On Location on Martha's Vineyard - The Making of the Movie Jaws - 50th Anniversary Edition

by Edith Blake

On Location.....on Martha's Vineyard( (The Making of the Movie "Jaws")) <> Paperback <> EdithBlake <> BunchofGrapesBookstore,Inc.

Genres: Nonfiction, Jaws, Film, Local History, Media Tie In

200 pages, Hardcover

First published August 12, 1975

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Determined to avoid bathtub scenery, [director Steven Spielberg and his production crew] studied special effects, went to schools, and viewed 'the ultimate [movie studio water tank],' but even that looked fake . . . No studio tanks for this crew, they were going to do it the hard way [by shooting on location at Martha's Vineyard]. How hard [it would be] they didn't yet know . . . " -- pages 3-4

The stories about Jaws are legendary in the entertainment community - adapted from a recent bestseller and directed by a then-27 year-old (!) with only one prior feature film to his credit, the shark movie became America's first summer blockbuster (the first U.S. flick to earn $100 million at the box office) in 1975, briefly bestowed leading-man status on the main actors (the unique trio of Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, and Robert Shaw), and scared an untold number of kids from going swimming. Oh, it also firmly established a solid career path for some guy named Steven Spielberg.

So without a doubt Jaws is a great movie, if not an outright classic. However, this was not a great book. Ms. Blake's publisher apparently never heard of an editor or proofreader - there were so many spelling, grammatical, and typographical errors that it produced as many laughs as it did eye-rolling moments. (In the beginning of a chapter on page 47 it appeared that a voice-prompted text message was mistakenly recorded into the middle of a paragraph about an otherwise benign village traffic jam.) That said, what DID often work was a local lady's perspective of what happens when a major Hollywood production team comes rumbling into small town America . . . and sets up camp like an invading army for the entire spring and summer of 1974. This is one of those books that serves as a reminder of just how difficult actually making a movie can be, both in front and behind the camera.

[Horror DNA · Rating 4 out of 5]

The notoriously troubled production history on the movie Jaws has been well-documented by many film scholars, fans and critics alike. Countless books, articles and essays have been written over the years documenting the making of the film, starting with screenwriter Carl Gottlieb’s insider’s account, The Jaws Log (1975), which remains the quintessential text on the subject to this day. That same year, the story was told from a different perspective, by someone outside the world of show business. Edith Blake, an islander present for the duration of the lengthy shoot recounts her observations in her book On Location… On Martha’s Vineyard: The Making of the Movie Jaws (1975).

Ms. Blake tells of the tranquil life found on the quiet island of Martha’s Vineyard that quickly changed with the arrival of location scouts from Hollywood for their upcoming project. They were polite and gracious and the community seemed ready to welcome them with open arms. She continues with stories of the company hiring many locals to perform any number of tasks behind the scenes and later for others to appear on camera. Some opportunistic islanders began charging higher rates for the use of their homes and businesses, but the studio didn’t seem to mind. Crowds of locals were gathered to play extras in the numerous beach scenes, an exciting opportunity to be in a movie that quickly soured for some because of the lengthy process of repeating the action countless times to get the angles and the action just right.

You can read ZigZag's full review at Horror DNA by clicking here.

[Anas · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was the worst edited book I ever read, typos, word repetitions, capitalisation errors etc. At one point the editor apparently accidentally copy pasted a bit from a private email mid-sentence on page 47. Either that or this book is used for some sort of code (in which case: "the code is 7310 to get into it").

Bad editing aside I often found it hard to follow Blake in the maze of islander names and nicknames and relations, the book is cleary a bit of nostalgia for islanders and hard-core fans. Which is totally fine, just didn't make it as enjoyable for me personally. (one star for the edit, can't believe after 45 years nobody did beta-read this)

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this quite a bit! The way that Edith Blake writes about the film crew is so funny to me. She calls Steven Spielberg, who is now this giant figure in film, "Steve" the entire book. To be fair, he was 26 when they filmed this so he was untested and definitely out of his element here.

It was fun getting a better sense of the scale of the production here. I feel like the behind of the scenes of the movie Jaws is almost mythical at this point and to get a better idea of what that actually looked like and felt like to the tiny town was really cool.

Also all of her photos are so fun! The copy of the book I had the photos were kind of hard to see but I looked up some of them online afterwards and they are just so cool!

All in all I highly recommend it if you're interested in the behind the scenes of Jaws this was super fun to read!

