Who’s old enough that saw this in the theater?

[The Prisoner]

I was 11 and remember the whole place jumped when Ben Gardners head popped out.

 

[azsunfun]

3.00 saturday movie

 

[Magic Mike]

Missing an eye right?
My Mom grabbed the kid’s leg next to her and screamed! We didn’t know the kid…

 

[The Prisoner]

Ok. Focker. I'm old

I know. When I saw 45 years old on the cover it like damn!!
A side question. Why was Alex Kitners mother so old.

 

[The Prisoner]

Missing an eye right?
My Mom grabbed the kid’s leg next to her and screamed! We didn’t know the kid…

Yes. And they actually filmed that as another scene for an extra scare in a swimming pool.

 

[Rajobigguy]

Yep, saw it at the Rosecrans drive in when I was 17. Right after the movie came out there was a rash of Great White sightings and a couple of attacks in the waters between Long Beach and Catalina. It actually did make me nervous about surfing and beach swimming.
Really drove home the point that once you step into the big blue you get demoted from apex predator to the lowest levels of the food chain.

 

[ssc]

I saw it. I was 15. When that head popped out, I spilled my popcorn.

Cheers, Steve

 

[Bobby V]

Yep, saw it at the Rosecrans drive in when I was 17. Right after the movie came out there was a rash of Great White sightings and a couple of attacks in the waters between Long Beach and Catalina. It actually did make me nervous about surfing and beach swimming.
Really drove home the point that once you step into the big blue you get demoted from apex predator to the lowest levels of the food chain.

Grew up in Bellflower. Saw a lot of movies at Rosecrans Drive in.

 

[74 spectra20 v-drive]

Didn't see it in the theater when it came out but the promo commercials on TV freaked me out as a little kid... Do you guys remember the "Big Slide" next to the Rosecrans theater? Over in Cerritos the DYT Dairy on Carmenita between 166th and Artesia, they had a cash and carry out front... they are friends of ours that are now on the third generation of that Dairy and just sold in East Vale and moved the dairy to Hemet.

 

[The Prisoner]

Grew up in Bellflower. Saw a lot of movies at Rosecrans Drive in.

Ahhh….. drive ins in 1975. A silver 1 speaker piece of shit hanging on the window. It was definitely surround sound. Everyone trying to surround it to hear it.

 

[236eagledave]

I think I was 14 that summer. Saw it at the Wescove in West Covina if I can remember that far back.

 

[Ziggy]

Yep....

 

[Willie B]

…I was already old when that came out…

 

[River Runnin]

.... I was in the South China Sea.... And that's all I'm gonna say about that!

 

[78Southwind]

I saw Jaws with my parents at the drive-in, in their mid 70's Plymouth Duster with the fold down rear seat. I still remember them folding down the rear seat so I could lay down and crash if needed. I was 6 or 7. I kept my eyes peeled open the entire time. Once we got home I had to take a leak and I remember being a little scared that Jaws was going to come out of the toilet. lol

 

[Flippindough]

I wasn't even a thought. But my dad and his brother were in Hawaii surfing and saw it. My dad always told me the story, that he went surfing later that day and shaking profusely on his board but his older brother made him stay out there. Of course I was told this story while body surfing with my dad at Little Corona in NewPort as a kid, that was a short lived body surfing experience.

 

[HNL2LHC]

That was one of the many good movies of that time period. I think that the quality and content made leaps and bounds a decade after.

 

[OC Mike]

Yup, saw it with my buddies.
Then my sister insisted I take her..
I still jumped when the head popped.

 

[nowski]

Yep, saw it at the Rosecrans drive in when I was 17. Right after the movie came out there was a rash of Great White sightings and a couple of attacks in the waters between Long Beach and Catalina. It actually did make me nervous about surfing and beach swimming.
Really drove home the point that once you step into the big blue you get demoted from apex predator to the lowest levels of the food chain.

Can't count how many times I went to the Rosecrans Drive In and never saw the movie, goal accomplished...

 

[Rajobigguy]

Can't count how many times I went to the Rosecrans Drive In and never saw the movie, goal accomplished...

Yeah that happened a lot to me too.

 

[nowski]

Yeah that happened a lot to me too.

I quit going to see the movies when they closed all the drive in's, to this day I rarely watch a movie...

 

[norcalLmo]

Yup! Saw it at the Century 21 Cinema Domes I had my feet on the backrest of the kid in front of me....when Ben Gardner's head popped up my frightened reaction was to straighten my legs and I LAUNCHED the kid into the row in front of him!! GREAT movie kept me out of the water the whole summer!!!

 

[KevinR]

I was home from Freshman year in college. Saw it at the big movie theater in Pasadena, but cannot remember the name of it.
What I do remember was how the movie scared the crap out of me, especially that scene!

 

[Spectra18]

I know. When I saw 45 years old on the cover it like damn!!
A side question. Why was Alex Kitners mother so old.

She went to a boating trip to Parker. Had to much to drink, got a little wild on a Chris Craft one afternoon.

 

[mobldj]

van buren drive in

 

[Wayn-o]

YES - San Clemente Miramar theatre - and I didnt sleep a wink that night thinking about the head falling out of the boat!

