This summer marks the 45th anniversary of Steven Spielberg’s epic blockbuster Jaws.  This movie that literally scared moviegoers out of the water, was the first movie to gross over $100 million at the box office.  Now that’s a lot of dooteroomus!

The movie Jaws was adapted from author Peter Benchley’s bestselling novel of the same name, which was based on a series of shark attacks that occurred off the coast of New Jersey in 1916.  The filming of Jaws was marred with numerous technical issues including constant mechanical failures with the animatronic shark nicknamed Bruce.

Jaws Amity Island was actually Martha’s Vinyard and the famous line, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat” wasn’t in the script, but improvised by Roy Sheider while shooting the scene. What’s a word for the fear of sharks?  Selachophobia!