[BonStevenson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this behind the scenes film book based on the legendary movie, Jaws and I must say, that the author definitely has a different bend on the chaos that the movie makers brought to her island. Edith Blake's turn of events is sometimes hilarious about all of the ruckus that follows Hollywood productions. A must read!

[Matti Karjalainen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Edith Blake oli jonkinlainen paikallislehdistön edustaja tai freelancer-toimittaja, joka pääsi seuraamaan vierestä, kun hänen kotikulmillaan Martha's Vineyardin saarella alettiin kuvata Peter Benchleyn samannimiseen kirjaan perustuvaa Tappajahaita (1975). Näistä kokemuksistaan hän kirjoitti teoksen "On Location on Martha's Vineyard: The Making of the Movie Jaws" (BearManor Media, 2025).

Nuoren Steven Spielbergin (jota syystä tai toisesta nimitetään läpi teoksen Steveksi) tai elokuvan päätähtien kommentteja elokuvan tekemisestä on turha odottaa. Elokuvan tekemisestä kerrotaan etupäässä paikallisten asukkaiden näkökulmasta, ja syntyy vaikutelma, että tekijä on ollut kyllä kameroineen ja muistilehtiöineen paikalla, mutta ei ole päässyt ihan sisäpiiriin kuitenkaan.

Näistäkin lähtökohdista voisi syntyä ihan kiinnostavaa tekstiä, otettiinhan elokuvan avustajiksi paljon paikallisia, mutta se olisi saattanut vaatia kirjailijalta hieman enemmän. Lopputulos muistuttaa innokkaan mutta ei niin kovin lahjakkaan paikallishistorioitsijan tekemää omakustannetta, jollainen se itse asiassa taisi alun perin ollakin.

Jos olisin itse ollut paikalla kesällä 1974 ja tuntisin henkilökohtaisesti kirjassa lueteltuja saarelaisia, niin olisin varmasti nauttinut kirjasta enemmän. Nyt käteen jäi vain muutama kiinnostava anekdootti ja sarja komeita valokuvia, mutta 1970-luvun Hollywoodista ja elokuvanteosta kiinnostuneiden kannattaa jättää tämä välistä ja hankkia käsiinsä vaikkapa J.W. Rinzlerin maanmainio The Making of Star Wars.

[Michael Stelling · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was always one of my favorite "behind the scenes" depictions by a local standpoint. Enjoyable read

[Tori Yates · Rating 2 out of 5]

Content a 3.5 but as other reviews mention this is the most poorly edited book I’ve ever read which is hugely distracting. There are probably typos on every page. I did enjoy the pictures at the end of the book which saved it from a 1 star review.

[Michael Ritchie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was a huge fan of Jaws when it came out--I was in college, most of my friends had gone back home for the summer, and I was living with my parents, so I had a lot of free time, and I went to see Jaws many times that summer, both because I genuinely liked it and because I was bored. I read this book that summer and don't remember disliking it. My re-reading, however, is another story. The author is a writer for the Martha's Vineyard newspaper and her story of the location shooting of Jaws on the island is mostly about the locals, the troubles they had with the production, and the troubles the locals made for the production.

I thought I would enjoy this more now because I have actually visited Martha's Vineyard, but this comes off as a amateurish account of moviemaking with very little insight into the direction, the performances, or the performers, probably because she saw very little of the actual production. Even her behind-the-scenes material is not terribly interesting. She irritatingly refers to Spielberg and Dreyfuss as "Steve" and "Rick," though she doesn't seem to have met either one of them. To be fair, I doubt this originally intended for national publication, but with the blockbuster success of the movie, anything related to Jaws was in demand. Carl Gottlieb, the screenwriter of Jaws, also wrote a book, The Jaws Log, which I was thinking of re-reading, but now I'm not sure. It can't be any worse.

[Merry Rabb · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't know why I read this book - my husband gave it to me as a joke. This book is probably only interesting if you are an obsessive fan of the movie or if you live in an exclusive resort town and like to look down on everyone else. The writing is the kind of folksy forced cute style of a local columnist who writes the "my view" column in your local newspaper. There are some vaguely amusing anecdotes, again if you are a huge fans of movie-making or "Jaws" specifically, but most of the book was stories about how stupid the Hollywood people were how they didn't understand boats or how sailing works, and how they didn't seem to know how to deal with getting food since they were used to eating at McDonalds. And my favorite, they had no sense of the past or history because they aren't from New England. Literal quote about movie people buying stuff at a garage sale, the locals didn't know if they were buying souvenirs or gifts for family members, or buying "as Westerners, a heritage they didn't have".

