Just When You Thought It Was Safe: Remembering the Summer of Jaws (1975)
Story by Mitchell Smith
Hello everybody. Today I’m taking a look back at the summer of 1975. It was a summer that saw lots of great things like the Golden State Worriers upending the Washington Bullets to claim the NBA championship. Wheel of Fortune and SNL both made their debut this year. The Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior and the following year Gordon Lightfoot released his hit song “The Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald”. With all that going on in the world a certain movie hit theaters on June 20th 1975 paving the way for a future of exiting movies.
The movie “Jaws” took the country by storm. Based on the book Jaws written by Peter Benchley, Steven Spielberg took on the project as director. Although Spielberg had been in the business some time, this was the movie that put him on the map. His career would skyrocket from here and as we all know now he is one of the greatest directors and producers of all time. The music was done by non other then the great John Williams who at the time was in similar shoes as Spielberg and his career blasted off from this movie.
The Movie starred Roy Schneider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfus Lorraine Gary, and Murray Hamilton. I remember Dreyfus most throughout the 80s and 90s, but Schneider is definitely the face of the original Jaws. I never saw this in theaters but this would be a fun one to see. Of course we all know there was Jaws 2, Jaws 3-D, and Jaws: The Revenge. Back to the Future II poked fun when on the billboard there was an advertisement for Jaws 19 and Marty McFly believing he was going to be eaten by the shark but it was only a hologram. This is one of the greatest franchises of our time and there has never been quite anything like the 1975 Jaws. Have a great week everybody.
