The Poster Memorabilia blog

A Monumental Milestone for a Massive Movie Monster

Fifty years of being afraid of the water, and the signature that pulled one retired hound back in.

By an anonymous Hollywood insider

There have been many movie monsters before, but Jaws will always be the scariest to me.

I think it's because the creature is realistic. It's just a great white shark, not anything else. It's not magical or supernatural, just nature at its most fearsome. And since I grew up in a coastal town similar to the movie's setting, I can't help but feel like I could've been eaten by a shark, too.

“Just nature at its most fearsome.”

I rarely swam in the sea after I first saw the movie as a teenager. I was a walking stereotype—a coward who didn't go in the water because he was afraid of Jaws. Sounds silly, right? But that was my reality. And the weirdest thing was that Jaws became one of my favorite movies ever.

Not only did I think it was one of the best films I've ever seen, despite how much it traumatized me, but I also became a huge fan of Steven Spielberg and Richard Dreyfuss. They were both the best parts of the movie, and I don't think it would've been the success it was without them.

The film's direction was top-notch, from the shot choices to the staging of each scene. Richard Dreyfuss also acted the hell out of that role. He was believable as marine biologist Matt Hooper and, in my opinion, carried the movie as much as Roy Scheider did as police chief Martin Brody.

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So when I bought my Jaws 50th Anniversary poster last year, I wanted Steven Spielberg and Richard Dreyfuss to sign it. I would've loved it if the rest of the cast signed it, too, but just the two of them would've satisfied me enough. Their autographs were the only ones I was desperate to get.

Unfortunately, I'm not as young as I used to be. If I'd gotten this poster 20 years earlier, when I was much spryer, I would've gone to Hollywood to track these men down myself. I'm a pretty experienced autograph hound with lots of signed memorabilia under my belt. This kind of thing used to be easy for me.

But now, I have far too many responsibilities to do that, and I no longer live near Hollywood. I moved to San Francisco in 2019 and have settled down here with my family. I can't just pick up and leave to get an autograph. Those days are over for me.

This is where the internet comes in. Thanks to social media, I reconnected with a friend who also hounded for autographs back in the day. He still lives in LA and has made plenty of connections in Hollywood over the years, including people close to Richard Dreyfuss.

With his help, my poster made its way to Dreyfuss, and a few weeks later it came back to me signed. It was the most unusual way I've ever gotten an autograph, and when I saw his handwriting on my poster, I almost cried.

I really thought my autograph-hounding days were behind me, but thanks to this, I figured all may not be over. If this starts a new chapter of my hobby, I couldn't be more grateful that it happened with my Jaws 50th Anniversary poster.

Some things you watch. This one you keep.

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