On the plus side, some of the photos were kind of cool.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great account of a bunch of local people being simultaneously unimpressed with and besotted by the Hollywood machine rolling into town. Unfortunately the digital version appears to have been edited by an illiterate student who can’t help copy/pasting their emails into the text and generally making endless stupid errors. But what’s underneath is good, snarky fun.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not as good as I was expecting. Chatty writing style is very odd and there seems to be no editing or proof reading as typos and wrong words crop up all the time.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even for someone who's spent as much time watching, reading about, and thinking about Jaws as I have, this somehow *still* manages to reveal new details about the production that help to paint a more complete picture of the whole thing.

Obviously there's plenty of overlap still, and the vantage point from which everything is discussed is somewhat limited in scope, but the specificity of its emphasis on both the inhabitants of the island and the various below-the-line members of the crew makes all of the difference.

Fun fact I did not know: Robert Shaw apparently kept decamping to Canada to avoid staying in the US too long and having to pay income tax.

[Nicole Amburgey · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 Stars... Review to come!

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

The movie Jaws premiered 7.5 years before I was born but is my favorite movie (don’t ask me why). This book is another on my shelf devoted to learn all I can about the movie from how it was made, to the effect the movie had on our culture. I love how the author shared the way the people of Martha’s Vineyard were hesitant, then overjoyed, then slightly annoyed, then a mixture of all as the production moved along. I loved hearing about the locals being excited about being in the movie and how they kept telling the ‘Hollywood’ people what they should do and then shaking their heads when they were ignored.

I loved the stories of Steven Spielberg just chatting up the locals and waltzing around humming the director doesn’t know what he’s doing. Most interesting was how they had to film the “at sea” portions of the movie. I knew they had other boats but the monstrous boat (I can’t remember the name) they used was new information. I can’t image how difficult it was to work out on that boat under those conditions. The whole West coast-East unions issue was funny; gotta love Hollywood.

I both laughed and cried when I learned about the tearing down of Quint’s sea shanty. How great of a tourist attraction that could have been. Oh the short sightedness. You’ve got to love local bureaucracy.

If you love Jaws or love how movies use to be made, this book is definitely worth your time.

[Alan E · Rating 3 out of 5]

Could have been a very good book, but…

A generally find these behind-the-scenes books to be very engaging. This could have been a favorite, but the errors, typos, and sloppy proofreading made it an arduous read. Please fix them so others can enjoy the book!

[Christopher Hood · Rating 3 out of 5]

The edition of the book that I have is from 2020, the 45th anniversary edition which contains additional photographs compared to the original and a new chapter.

I have very mixed feelings about the book. And I feel like I have to start with the negatives first. This is one of the worst edited books that I have ever come across.

Let’s start with the text. I started spotting a number of errors quite early on. Silly little mistakes. The sort of mistakes that you could imagine being made and not picked up on in the days when people were using typewriters rather than computers. I thought that perhaps, then, these errors were a carry-over from the original edition to help maintain that feel (though if this was the case, a note about this in the introduction, as I did with my book “Osutaka” in which I decided to maintain errors that were contained in the original diary upon which much of the book is based, would have been helpful).

Gradually, however, I began to realise that it was likely that the errors were no from the original text, but just a really bad job of editing. The final proof of this came on page 47…

“Suddenly, an in no understandable way, the congestion increased when the entourage of encamped trucks and attendant confusion was enhanced by the other know okay okay the code is 7310 to get into it as I have a code on exam work email on it now”

Now, the excellent “Let’s Jaws for a Minute” podcast has (jokingly… I think) pointed out how Jaws is a time-travel movie due to some slips in its timeline, but really? Edith Blake had email in 1975? Amazing. Or to put it another way, an amazingly dreadful piece of editing. I get the impression from this bit of text that the editor was a student – like many of my own students they seemingly didn’t go back through their own work and check everything was OK before submission.

And then we come to the photographs. There may be more than the original version, but most are bordering on useless. They may have looked good on a colour PC screen, but that doesn’t work in a greyscale book. The conversion and altering needs to be done before hitting print. Also the dpi looks very low – not of proper publishing quality.

Putting aside these problems, the book is great – although I admit a lot (unsurprisingly) was quite familiar due to being used in other books on the making of Jaws. But I cannot recommend that anyone buys this book until the errors are sorted out. Customers who got this awful version should get a free copy of an update and the current one should be withdrawn from sale straight away.


