June 1975 saw the release of two horror films that represented both a beginning and an end, respectively: the first, a blockbuster of gargantuan proportions that would change the movie business forever; the second, a smaller project that would prove to be the final film of a B-movie king’s career. Elsewhere, the first issues of two (very) short-lived comic book series hit the stands, a shock-rocker took a nasty fall (literally), and a legendary T.V. pioneer who gave us perhaps the greatest horror/sci-fi series in the history of television died of a heart attack at the age of 50.
Period song to take you back:

“Low Rider” by War

Album/Release Date: Why Can’t We Be Friends?/June 1975

Music Video:

Movies

Film: Jaws

Release Date: June 20, 1975

Distributor: Universal

Box-office Gross (Worldwide): $470,653,000

The Plot: Police chief Martin Brody joins with a marine biologist and a hardened professional shark hunter to track down and kill an enormous Great White terrorizing his small island community.

Production & Reception: The idea that Peter Benchley’s 1974 novel would make for a good film came before the book was even released to the public. Universal-based film producer David Brown, husband of Helen Gurley Brown – then-editor-in-chief of woman’s lifestyle magazine Cosmopolitan – came across a synopsis of the as-yet unpublished manuscript at the Cosmo offices, along with a post-script reading: “Might make a good movie.” Brown (along with his producing partner Richard D. Zanuck) sat down to read it that very night, and he came away concluding it indeed held promise as a feature film. The year was 1973. Brown and Zanuck bought the rights to the novel for $175,000.

The search was on for a director. Initially the producers met with Great Escape helmer John Sturges, but after reflecting on Sturges’ stodgy adaptation of Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, in which the open-water sequences were unconvincingly shot in a tank on a studio soundstage, they rejected the idea. Deciding to go with a fresh face they then offered the film to Dick Richards, director of 1972 Western The Culpepper Cattle Co., but during a lunch with Benchley to discuss the project Richards continually referred to the shark as a “whale” and the producers reneged. At that point 26-year-old director Steven Spielberg, who had just finished shooting crime drama The Sugarland Express for Universal (with Brown & Zanuck producing), began indicating his interest and the producers, having been pleased with an early cut of Sugarland, concluded he was the man for the job. On June 21, 1973, nearly two years to the day prior to Jaws theatrical release, Spielberg’s hiring was publicly announced.

As part of the rights agreement, Benchley was entitled to have first crack at the screenplay, but Spielberg and the producers were unhappy with his drafts and the author subsequently bowed out of the project. Playwright Howard Sackler then came in to perform an uncredited rewrite on Benchley’s script, followed by Carl Gottlieb, who would rewrite most of the scenes during principal photography (with screenwriter John Milius contributing dialogue polishes). Indeed, the screenplay had many contributors, with Spielberg himself having a hand and actor Robert Shaw helping craft (if not completely writing) his character’s monologue about the sinking of the USS Indianapolis.

A lot of ideas were bounced around during the casting process. The lead role of Chief Brody was initially offered to Robert Duvall, but he turned it down (he wanted to play Quint). Charlton Heston actively went after the part, but Spielberg felt the scenery-chewing actor was too iconic and he turned him down (after which Heston reportedly bad-mouthed Spielberg and vowed never to work with him). Roy Scheider, on a career roll after being nominated for an Oscar for The French Connection, sought out the role of Brody and finally convinced Spielberg to cast him after some initial waffling. For marine biologist Matt Hooper, Jan-Michael Vincent was Universal’s preferred choice, but Spielberg envisioned the character as a nerdier type (different from the book) and ultimately won out over the studio with the casting of Richard Dreyfuss (who was initially apprehensive to take on the part). Actors Sterling Hayden and Lee Marvin were both approached to play the role of surly shark-hunter Sam Quint, and both turned it down, leaving the door open for Robert Shaw, the Oscar-nominated English actor who had recently co-starred in box-office hit The Sting with Robert Redford and Paul Newman.

