The First Jaws Poster

And no, I don’t mean the one we all know and love from the summer of 1975, the version designed by artist Roger Kastel depicting a giant shark head and its giant set of razor-sharp teeth racing up to devour an oblivious female swimmer; I mean this one, which I happened upon while researching Jaws one-sheets for my previous Jaws Month post:
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Weird, huh? According to a San Diego Reader article from 2012, this original poster concept for Jaws was created while the film was still in production. Looking at the tag line, I would guess pre-production: One man against a giant killer shark and a town that won’t face the truth sounds more like the story from the novel than the film. And with the author of the novel, Peter Benchley, credited as screenwriter (he was the first of many), and the fact that none of the three lead actors were listed, I’m guessing this was designed well before principal photography began.

Notice, too, the small inset within the one-sheet of the novel’s hardback release and its simple cover art, which to me is vastly inferior to the iconic artwork used for the paperback. As a bonus, I’ve included a closer look at that hardback cover below:
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Okay, that’s enough weirdness for today. I’ll have another Jaws Month article posted this weekend, so be sure to keep your doll’s eyes peeled for that!
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