oscars.

Williams won his second; the movie also won for sound and best editing.

47. It also launched Spielberg’s career.

He'd been having trouble launching a film titled "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," but suddenly "Everybody seemed to want it," he told Ain't It Cool News. 

48. Knockoffs proliferated.

Among the many: "Orca," "Piranha," "Alligator," "Tentacles" and "Mako: Jaws of Death."

49. The sequels stunk.

"Jaws 2” (1978) drew groans from critics, "Jaws 3D" (1983) became a notorious turkey and the franchise finally expired after 1987’s "Jaws: The Revenge," starring Michael Caine. The actor developed a stock quip about the movie, to the effect of: "I haven’t seen it — but I’ve seen the house it bought me, and it’s terrific."

50. Ultimately, "Jaws" changed the movies.

Based on a novel, engineered for maximum crowd appeal, widely hyped and sequel-ready, "Jaws" set the template for the modern summer blockbuster. "I didn’t have much hope for any longevity for my career," Spielberg told Vanity Fair, "but I wanted to finish ‘Jaws’ because I had never stopped believing in the movie."

By Rafer Guzmán

rafer.guzman@newsday.com