While there was some talk of attempting to use an actual shark for the production, special effects wizard Robert Mattey (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Absent-Minded Professor) was ultimately brought in to create a mechanical version (though some actual shark footage was shot for the film by Australian shark experts and underwater photographers Ron and Valerie Taylor). Mattey created three different versions (collectively named “Bruce” after Spielberg’s lawyer) to perform different functions, but they would prove to be the Achilles’ heel of the production. Filming on the open water off Martha’s Vineyard to give the movie a sense of authenticity, the mechanical innards of all three shark models (manned by a reported 10-14 operators) became corroded by saltwater and thereby proved almost impossible to work with (one of the models even sank to the bottom of Nantucket Sound the first day they went out to test it). These problems forced Spielberg to film many of the “shark” scenes without actually showing the shark at all, which is why you don’t actually see much of him until the final third of the film, and then only briefly.

The unreliability of the special effects was far from the only problem faced during the shoot. By all accounts, Jaws was one of the most hellish productions in movie history. The logistical difficulties of filming on the open sea – with weather delays, outside boats constantly floating into frame, cameras soaked by seawater, and various other mishaps – proved a nightmarish ordeal. Robert Shaw (by that time a well-known alcoholic) and Richard Dreyfuss clashed terribly on set. Script pages were frantically rewritten the night before scenes were shot. Spielberg and Benchley (who had a cameo in the film as a reporter) traded barbs through the press after Spielberg was quoted as saying: “If we don’t succeed in making this picture better than the book, we’re in real trouble.” The production, originally scheduled as a 55-day shoot, ultimately dragged on for 159 days and went way over budget – originally budgeted at around $4 million, the cost ballooned to over double that amount. Skittish studio executives visited the set, sending back negative reports to Los Angeles. Spielberg felt his career as a director as over.

Following the completion of principal photography, Spielberg knew Jaws would require an effective score to make up for the lack of on-screen moments with the shark. To that end, he brought in Oscar-winning composer John Williams, who had already contributed the score to Spielberg’s Sugarland Express. When Williams initially presented his basic idea for the repeating two-note main theme on a piano, Spielberg thought the composer was joking. Only when he heard it played with a live orchestra did Spielberg truly realize its power, the slowly-building crescendo of the music (meant to convey the growing excitement of the shark as it moves in for the kill) working brilliantly to create a sense of overwhelming dread.

Following post-production (Spielberg cut the film with editor Verna Fields), MCA President/COO Sid Sheinberg screened an early cut of the film on the Universal lot (pre-score) and muttered simply that it was “OK”. It wasn’t until the studio held its first sneak preview of Jaws at the Medallion Theater in Dallas on March 26, 1975 that they realized the film would be a hit. The audience went berserk, and overwhelming demand necessitated a second screening later that night. At the next sneak preview in Long Beach on March 28th, the movie received a standing ovation from the crowd.

Now recognizing Jaws‘ potential as a blockbuster, Universal invested a then-unheard of $1.8 million on advertising for the film, $700,000 of which was spent on T.V. spots, giving it an enormous amount of pre-release publicity. This ubiquity – along with Sheinberg’s unprecedented decision to open the film on hundreds of screens nationwide on its first weekend – helped rocket the film to a $7 million opening gross on 464 screens. Due to overwhelming demand 200 more screens were added the following weekend, and for the next five weeks Jaws would remain number-one at the box-office. Soon it eclipsed the gross of reigning box-office champ The Exorcist and became the first-ever film to top $100 million in domestic release.

Critically, Jaws was generally well-received, with top reviewers like Roger Ebert, Pauline Kael, and Variety lauding Spielberg’s visual prowess and skill at crafting believable characters. However, there were some, including Charles Champlin of the L.A. Times and, to a lesser extent Vincent Canby of the New York Times, who criticized the film as being shallow and exploitive.

But critical opinion hardly mattered to the film’s overwhelming success. Jaws was not just a blockbuster, but a cultural moment that spawned heaps of merchandising tie-ins and even landed “Bruce” on the cover of Time magazine. The public appetite for all things Jaws proved insatiable, with Jaws-branded beach towels, t-shirts, shark’s-tooth jewelry, and even ice cream flavors licensed by Universal to capitalize on the phenomenon. In addition, a dip in beach attendance that summer was linked to the film, the belief being it had created a new, (irrational) fear of shark attack amongst the general public.

At the following year’s Academy Awards, Jaws was nominated for four Oscars – Best Picture, Film Editing, Original Score, and Sound. It won all but the top award, which it lost to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Conspicuously, Spielberg was the only director among the Best Picture-nominated films not to be nominated for his work.

