Last Friday, in addition to it being the Summer Solstice, Steven Spielberg’s classic thriller, Jaws, celebrated the 50^th anniversary of its 1975 release. Naturally, I had to watch the awesome movie for the…let’s see, 783^rd time, give or take. I never get tired of what is considered to be the first summer blockbuster. For years thereafter it kept a lot of would-be swimmers out of the water.

THE ALEX KINTNER SANDWICH

Coincidence, or karma? Either way, this is a fun story. In the movie, a 12-year-old boy named Alex Kintner, played by Jeffrey Voorhees, is splashing around in the water off the fictional Amity Island (actually, Martha’s Vineyard, in the town of Edgartown, Massachusetts). His mom, Mrs. Kintner, played by Lee Fierro, is relaxing on shore. Minutes later, poor Alex becomes lunch for the Great White Shark. (Spielberg filmed the attack scene, but it turned out so bloody that he axed it from the final cut.)

The grieving Mrs. Kintner confronts–and smacks–Chief Brody.

Flash forward some decades later. Lee Fierro was visiting Martha’s Vineyard, where she previously lived, when she spotted a restaurant called the Wharf Pub in Edgartown. On the menu she saw an entrée with a familiar name: the Alex Kintner Sandwich. She went inside and mentioned that she had played Alex Kintner’s mother in the film. The restaurant’s manager rushed out to greet her. It was Jeffrey Voorhees, who had played her son. They had not seen each other since the day that scene was shot. Quite a reunion.

Voorhees, 62, still lives in Edgartown. Lee Fierro passed away at age 91 in 2020 from complications of Covid-19.

Alex Kintner (Jeffrey Voorhees), then and now.