See https://hoodcp.wordpress.com/2022/01/... for a full review.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read a lot of things about the filming of Jaws but this was the first one I read that was from the perspective of one of the Islanders.

Edith Blake is the "Girl Photographer" referred to in the book, as well as the author. She gives an unique first hand account of what it was like to be in Martha's Vineyard during the shooting of Jaws. She paints a vivid picture of the notoriously chaotic film set, and adds touches of local color in her descriptions of locals, and adds her Islander view of what a mess the production was.

While I enjoyed it, it did feel a little rambly. In a way that kind of adds to the feel of the book, almost like you're sitting down at her table and hearing the story straight from her mouth. However, knowing what I know about the film and its production, much of the story is limited by her outsider viewpoint. Still, it was an interesting and quick read, and it will have a place on my shelf next to my other Jaws readings.

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Perhaps the most poorly edited book I've ever read, this anniversary edition was filled with spelling, grammar, and typesetting mistakes to the point of being distracting. Some sentences didn't even make sense - abruptly ending or containing a garble of words. Even more disappointing was the author's weak writing which read like the least interesting film extra's diary of event. Scenes are recounted with an uneven balance of unnecessary background or minimal context to explain why the details have been included. In many cases, it feels like she's setting up the scene for some grand reveal or juicy tidbit only to leave the reader hanging. There was just enough insider info to keep me reading; but, had this book been any longer, I seriously would have given up on it. Such a shame for $25.

[Christopher · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a slim volume written by Edith Blake, a resident - and resident journalist - of Martha's Vineyard at the time that "Jaws" was being filmed there in 1974. It offers some amusing anecdotes about the production from the point of view of someone who understands the local politics very well, but the mechanics of filmmaking very little. As such, it is only mildly interesting, but probably a must-read for fans of the film, as it corroborates some of the details of other accounts, such as Carl Gottlieb's superior "The Jaws Log" and the various "making of" movies available on the "Jaws" DVDs and Blu-rays.

[Mark A. · Rating 3 out of 5]

On Location.....on Martha's Vineyard, provides an account of the impact of making of the movie Jaws had on the inhabitants of the island and how the locals contributed to the film's production and success. Blake goes into great detail about individuals, both famous and locals, had an impact and discusses at length the obstacles and frustrations that came with making a film on the ocean. Blake does a good job providing an accurate narrative that will benefit any fanatical fan of the film, but it is probably not something general readers of nonfiction would enjoy. Still, it is a good work. 3.5 stars!

[Lee Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

A little research shows that Edith Blake wrote a column for the Vineyard Gazette, and this book definitely feels as if it was written by a small-town newspaper reporter of little talent. The whole thing is a disjointed mess, written in an overly cutesy, gossipy style. Messrs. Spielberg and Dreyfuss are referred to throughout as "Steve" and "Rick." While there were some mildly interesting tidbits, and many great behind-the-scenes photographs, this was a slog at a mere 180 pages. For Jaws super-fans only.

[Kathleen McGowan · Rating 3 out of 5]

An account of the filming of Jaws on Martha’s Vineyard from a local’s point of view. Edith Blake was an Islander and who is the one who took a majority of the behind the scenes photos from Jaws. I found the book interesting, funny, and I enjoyed all the black and white photos. With that said, I can’t give this book more than three stars due to all the typos. Whoever edited this book should have been punched in the face, there are so many typos. I don’t think there’s a page in this book free of mistakes.

[Faith Maciolek Wisniewski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of course a must read for any Jaws finatic, and I absolutely loved all the behind the scenes photos. However this book is RIDDLED with grammatical errors, misspellings, and within chapters no real discernible plot thread. A fascinating insight, and if misspelled words and sentences that abruptly end don’t bother you, you may enjoy it more. I do recommend it despite all that. I’ll never find a Jaws book I won’t read!

[Amber the Human · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wow. This book did not age well. And while it is "official" it doesn't seem like the studio read it because it kind of shows them in a bad light. It's interesting, but it kind of just tells you where they shot and which locals got mad.

[Evelyn Westbury · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was ok,a bit tedious at times

[Kimberly Dunn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed finding out about the making of one of my favourite films.
The editing is just awful! So many mistakes that it is just not possible to ignore them.

[Dfoulser · Rating 3 out of 5]

A must read for any Martha's Vineyard resident or anyone entertaining visitors to the island. More typos than I am used to seeing in a commercial work.

[José Rafael · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring and poorly edited. Some of the pictures are interesting, but all of them are black and white.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

8/10