 

[Mandelon]

Ooh, I did.

 

[Spudsbud]

Poor Quint......

 

[was thatguy]

Saw it opening week.
My football coach heard us talking about it the week before and said if we scored 5 touchdowns he’d take the whole team.
We scored 6.
So him and about 4-5 parents chaperoned the team and we all went at like 14 years old I think.

 

[westair]

I was 11 and remember the whole place jumped when Ben Gardners head popped out.
View attachment 1022676

You can get pics like these signed by Susan Blacklini, the 1st victim ........for the hardcore fans and collectors. She's in her 70's now

 

[Lord M((Squared))]

Dam time does fly by.....I remember packing in my dad's station wagon with my cousins and going to the drive-in back in OH. .....swimming in the ocean was never the same after seeing the movie, always in the back of your mind before jumping in.

 

[HubbaHubbaLife]

Opened at Rehoboth Beach, Delaware when I was 16.... tiny summer vacation beach town and beaches were full of folks on sand but nobody went in water that week when movie opened.

And agree that head popping through hull was crazy! One of best scares of all time in movies.

I only own boats w/o bathrooms and always am in ocean so jumping in to piss is always a short excursion ever since that frigging movie..... I always hang around the outdrive so he'll mostly get metal.

 

[C-2]

Grew up in Bellflower. Saw a lot of movies at Rosecrans Drive in.

Damn, my family was there too until my pops wanted to get back to being Texan and moved to Norco in 68'

Maple and Bixby

 

[C-2]

I saw it at Crest drive-in in Norco!

 

[jetboatperformance]

Was a "fish" as a kid, water polo and surfed my brians out .................. saw Jaws at debut and never went back in the water ... Also read the book cover to cover and loved "The deep" too

 

[jetboatperformance]

Grew up in Bellflower. Saw a lot of movies at Rosecrans Drive in.

Cruisin Tweedy burger , Big Willy country (sorry for the thread jack)

 

[nameisbond]

I was only 3 when it was in theaters. Saw it at home a few years later. I was about 9. Didn't scare me from the water. We had just moved to a house on the ocean and was disappointed to learn we don't have any predator sharks in our waters.

 

[DaveH]

a new twist........

at lake las vegas, they set up a giant floating screen at night. then you can float in a tube or raft and they play the movie.

if being in the water in a tube at night watching this doesn't freak you out...........

 

[Sleek-Jet]

Old farts...

 

[C-Ya]

I saw it at the Torrance Drive-In.

For those of you in SoCal, just a few years after the movie, the worlds largest Great White Shark was caught, just off Catalina. I think it was 20’. That record has been broken multiple times since, but I went all through high school knowing the biggest Jaws ever caught was just off the coast of where I lived. It never slowed me down, but I must admit, I thought about it quite a bit. My Dad would say “more people die each year in shopping cart accidents, then die by shark attack”. To this day........ I still have never heard on the news of somebody dying in a shopping cart accident!

 

[Rajobigguy]

Cruisin Tweedy burger , Big Willy country (sorry for the thread jack)

Yep, knew Willie Robinson pretty well. Everyone used to meet up at "the donut shop" , Winchell's on Tweedy and Atlantic to negotiate terms of the nights races.

 

[The Prisoner]

Was a "fish" as a kid, water polo and surfed my brians out .................. saw Jaws at debut and never went back in the water ... Also read the book cover to cover and loved "The deep" too

 

[HocusPocus]

I was in High School at Warren High in Downey. Stonewood Mall had a movie theater, I would get dropped off for the first showing and sit there till the last. Can't even remember how many times I watched it. I went out and took Scuba lessons and was certified before my 16 birthday.

 

[petie6464]

Seen it in 75, scary and I've been afraid of the ocean ever since!

 

[PlanB]

a new twist........

at lake las vegas, they set up a giant floating screen at night. then you can float in a tube or raft and they play the movie.

if being in the water in a tube at night watching this doesn't freak you out...........

They did this in Havasu in Thompson Bay.

 

[was thatguy]

You know what’s funny?
I do NOT like wading out and surf casting, won’t do it. I went boogie boarding one time in CA and was scared the entire time. (No fear in Hawaii)
I only go play in the water in Hawaii.
BUT... strap on the tank and mask and I jump right in anywhere.

Under water is a unbelievable world of incredible things and endless adventure!
Zero fear underwater.

 

[port austin pirate]

You guys are just kids, Hell, I saw Creature from the Black Lagoon in black en white in the movie theater when I was a kid Iam really gettin old

 

[DarkHorseRacing]

I saw it in the theater. In Martha's Vineyard, in the town of Edgartown where they filmed it. Consequently I didnt go back in the water after the movie. It was far too real seeing everywhere they had filmed in real life.

 

[WhatExit?]

 

[Rajobigguy]

I was in High School at Warren High in Downey. Stonewood Mall had a movie theater, I would get dropped off for the first showing and sit there till the last. Can't even remember how many times I watched it. I went out and took Scuba lessons and was certified before my 16 birthday.

Movie theater was Showcase cinema. If you grew up in N. Downey I bet you got your SCUBA certificate @ Riley's swim and dive.