Once Bitten, Still Hooked

Jaws splashes back into theaters this August, on a wake of weird local connections.

Jaws resurfaces this summer — fifty years after it first sent shockwaves through American pop culture. Returning to the big screen (and even IMAX) on August 29, the historic blockbuster is circling back for a new generation of cinemagoers — and for longtime fans, a chance to feel that familiar dread all over again.

Back in the summer of 1975, the movie hit theaters like a tidal wave, obliterating box office records, terrifying audiences, and clamping down on beach attendance all over the country. But nowhere did Jaws strike quite so close to home as it did here in the Delaware Valley, where generations of Philadelphians had grown up spending their summers “down the Shore.”

Suddenly, the Atlantic felt less like a vacation and more like a set piece from a horror movie. Don’t go in the water, indeed.

🩸🏖️ The First Bite Was Ours 😱

The true story behind Spielberg’s film (and the Peter Benchley novel it was based on) happened just across the river, when a 25-year-old stockbroker from Philadelphia named Charles Vansant became the first victim in what came to be known as the Twelve Days of Terror — a string of shark attacks in July 1916 that left four people dead and one gravely injured, from Beach Haven to Matawan Creek.

Such multiple attacks in rapid succession were unheard of at the time, and even today with all we know about sharks, it’s still a marine mystery. Sharks don’t hunt humans, they eat seals, fish and other marine life. Statistically, you’re more likely to get bitten by a New Yorker, than a shark.

Or, if you’re my father in the summer of 1975, you just might have a close encounter with a famous Englishman.

That’s when Robert Shaw – the actor who played the movie’s grizzled shark hunter Quint – surprised Dad on the job at Reading Terminal, which was still a functioning train depot back then. Shaw was in town to promote Jaws on The Mike Douglas Show, a popular daytime talk show that had moved from Cleveland to Philadelphia ten years earlier. The show filmed daily just a few blocks away at KYW’s studio at 5th and Market.

🛋️🪸 The Deepest Couch in Daytime ☀️📺

In the years before YouTube and late-night promo tours, The Mike Douglas Show was where the stars went to hawk their films to daytime audiences. The guest list was wild: John Lennon, Martin Luther King Jr., Fred Rogers, KISS, Dr. Joyce Brothers — sometimes on the same couch. (The show aired live until 1966, when Zsa Zsa Gabor called Morey Amsterdam a “son of a bitch” on air. Oops.)

Shaw’s visit came just months before Jaws hit theaters — and before anyone realized what a phenomenon it would become. Despite major production headaches (the mechanical shark kept breaking, tensions on set were famously high), the finished film became a cultural juggernaut. It was the first movie ever to pass $100 million at the box office, and for nearly three months it held the #1 spot in America.

It also had a very real impact on beach towns like Wildwood, Atlantic City, and Ocean City — where tourism dipped that summer as would-be swimmers suddenly found reasons to consider a rental in the Poconos. The idea that something could be lurking beneath the ocean’s surface took hold fast. And for many, it never really let go.

As for my dad, he probably didn’t tune in to see Shaw’s interview, but he loved to tell us about the day he saw that guy from The Sting walking through his workplace. A brush with celebrity, sure. But also a strange little ripple in the Jaws effect — when even here in Philly, far from Amity Island, we were somehow part of the story.

🎶 Two Notes That Changed Movie History

BA DUM…. What made Jaws so terrifying wasn’t just the shark — it was the music.

Composer John Williams, who would go on to score Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, E.T., Harry Potter, and basically the entire soundscape of modern cinema, created the Jaws theme using just two repeating notes. Two. That’s all it took.

Williams described the music as the sonic embodiment of a shark: relentless, instinctive, always approaching. Director Steven Spielberg thought it was a joke at first — until he saw the film with the score. Suddenly, scenes with no visual shark at all were nail-bitingly suspenseful. The music was the monster.

To this day, those two notes — BA DUM… — are universally understood as shorthand for “uh-oh.”  Whether you’re in a pool, a bathtub, or just walking by a suspicious-looking puddle, the Jaws theme still knows how to strike fear. 🦈

🦈 Shark Encounters  — No Scuba Gear Required!

Ever wondered what sharks are up to right now — like this very minute? Thanks to a brand-new program from Texas A&M, you can stop wondering and start tracking.

Fin Finder, launched in July 2025, is an interactive website that lets you follow satellite-tagged sharks as they roam the Gulf of Mexico and up our Eastern Seaboard. Each shark has its own name (like Nancy, Pico, and Captain Wayne), and you can view size, sex, species, where it’s been, how fast it swims, and where it might be heading next.

The live map is addictively fun to explore — and yes, some of these sharks are no strangers to the Jersey Shore.  😮

It’s a guilt-free shark encounter, a digital deep dive, and a fascinating glimpse into the lives of these misunderstood ocean wanderers. 📍 Check it out here: sportsfishcenter.org

Thoughts? Questions? My friends, I love your feedback! Please click the links for more information, and reach out in the comments below.