Boston Common - Niche Media - A side of Boston that's anything but common.
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/526269
photography CoUrtESy oF UnivErSal piCtUrES/gEtty imagES In a scene from Jaws, Quint (played by Robert Shaw) realizes that he may indeed need a bigger boat. It's the movie that made millions of people afraid to ever dip a toe in the ocean again. But for many residents of Martha's Vineyard, where Jaws was filmed in 1974, their memories of the shoot are far from terrifying. "It was a rea lly excit ing t ime for people in Edga r tow n because a ll of these celebrities were coming to the island," says Sue Carroll, the daughter of Bob Carroll, who owned the Harbor View Hotel and the Kelley House, where much of the Jaws team was billeted during filming. "I had the oppor- t unit y to ha ng out w it h a lot of ca st a nd crew members t hroughout t he summer while I was home from college, and even auditioned for a part as a nurse, since that's what I was studying in school. There were challenges here and there, but it was always fun to have such a great group of charac- ters at both hotels." Directed by a 27-yea r- old Steven Spielberg, Jaws beca me t he highest- grossing movie in history at the time, but many on the set were skeptical. The production was cheekily nicknamed "Flaws" due to shooting delays and endless trouble with the mechanical sharks. This forced Spielberg to take a less-is-more approach (the shark is more implied than seen), but that bit of directorial improvisation is one of the reasons the 1975 film is st ill considered a masterpiece of a thriller. And who knew that a f lick about a giant, bloodthirsty sea creature could lead to so many real-life happy endings? "There was a lot of romance bud- ding throughout the project," Carroll reveals. "A few girls I knew got married to guys in the crew and left Martha's Vineyard for California once the movie wrapped. Jaws really changed the lives of a lot of people on the island." BC Shark! The man-eaTing beasT ThaT aTTacked marTha's Vineyard and made film hisTory is celebraTing iTs 40Th birThday. by juliet izon FRONT RUNNER 8 bostoncommon-magazine.com