Legacy: While there are a few critics who remain unconvinced of the films’ artistic merit, Jaws is regularly cited as one of the greatest thrillers of all time. It came in at #48 on AFI’s “100 Years…100 Movies”, a list of the best films ever made (it dropped to #56 on the 10th anniversary list). Empire Magazine ranked it the fifth-greatest film of all time. John Williams’s score was ranked #6 on AFI’s list of the 100 greatest film scores. “The shark” was named the eighteenth greatest villain on AFI’s “100 Years…100 Heroes and Villains”. It was ranked #1 on Bravo miniseries “100 Scariest Movie Moments” (which specifically cited the opening scene). On IMDB, it is ranked 107th on the top 250 user-ranked films. In 2001, the film was deemed “culturally significant” and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. Top directors such as Bryan Singer, Eli Roth and Robert Rodriguez have all cited the film as an influence on their careers.

From the perspective of the environmental community, there is a consensus that Jaws, by virtue of its earth-shattering ubiquity (not to mention its effectiveness as a piece of filmmaking), created the false perception of sharks as man-eating machines that make a habit of stalking and killing humans. U.S. shark populations declined heavily following the movie’s release, with thousands upon thousands of fishermen going out hunting for shark trophies. “Kill tournaments” – sporting competitions which consisted of large groups of fishermen competing to kill the most sharks – also went on the rise. On the flip side, this increased interest also led to more funding for shark research – particularly after their populations began to dwindle and marine ecosystems suffered as a result – and new protections being put in place to save them from the overfishing that had stemmed in part from Jaws‘ enormous popularity.

As a cultural touchstone, Jaws has few cinematic peers – to this day, Spielberg’s film remains an enduring force in popular culture around the world. Its most lasting contribution, though, is undoubtedly the way in which it forever changed the marketing and distribution of Hollywood films. Jaws‘ blockbuster success led studio executives to see the summer – before considered the “off-season” for the movie industry – as a prime breeding ground for hit films. In addition, T.V. advertisements became a crucial part of the Hollywood marketing scheme. Whereas prior to Jaws buying a 30-second spot on network television was deemed to expensive, its success led to the strategy becoming normal practice. This resulted in a huge increase in marketing budgets, and today it’s not unusual for advertising costs to amount to roughly half (if not more) of a Hollywood film’s production tag. And in a trend started on a smaller scale with The Godfather three years earlier, Jaws cemented the practice of opening a Hollywood film in hundreds (now thousands) of theaters on opening weekend, as opposed to relying on a slow word-of-mouth-build. Along with Star Wars two years later, the success of Jaws was the beginning of the end for the auteur-driven cinema of the late ’60s/early ’70s, and the birth of the blockbuster film.

Quint’s USS Indianapolis Monologue:

Film: Bug

Release Date: June 17, 1975

Distributor: Paramount

Box-office Gross (Domestic): $3.6 million

The Plot: An earthquake releases a large number of highly intelligent bugs – with the ability to start fires – on Riverside, California.

Production & Reception: The final film written and produced by master of gimmickry William Castle before his death in 1977, Bug was based on the 1973 Thomas Page novel The Hephaestus Plague, about a group of super-intelligent, fire-starting bugs unleashed by an earthquake on a small town. Starring Bradford Dillman as a scientist who breeds one of the strange bugs with a common cockroach, the cast also featured Joanna Miles, Richard Gilliland and Patty McCormack (Rhoda in 1956’s The Bad Seed).

Directed by Jeannot Szwarc (who, ironically, would go on to helm Jaws 2 three years later), the film’s premise led gimmick-happy Castle to envision the installation of windshield wiper-like devices beneath theater seats to brush against the audience’s legs when bugs crawled across the screen. Theater owners didn’t go for it, however, and the idea was scrapped (though it didn’t stop Castle from advertising a “million-dollar insurance policy” taken out on “Hercules”, the featured cockroach in the film). Produced for under $1 million, Bug was a minor box-office success, grossing over $3 million in domestic receipts despite lacking the characteristic Castle gimmick.

Legacy: Now mostly known for being the final movie William Castle had any involvement in, Bug is nevertheless one of the producer’s more obscure films and also generally regarded as one of the worst. In an interesting bit of trivia, the house set used in a scene where Joanna Miles’ character catches on fire was the same set employed for The Brady Bunch T.V. show, which had been cancelled the year before.

