On This Day In History: JAWS Was Released In 1975

My JAWS Story

By Admin Mat

"Don't go into the water." It's the movie that made you think twice about swimming in the ocean especially at night. Steven Spielberg's award winning classic, JAWS, was based on Peter Benchley's best-selling novel and has lived in on our hearts for generations. We are honored to say that it was filmed on Martha's Vineyard and a can of Narragansett made a special cameo appearance. Dozens of quotes from the film are thrown around all the time including ones from the famous Captain Quint. Like many of you, I saw this film when I was very young and became fascinated with sharks. I picked up the book in Junior High and wrote at least three book reports on it. It wasn't until 2005 that I noticed just what kind of beer Quint crushed to intimidate Hooper. I was watching it with my mom around this time and the scene came on. She yelled out, "That's a 'Gansett. Your grandfather used to drink that beer." Funny she mentioned that because I was spending several Friday nights that summer sucking down Gansett tall boys at Club Hell. Only to learn later in the Fall that the beer had been relaunched by a group of locals including Mark Hellendrung. I wrote a story for the school paper about the company's return, then one thing lead to another and here I am. Now we are releasing a limited edition throwback can like the one in the movie due out in a few weeks. The sample can sits on my mantel at home beneath my JAWS movie poster and yes next to Luke's lightsaber from Episode V (We'll save that for another blog). I snapped a photo of the shrine as my ode to just a few of my favorite things. To this day, people still ask me if I know that Gansett was the beer Quint crushes in JAWS. I've given up on sarcastic replies and kindly tell them yes. Why, yes I did know that. "Here's to swimming with bow-legged women." Remember to crush it like Quint this summer.