Dorset-based author and photographer Haydn Wheeler, the UK contact and social media manager for the JawsOB podcast, has lived with his Jaws obsession for 50 years since falling under its spell as an 11-year-old boy on a cinema trip to Bournemouth. Two years ago, he reaffirmed his childhood fascination by weaving it into his second book, A Card from the Jaws Obsession, in which he tries to make sense of the demolition of the street on which he grew up and the loss of his parents.
Haydn will be chairing a post-show Q&A session with Ian Shaw and the cast of The Shark Is Broken on Thursday 1 May.
But first, he explains more about what Jaws means to him…
What is it about Jaws that spoke so loudly and clearly to an 11-year-old boy from Wimborne?
The Jaws hype of 1975 swept me up, like many others. Reports from the States were trickling into the national press. Of course, the book by Peter Benchley was the precursor to the film here in the UK and I remember owning the Pan paperback, which, looking back, set the ball rolling on my fascination with sharks as a boy.
I decorated my bedroom wall with posters and newspaper cuttings from the film, plus filled a scrapbook with anything Jaws related.
Westover Road, the ABC cinema in Bournemouth, Boxing Day 1975… Now, the memory plays tricks. Was I among the queuing masses to see the film? Most probably. Did I then see the film another eight times? Most definitely.
How did that childhood fascination manifest itself?
Jaws, it’s an influence, right? Even seeing it simply as an excellent film, which it is, leaves an impact on today’s viewers. The film resonates. Multiply that with the frenzy around its release, an 11-year-old boy’s energy, friends of a similar age and imagination, it’s a fertile combination.
With my friends Stephen, Stuart and Sean, we created a game of Jaws football. The playground became the ocean to float our Orca made from a pallet, corrugated iron and sack trolley. The object of the game? Three in a boat, while the other as the shark tries to destroy the boat by kicking the ball at it. Whoever it hits becomes the shark. Simple. Defending the boat, we were equipped with a cricket bat to deflect the ball. It was hours of messy playground fun.
If you had to choose between the original book and the film, which would you pick and why?
It’s a close call, but it’s got to be the film. As a young boy, not yet a teenager, I could do without the Hooper and Ellen affair in the book. The shared experience of viewing the film in the cinema with those of 1975 still sits with me.
How about the film sequels?
Well, of course, Jaws 2 continues the Mayor Vaughn and Chief Brody dynamic and the Amity powerplays between the selectmen, so here it brings the politics from Jaws with it. Amity’s political manoeuvrings continue.
In Jaws 3 and 4, the franchise went a tad off course, so I’m not a great lover of the later films, although I still a soft spot for them.
You’ve been a staunch advocate for author-podcaster Ryan Dacko’s prequel, The Book of Quint, tell us a bit about how that has been received in Jaws circles?
It’s been a ride for me working with Ryan. The book received overwhelming praise from the Jaws community in 2024, not only showing an interest in the character of Quint, but also the actor Robert Shaw, which is wonderful to see.
With three sold out print runs worldwide, and an audiobook hitting the air earlier this year, alongside Ryan’s podcast Jaws OB, the book has brought something new into the Jaws universe. I know there is more to follow. Amity Island has many stories yet to be told.
On a personal level, my friendship with Ryan being brought about by Jaws came about while I was at a vulnerable place emotionally in 2021 – it was the right person, the right film, right podcast, at the right time.
Why do you think Jaws has remained so popular over the last 50 years and will people still be talking about it in another 50 years?
Will Jaws be as popular 50 years from now? The answer is for sure. Its symbolism, what it represents, works on many levels. The human stories throughout the film play out against a backdrop of a town captured by something almost supernatural, relentlessly bringing tragedy to those who live there. In the film, it’s a shark, but that force could be in any form.
All the problems in the making of the film seem to have seeped into the celluloid. What comes across on the screen is the struggle aligned with the personalities of the town’s characters clashing with frustration, an urgency in how they are going to survive. Who has our best interests here? The message is timeless.
LINKS:
(NC)
