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For more than an hour, we watched the suspenseful drama unfold with tense music, flashes of terror and lurking fear underneath the waves. As a 13-year-old boy, I was gripped to my seat as the movie gradually intensified.

But my dad’s attention was more like Amity Island Police Chief Martin Brody, the movie’s central character whose initial lack of concern minimized the imminent danger just off the beach. Played by actor Roy Scheider, he resembled my father with a stern look and cigarette dangling from his mouth.

My dad abruptly left his seat to buy an ice cream cone at the concession stand. He returned a few minutes later, just before one of the most memorable scenes in cinematic history splashed across the big screen.

The film’s villain, a massive great white shark, made its first major appearance, emerging from the depths of watery hell to fully introduce itself to viewers. My fearless dad erupted in fright along with everyone else in the theater. His vanilla ice cream cone went straight into his face. It was a priceless moment of vulnerability, something I didn’t see enough of from my dad.

Movie history will later distinguish the unforgettable scene that prompted Chief Brody’s famous line, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.” But for me, the most memorable scene was my dad’s face covered with ice cream and embarrassment. It’s the only scene I clearly remember from that initial viewing of “Jaws.”

The film, released June 20, 1975, would revolutionize the summer blockbuster. Directed by a young, brilliant filmmaker named Steven Spielberg, “Jaws” became a pop culture reference for decades with enduring images that influenced how sharks are perceived by humans.

This is the endearing power and magic of movies. All it takes is one viewing to profoundly alter how we perceive its subject matter.

For years I would be fearful of swimming in any body of water, including Lake Michigan near my home in Gary, Indiana, as if a shark would emerge out of nowhere to attack me. How silly a thought for a teenage boy. How powerful a legacy for a suspense movie.

I also remember looking twice at birds flying in the air after watching the suspense movie “The Birds,” by legendary filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock. He once said, “There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.”

I recalled my childhood fear of a shark attack as I pedaled around Martha’s Vineyard�����𳦱�Գٱ�����while on vacation. The charming island, accessible by only a ferry or airplane, served as the real-life stand-in for Amity Island, the fictional New England beach community in “Jaws.”

My wife and I bicycled from Vineyard Haven through Oak Bluffs to Edgartown along the shoreline on a picturesque day. We were given a to guide us, marked at one spot, “Jaws Bridge,” where a scene in the movie was filmed.�� 

The owner of the bike rental shop in Vineyard Haven chatted up the historic connection between the landmark movie and the fabled island off Cape Cod in Massachusetts. What was treated as a national event in 1975 remains a national treasure in 2025.

“People still come here just because of ‘Jaws,’” he told us with pride.

To mark the 50th anniversary of “Jaws,” Martha's Vineyard is continuing to host events, exhibits, screenings and public conversations. A poster in the window of a gift shop reads, “This is where Jaws emerged on the scene of movie history!” A shirt hanging on a rack states, “Where were YOU when Jaws took a bite out of your life?”

I immediately flashed back to that dark movie theater and the legacy of a suspense thriller that has psychologically terrorized us for half a century. That film served as merely the dorsal fin of our fears that lurked under the pop culture surface.

“It changed all of our lives. I mean, none of us swim the same,” joked veteran actor Jeffrey Kramer in a local newspaper story.

In the movie, he played Lenny Hendricks, the deputy police chief of Amity. Along with other actors in the film, including 77-year-old Richard Dreyfuss, Kramer returned to Martha’s Vineyard to celebrate the 50th anniversary. He also has real-life ties to “the Vineyard,” including a friend who was an usher at a local movie theater.

“When Ben Gardner’s head pops out of the boat, you would see popcorn and soda fly,” Kramer recalled in the story.

I’d be hard pressed to recall a singular memorable experience in my life from the summer of 1975. But watching my dad’s visceral reactions to “Jaws” still lurks in my head like a shadowy memory in the summer of 2025.