‘Brady Bunch’ Scene:

Books/Comics

Comic: Tales of Ghost Castle #1

Publishing Date: June 1975

Publisher: DC

Sales: N/A

The Plot: A horror anthology series not unlike Tales From the Crypt. In addition to an introduction establishing the Crypt Keeper-esque narrator “Lucien the Librarian” (who actually made his debut a month earlier in DC’s Weird Mystery Tales #18), stories in issue #1 include: “A Child’s Garden of Graves”, about an adopted girl who murders her siblings and buries them in the garden; “A Soul a Day Keeps the Devil Away”, about a demented dentist who is tempted by a demon; and “The Mushroom Man”, about a man who murders his uncle for money and buries him beneath the mushroom patch in the cellar. Issue also features a humorous one-page comic strip by Mad Magazine cartoonist Sergio Aragones entitled “Ghost Cackles”.

Production & Reception: With cover art by Conan the Barbarian artist Ernie Chan and stories by future DC Comics president Paul Levin, Tales of Ghost Castle #1 was an attempt at kick-starting a new anthology series in the vein of EC’s Tales From the Crypt, even introducing a similar narrator in “Lucien”, the ghoulish librarian of Ghost Castle. Unfortunately it didn’t catch on, and the series folded after three issues.

Legacy: While the series went the way of the dodo and has been mostly forgotten since, the character of Lucien continued to live on, most notably in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series, in which he first appeared in issue #2 as the chief librarian in The Dreaming, the domain of the comic’s chief protagonist Dream (aka the Sandman, Morpheus, et al).

Comic: Fright Comics #1

Publishing Date: June 1975

Publisher: Atlas/Seaboard

Sales: N/A

The Plot: Adam Lucard, a Columbia professor and the son of Dracula, must control his lust for human blood.

Production & Reception: Fright Comics was a short-lived (in that it only lasted a single issue) series put out by Atlas Comics, a company started by Marvel Comics founder Martin Goodman to try and compete with both Marvel and D.C. in the marketplace. Some have speculated Goodman started the imprint in revenge for Marvel’s new owners reneging on a promise to retain his son Chip as editorial director following Martin’s departure. In any case, Atlas Comics (which, tellingly, had been the original name of the comic-book arm Marvel eventually grew out of) proved to be short-lived. Despite the fact that Goodman had managed to lure top-notch talent away from Marvel and DC (Neal Adams, Steve Ditko, and Russ Heath, among others), Atlas/Seaboard folded after barely a year, none of its titles lasting more than four issues.

Legacy: Let’s put it this way: if I hadn’t written up this bitch, you’d probably have gone to your grave not knowing a damn thing about Fright Comics. I’m guessing there’s a good reason for that.

Headlines

Alice Cooper Takes a Nasty Spill in Vancouver: While attempting to climb into a large toybox during a “Welcome to My Nightmare” tour stop in Vancouver, British Columbia on June 23rd, shock-rocker Alice Cooper fell off the stage and broke six ribs. As a result, he was forced to cancel several of his upcoming tour dates.

Alice Cooper Performing ‘Welcome to My Nightmare’ on The Muppet Show:

Obituaries

Rod Serling, Writer/Producer/Narrator

Date of Death: June 28th, 1975 (age 50)

Cause of Death: Heart attack

Legacy: Best known as the creator/narrator of The Twilight Zone, which ran on CBS from 1959-1964, Serling was a T.V. pioneer and true maverick who often sparred with television executives and sponsors over issues of politics and censorship. After The Twilight Zone was cancelled following its fifth season – though it had a loyal audience, its ratings remained quite low throughout its run – Serling returned to serial television with the similar Night Gallery in 1969. While he served as on-air host and penned many of the episodes for that series, Night Gallery never afforded him the same level of creative freedom as Zone and he grew increasingly unhappy with the show’s direction. It ended after three seasons, and two years later he would die of a heart attack at the age of 50. Reportedly humble about his legacy in later interviews, it’s sad to think Serling may have never fully understood the enormity of his contributions – not only to the worlds of sci-fi, fantasy and horror, but to the medium of television itself.